Gray

November 8, 2008

This was my first lead of an ACC trip to an international destination. A lot of people signed up for this hike, but in the end there was a group of seven of us that set out to climb both Gray and Skylight. We started from the Adirondack Loj at Heart Lake at around 07:00 and began hiking in a warm fog. The conditions report indicated very deep snow in the peaks, so we all went in with snow shoes tethered to our packs, however we did not end up using them. I knew this was a long hike so I was keeping a strict time schedule on our ascent. We made good time to Lake Arnold, but after that point things began to slow down. At the bottom of the descent towards Feldspar Brook we encountered a fair amount of snow (but not enough to don the snowshoes), and a large area of the trail that had been washed out and turned into a swamp. This made for some interesting travel. The group began to slow down considerably as we made the 1000 foot ascent up to Lake Tear of the Clouds. Our time budget at this point was blown, and I decided that only one peak would be summitted today. Since it was a gray and foggy day, Gray peak was chosen as the fitting destination. We all ate a quick lunch in a drizzle at Lake Tear, and then three people decided they wanted to head straight back, so they began the descent while the remaining four climbed Gray. This was a fun scramble, and although the rock was wet, with water coursing down in some spots, it was very grippy and the climb was quite managable. We spent a very brief moment on the summit, watching the fog roll over in the wind, and then began the long descent. We went quickly, as we wanted to get at least to Lake Arnold before darkness fell. We made it with about 20 minutes to spare. Then we continued for the next three hours or so in the dark. The trails are really well marked from this point so navigation was easy, and we finally got back to the Loj at 19:30, for a total of 12.5 hours of hiking. We met the rest of the group at Mr. Mike's place in Lake Placid for beers and lots and lots of food.

Kelly, Phil, and David