Adirondack Summit Climbs: Mt. Colden's Trap Dyke
Had a great summit climb yesterday with Val & Nancy (a birthday gift for Nancy- a fanatical hiking enthusiast and, as I foud out, an outspoken cancer survivor). We managed to get out early and were walking by 7 am. Val & Nancy are avid 46'ers and were cruising on snowshoes. We crossed Avalanche Lake in cool but windless conditions and marvelled at the wealth of more technical ice and mixed climbing routes along the lake. By 10 am we were kitted up at the bottom of the Dyke. With quite a crowd rolling in behind us we got right into it and quickly short-pitched the two-tiered first waterfall.
Val & Nancy used the two first water-ice short pitches to get used to climbing two on a rope and the joys of climbing with all of the requisite mountaineering equipment (and snowshoes) on your back. A short section of snow climbing brought us to the second (and crux) waterfall. Val and Nancy found the bulges challenging (as they often deceptively are) but with friendly encouragement kicked it in and topped out. (Despite multiple parties below us, we never saw anyone come up below after that...we suspect that with only one tool each, the vertical bulges on the second ice step were a bit cruxy for the team behind us.) We were glad to have gotten an early start and to be moving along efficiently on the varied terrain.
We stowed our second tools, short-roped in and plodded up the remaining snow gully.
At the customary ledge we took a quick lunch break (at noon)- with @ 1000' of the gully below us and 1000' of exposed icy slabs remaining.
We short-roped out of the gully and followed terrain features onto the slabs up steep snow, verglass and remant water-ice patches.
Eventually we settled into a nice rythym as the secenery opened up around us, smack dab in the middle of the Park's highest peaks.
With two thousand feet of climbing uunder their belts and the summit rock in sight, Nancy marvelled at how comfortable she now felt climbing in crampons (and still appreciated the security of a short-rope on the exposed slabs). We followed a short verglas slab (for a taste of something a little more challenging) with the full exposure of the slabs below, and brought it back together for the easy finish up over the top- right at the Summit Boulder @ 2 p.m! We enjoyed a quick break, summit photos, transitioned back to snowshoes- and riding the high of a great and rewarding day in the mountains- hammered it on out to Lake Arnold, Avalanche Camp, Marcy Dam and out to the ADK HPIC@ 5 pm. No stranger to long days, these gals have obvioulsy put in their time on snowshoes!
All in all a great and succesful climb and a good reward for all of their hiking experience and some time spent learning how to climb ice with local guides. With their 46 High Peaks and more under their belts, it's only natural they've found their way to mountaineering. Now there's talk of a climb of Gothic's North Face later this winter, and on to Mt. Rainier and the North Cascades....maybe Alaska eventually? Sounds like a plan!
