Haystack and Marcy

February 18, 2012

Ivan, Shaughn, and I drove down to Keene Farm on Friday evening, hoping to stay in the cabin. Unfortunately no one was there and no one had emailed me the combination either so we could not get in. We decided to try the Rooster Comb Inn which worked out well, as the Spread Eagle room was available. We got up the next morning at 05:30, hitting the trail from the Garden parking lot at about 06:45. There were a lot of other groups hiking today. We started in microspikes as there was no snow at all except for a thin ribbon which marked the trail. Travel went quickly even though we were carrying fully loaded packs. At JBL we stopped for a break and Shaughn gave me a salted licorice candy which was truly disgusting... and I had to spit it out. Must be an acquired taste. We hiked all the way to Split Rock with only one stop, Bushnell Falls, where we scrambled down to the water but there was not much action today. At Slant Rock we donned the snowshoes as at this point the snow was getting deeper. We hiked down an unbroken trail to a clearing and set up a camp. After a quick lunch we continued up the trail. Switched to crampons as broke out of the treeline and the fun began. Little Haystack was windy, but not nearly as windy as when Debbie and I were up here getting blown off six weeks ago. The descent down the backside was a little sketchy, but easily accomplished with careful footing and axe placements. The climb up Haystack proper was fairly easy in comparison, and the wind calmed down as we approached the summit. We did a jig on the top, just for Debbie, had a quick snack, and began the descent. We saw a couple other groups floundering around on top of Little Haystack, and most were traversing around at a lower point. We decided to climb over it again, and it was much easier going back than it was coming. Back at the treeline we switched into our snowshoes again and decided to make the trek over to Marcy as the day was still young and the weather quite fine. On our way down, we met the 77 year old fellow that I had met on Santanoni three weeks ago. The climb up Marcy was trivial compared to Haystack. We stayed in snowshoes the whole way, however getting to the ridgeline was a challenge. From the Haystack/Marcy junction, the trail was unbroken. The snow was deep and we soon lost the trail in the spruce forest. We ended up bushwacking for a while to get out to the main ascent route from the Loj. About 500m down the trail we hit the junction we were supposed to arrive at, shrugged our shoulders and continued. The ridge up to the summit would have been fantastic for views but we were good and fogged in at this point, so there was not much to see. In short order we found ourselves at the top of New York, looking into the grayness and now falling snow. Another quick break and then we descended. We decided to take our bushwhack route back, as it was broken out and we knew we could not get lost again on this. After a seemingly endless descent we arrived back at camp, cooked supper out of the falling snow underneath Slant Rock and then went to bed early around 19:00.

First de-layer break on the trail above Johns Brook.