Made it back

I am back from the trip, and all I can say is that I have found a new sport.

We hit Lake Placid Thursday evening to find 50 degree weather and sunny skies -- great for a visit to Lake Placid, terrible for a winter ascent. We had planned on snow at the base (as the locals had reported a week before), so we brought sleds to haul out the camping stuff. Slush and mud eliminated out chances at camping out on the mountain, so we had to hit it all in one day. It was muddy for a while, but we hit consistent snow/ice about 2 miles in. The trail turned out to be pretty tough, with plenty of long steeps, but the forest was very nice. I didn't realize it at the time, but most of the trail isn't even on Mt. Marcy (I think it's on Phelps Mountain and Table Top Mountain)...but at one point you turn a corner and Mt. Marcy herself just towers over top of you. It was kind of like going to Cedar Point for the first time and being blown away by the height of the roller coasters.

The climbing was quite pleasant until we hit the tree line and some clouds rolled in. Visibility dropped to less than 1/4 mile and the trail wasn't the easiest to follow. At one point we did lose the trails, but after some aimless wandering we eventually hit what we thought was the peak. After some GPS speculation we finally concluded we were at the peak. The wind was insane...apparently 60 mph will take your breath away, and our breath was easily taken away. The view wasn't much of anything with the clouds, but it was still well worth being at the top of New York. We 3 went back down to the treeline and met up with the other 3 guys we were climbing with. Mike stayed behind, but Tim and I took the guys back up, which was hard but great.

The descent sucked, but it's supposed to suck.

All in all, it was a great climb and a great trip.

Needless to say, it looks like I've got some climbing in my future.