Allen

February 22, 2014

Patrick, Shaughn, Stephan, and I hit the trail on skis at 06:30. Another large group was also assembling in the parking lot so we scooted ahead to ski before the trail got boot packed out. The crossing of the Hudson was simple as there was a new bridge, and we made good time down the well broken trail. The skiing was not great as it was icy and fast, but since the trail is fairly flat for the first six or seven kilometers, this was not a problem. The skis helped move us along with very little effort and impact to the joints, saving up the pain for the long day which lay ahead of us. At the Opalescent river we checked out the marked ford, which was frozen good and solid, but with about six inches of water running over top of the ice, so we moved upstream a bit and found a crossing on some blocks of ice, and rocks. For this we switched to snowshoes, loosley attached to our feet so we could ditch them if necessary, got across with only a few boots in the water, and then ferried the skis across in a bucket brigade fashion. The skiing from this point was more difficult as the trail was narrow, windy, and some blowdown to keep things interesting. Just before the Allen herd path, we came to a steep ledge and we figured it would be prudent to ditch the skis here. From this point on we were in snowshoes, which were slower, but much easier to manouver on the icy packed trail. The herd path was a piece of cake to navigate as it was well broken out by others in the past week. The day warmed up substantially and we soon were stripped down to our base layers as we made the long plodding trek to the base of Allen. Finally reaching Skylight Brook we began to climb, gently at first, but steeper and steeper as we continued upwards. The slide was nice crusty snow which was easily climbed in snowshoes and axe plunges. When we arrived on the ridge, the wind was howling, but the trees of Allen kept us quite comfortable all the way to the summit. We took a quick break at the lookout ledge before turning back down. The descent went quickly as the slide provided for some excellent glissading. At one icy section I lost a little bit of control so rolled onto my axe to arrest before crashing into the trees. We found a little flat clearing at the base of the slide and took a break for lunch, where we met the first people all day. These were the folks that we had started out from the parking lot with. The rest of the way down we began to meet a lot of people as it appears Allen was the objective of the day. As we crossed the flats again we ran into another group who asked us how much further to the top. I regrettfully told them they had not even gotten to the bottom yet. After a long and somewhat painful walk we gratefully arrived back at our skis. It took a couple tries to get waxing that worked, as now the snow was somewhat slushy in the warm sunshine, but once enough red goop was slopped on, the grip was marginal enough to ski the rest of the way. We now had two goals; One: get back across the Opalescent river before dark, and Two: get across the Opalescent river period. We were worried that the crossing might have deterioated, but upon arriving back we found the water level to have gone down by about six inches and the crossing was accomplished much easier than it was in the morning. As it was only 15:00, we also had plenty of daylight left, so we all declared the mission accomplished. From here on it was a fairly simple and relaxing ski back. We arrived back at the trailhead just under ten hours after starting. Lots of food and beer was consumed at the Cloudsplitter cabins, along with some other friends who had a successful day in the Santas as well.

Stephan is very impressed with the bridge across the Hudson on his first ADK hike.