Jeff and I have been
doing these winter camping trips for a few years
now. When I got notice about the Adirondack Winter School back in the
fall, I thought it would be a great way to confirm that what we've
been doing has been right. Camping in freezing temperatures isn't
something you want to do solely on luck. We both felt it was
important to continue these activities that we actually had a clue
about what we were doing. We submitted our applications, got
approved and off we went.
Not exactly. First we had to pack.
They had a list of required gear. Most of which we had, but some
things were particular - vapor barrier socks being one. Most was
also slanted toward a really cold trip. Looking at the forecast for
the weekend, we'd get down to the low twenties at most. I
still had to have all the required gear, so I packed
multiple bags of gear to get through inspection then switch out if
desired.
|
|
Check in time at the Loj was 1pm. Leaving at
5:30am gave us plenty of time for the drive and a stop at our
favorite Adirondack diner the Noon Mark.
The plan for the
weekend was to check-in at the loj (sleeping there Friday
night), gear inspections, head out for some snow traveling
practice, then dinner and lectures. Saturday through Monday would
see us backpacking and camping in the snowy Adirondack
wilderness.
I got through gear inspections ok. My inspector
and I had a few "discussions" on gear and packing choices, but in
the end I passed. Jeffs went smooth.
This is actually the Adirondak Loj . All this time I
thought the "Information Center"
we'd visited down the road was the Loj,
but this is the actual building. GPS Coordinates: N44 10.941 W73 57.949 @
2100
ft.
|
|
Ah
the self portrait. I tend to do these more on these kinds of trips.
I sort of use them to gauge my condition (post trip) as the trip
progresses. The Adirondak Loj is located on Heart Lake. We
were headed, in snow shoes, around the lake to do some hiking
on Mt.
Jo.
|
|
Planning the weekend, the instructors couldn't
quite figure out where to place me and Jeff. The two of us had
enough experience to do the week long course (they spent the weekend
doing day hikes/lectures, then went out for 3 nights during the
week), but had signed up for the weekend only. Neither of us
could take a whole week off to play in the snow, so the weekend was
all we had. Though we've spent some time camping in the snow,
we'd never really spent any time doing the more technical things
like crampon and ice axe work. If nothing else, we were looking for
hands on experience in at least those two things.
We got it.
We got lots of it. On Mt. Jo our instructors had us practicing ice
axe placement when traversing a slope (in balance steps and out of
balance steps). Technically this wouldn't be done without crampons,
but they were breaking it down for us. Taking baby steps we started
with just ice axes. Most of the concepts are pretty simple and
almost common sense, but it takes your body a while to get in the
rhythem - to commit the proper moves to muscle memory so you don't
think about them so much when you really need them. You just do
them.
We also practiced some self arrest moves, though we're
never supposed to need/use them. Self arrest is what's required when
you've done everything else wrong and your trying to save your life
and limbs. It's basically digging your axe pick into the snow/ice
while you're sliding a million miles an hour towards a cliff or some
other bodily injury
obstacle.
|
|
After playtime and dinner it was lecture time.
We learned about moisture management ("comfortably cool"), sleeping
in the cold, hypothermia and frostbite. Some interesting points
about hypothermia is you should never give someone CPR (mouth to
mouth is ok, but no chest compressions) who's suffering from
hypothermia and below 68 degrees your body does nothing but
lose heat (without proper insulation or exercise). As far as
frostbite goes, never try to treat it in the field. If someone has
frostbite to the point of a totally frozen extremity, it should be
remedied only in a
hospital.
|
|
They moved us all out of the dinning area to
reconfigure for more lectures. There were three different
activities/groups that weekend. There were day hikers only, weekend
backpackers and week-long backpackers/hikers. The week-long
activities would be best as they get the most instruction and
participation, but that's a lot of time to take off in the snow. The
day hikers got the second most instruction, so it was also a very
worthy course
selection.
|
|
Jeff was determined to have all his stuff ready
to go early for our departure Saturday morning. I warned him not to
be too efficient or he'd end up waiting a while. This is him
waiting.
|
|
Here's our group
from left to right. Barret (instructor), Barret's thirteen
year old daughter Oksana, me, Jeff, Ethan, Tom
and Art (instructor). There were two weekend backpack groups. Ours
was the more advanced (some of us had some winter
experience). We were headed to the campsite at 3,200 feet on
the way to Algonquin peak, while the other group was headed to a
campsite at the base of
Whiteface.
|
|
Another self portrait. This was taken during a
break on our 2,400ft. climb to camp. Notice my forehead is clear?
That will come into play later. I'm not sure what my pack
weighed, though it felt lighter and better packed then previous
trips. The only problem is fit. I need to make some adjustments with
the pack to make it fit better. Hauling 50 some pounds with
something that doesn't fit right on your back gets
annoying.
|
|
The
group slogging along. We did something called a rolling lead. It's
sort of like a pace line in cycling where the leader pulls off and
lets the group go by, but instead of helping the group to go faster
it paces them to the slowest hiker. Pretty good concept. Kept
everyone
close.
|
|
|
|
|
|
- More -
|
|
|
|
|
|
