Colvin and Blake

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December 2, 2023

Yet another weird weather weekend. Paul and I drove down to Tupper Lake after work on Friday, with plans on camping overnight in the Sewards so we could get an early start in the morning to knock those off of Paul's list. As we sat enjoying a meal at the Pine Grove watching buckets of rain sluishing down outside the window, the thought of spending a night sleeping on snow in a downpour did not seem all that appealing. After discussion of many different options, we bought some beer and drove to Keene Farm to spend a nice dry evening around the wood stove with friendly folk from Montreal.

Since we were now on the east side of the high peaks, driving back to Tupper Lake to hike through a slushy sewage range seemed a little silly. Since Paul also needed Blake and Colvin, we decided that these would be our goal. We started just after 07:00 from the AMR and slurped down a slushy road in microspikes. Two and a half hours later we arrived at the Elk Pass junction noting that nobody had travelled up Colvin since the last snow storm. After a short break, we strapped on our snowshoes and started climbing.

Waterfall along Gill Brook


It was tough going. The snow was heavy, rotting, and up to half a meter deep. It was also completely unstable, which made for lots of interesting pinwheels along the trail. At one spot we even crossed the debris of an avalanche where all the snow had released off of a small side slope. The scrambles were interesting because the slushy snow would feel firm under your snowshoes, hold for a while, and then suddenly release without warning, sending you sliding back down. A handy rope tied at the Colvin step was appreciated on this day.

Slogging in the snow on Colvin's north ridge


Pinwheels galore


A helpful rope at the Colvin Step


After slogging for two hours to move two kilometers, we reached the summit of Colvin in a foggy whiteness. Calm air allowed us to sit down and enjoy a sandwich and some hot soup. The trek over to Blake took another two hours of hard work, where we celebrated with a Mars bar and then turned back. Now that the trail was broken, travel was substantially easier, though reclimbing Colvin was still slow due to fatigue at this point. A second summit sandwich in deja-vu foggy conditions was enjoyed prior to making the descent.

Colvin summit


Downclimbing ladders the south face of Colvin


Summit of Blake


It was much easier going down, and we remained in our snowshoes for about half way back along Gill brook where the roots and rocks made them impractical. We stopped to change and switch on the headlamps as darkness fell. A seemingly never ending walk through the tree tunnel finally had us back on the road, followed by a one hour slog back to the car finishing an eleven hour day. Paul's heated seats were much appreciated by our cold and wet bodies. Arriving back at the farm, changing into dry clothes and sitting down in front of the roaring fire and swapping stories of the days adventures with new friends was lovely. The Sewards will wait for us.

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