Well Executed Adirondack Backcountry Ski Trip - 1/28/13

After our first attempt, I finally got the information I needed about the trail I was looking for (even if I drove right by the trailhead on the return trip and had to scour the side of the road in search of a skin track). It turned out to be a pretty awesome 3 hour slide tour with about 4-5 inches of fresh pow. Nice to get a little bit of redemption. Here's some pics (some instagrammed):

Poorly Executed Adirondack Backcountry Ski Trip - 12/31/12

I'd say that in life, most of the time, I have no idea where the hell I'm going. Every once in a while, this symbology lines up perfectly with an actual backcountry trip where I, in fact, have no idea where the hell I'm going. I'm not going to bore you with the details of this trip, but click here to see what we were trying to do. Actually it was nice to see myself mentioned in the report, with such nuggets as:

I had some issues with my bindings, got my car stuck for a half hour (in the wrong house, nonetheless) and ended up an hour and a half late. Matt's car was already in the trailhead parking lot, but Matt was gone. He was at the wrong trailhead. 

And

On our way out, we saw Matt's car still at the trailhead at 4:15. We headed to the local bar, got a few beers and decided we would head back to make sure his car was gone. At 6:30 it was still there, and pitch black out.

Needless to say, the trip didn't really go the way I wanted. Here's a map of what went wrong:

Obviously, I figured out somewhere along the way that we weren't even close to the place we wanted to ski, but I thought that it would be possible to at least get some skiing in on those mini slides on the top (Side note: there was a solid skin track on the trail we were on, which I expected to veer off onto the intended slide at one point, but that never happened). Unfortunately, it was pushing 3:00 by the time we got up top, visibility was awful (even from the fire tower), and, after slogging up 4 miles, we didn't want to have to hike back up whatever slide we skied. So, we gave up and just skied down the way we came up. Here are some pictures:

Like I said, the hike was mostly great: 

Damn, I miss that snow. We had a snack at the top.

Then I climbed the Fire Tower. Like I said, visibility was not good:

After a quick shot of the group at the top for posterity:

We headed down, trying to beat the darkness. Most of the skiing was power wedging or pushing and gliding down the skin track. Here's a picture of what it looked like before the sun set completely:

So, we came out by the light of headlamp, around 6:30. Whatever. So we didn't get to really ski at all and we completely missed our objective . . . Who cares? I'm already planning the return trip.*

*No guarantee that I know where the hell I'm going.

Pics From Last Weekend

I'll have a post later in the week about a cruel joke of a backcountry trip, but for now, here's what Gore is looking like lately. Get it soon, because the weather looks iffy for the next week or so...