Phelps

January 2, 2010

Katharina, Wendy, Andy, and I got a 09:00 start from Heart Lake on a warm January morning with a light snowfall. The light snow persisted all day, but there was little wind so it was a nice day to travel. Sure beats a day of precipitation when it is raining. We struck out down the Van Hoevenburg trail on snowshoes and covered the distance to Marcy Dam fairly quickly on the hard packed snow. We took shelter in one of the lean-tos for a snack and then continued up the Phelps brook trail which was a little nicer to walk on. We took another break at the Phelps junction, and then started climbing from here on a steep and very snowy trail. The forest is incredibly dense on the ascent and at times you are basically climbing through a tunnel cut through the densly packed folliage. A few icy scrambles presented themselves but nothing requiring crampons or other technical gear above snowshoes. The summit was obtained about three hours after starting and we broke out onto a snowy clearing where we could faintly make out the side of Tabletop mountain through the snowfall haze. Since it was not windy and still fairly warm, we sat in the snow and had lunch here before beginning the descent. The descent went quickly, with parts of it being suitable for the bum-slide technique which makes for pretty effortless elevation loss. When we got back to Marcy Dam, we struck out directly across the lake to one of the lean-tos for another break and then worked our way towards the Van Hoevenburg trail. We came to an intersection before getting there, took the left branch and followed it a ways until we realized we were on a ski trail that was not marked on the hiking map. We bushwacked through the deep snow eastward for a while until we broke out on the main trail and then north back to the ADK lodge for a total day of about six hours.

Katharina following the snowy trail.

Phelps lies just ahead.

Phelps junction.

Easy ice scramble.

Final snowy tree cave before the summit.

On the summit.

Lunch on the summit.

Shortcut across the lake by Marcy Dam.

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