Cloudsplitter Mountain Guides

Andrew- 'not done yet' either. (RIP Shane M.)

I spent this past weekend with three guys from downstate who are all avid alpine resort skiers and were eager to really get out in the backcountry for a weekend and see what it's all about- and of course ski some nice corn in a spectacular setting too! Andrew is an enthusiastic Aussie from NYC who likes to maximize his ski time on the weekends, travelling all over the region (and the planet) to ski. After seeing and article in Skiing magazine and some 'old' videos of the backcountry in the Adks on youtube, he cooked up the idea for a spring ski overnight in the backcountry with a few of his friends and gave me a call. It's been a weird weather season for backcountry skiing this year- with the regular rain-freeze cycles being much more conducive to ice climbing than skiing, and relatively thin and icy snowpack throughout the region. We postponed an earlier season date for better conditions and settled in for spring conditions instead.

Dan and Andy skin up the bowl's northern ridgeline, above the Wright Peak's Airplane Slides.

Mt. Colden's west face from Algonquin.

With 60 degree temps and sunny skies in the forecast for Saturday, we knew we wanted to be up high, and the formerly crusty northerly asepcts that we had been avoiding would now be fair game. We settled on a plan to grind out the 4 mi., 3100' approach and climb up to the Algonquin NE bowl with overnight packs, ski the bowl all through the afternoon and into evening, settle into a (LNT- low-impact) bivouac (on snow) down in the bowl for the evening, and in the morning climb back out of the bowl, descend the trail and traverse over Wright Peak and ski the Wright Peak Ski Trail on out to the final muddy slog back to the ADK Info Center. It's one of my favorite late season tours, and the overnight bivouac would add a nice real wilderness experience to their weekend.

Andrew drops into the bowl.

And that's the way it played out. It was a hard push (it's always harder than people expect!) for everyone to get up to the bowl- with new AT equipment, big packs, and even the occasional water-ice bulges on the trails this year(!) making it constant and hard work. But these guys were determined to get up there and were fired up by the scenery as they got higher. Of course, they wanted to make some turns too! Conditions proved to be perfect- we skied multiple short laps on great corn high in the bowl and ran around on the summit (in short sleeves!) before descending to our bivy for the night. The evening was beautiful, with the bright lights of Lake Placid a stark contrast to the absolute darkness in the High Peaks wilderness. And- as expected- our beautiful weather on Saturday was karmically balanced by increasing clouds, mist and sprinkles the next morning, and detoriated into gusty, cool wind-driven rain- right as we scrambled over Wright Peak's exposed rocky summit. Everyone got a good final dose of alpine drama- scrambling in lug-soled AT boots on the smooth anorthosite summit slabs, with our packs and skis getting tossed around by the driving wind, rain and clouds as we hurried over the summit to get down in the lee of the wind on the ski trail. We took a (soggy) break to get our act together and set our sights on the reward- a  fun final descent down the classic Wright Peak Ski Trail- which thanks to recent conditions was smooth and even, and made for fun schussing even with our heavy water-logged packs. And if there was any question about where the season goes from here, we got our answer on the final march out, hiking several miles through deep muddy trails. There will still be a little good corn skiing left up high at Whiteface, and way up in the High Peaks- for those who want it, but I think our winter that arrived early has also left early, and it's time to start thinking about spring rock climbing and planning summer alpine trips!

Andy, Dan and Andrew - living the dream. Sunset on Mt. Algonquin (5114').