A Winter Traverse of the Complete Adirondack Great Range
The Adirondack Great Range is a relatively small spine of 8 mountains in the Adirondack High Peaks. All 8 are on the famed 46er list and sit in a part of the Adirondacks that are rugged, inaccessible, and just plain narly. A complete traverse of the Great Range is a coveted objective, but almost unheard of in winter. The weather is ferocious, the terrain is technical, and the Adirondack high peaks will give you a kick in the face faster than any range I’ve ever been to in North America. This “little” range packs a punch.
I hatched the idea of doing a complete winter traverse of the Great Range about a year ago. The idea was to push the limits of human movement in the mountains and see what I could learn. What better place for my experiment than in my home mountain range?
This was never going to be a winter record, which already stands. Instead I decided on a style for the traverse which I could use as a learning tool for more adventures here, as well as other mountains around world. The weather had to be cold, and preferably “bad”. The trails had to offer technical climbing conditions on ice and snow. This meant my “style” would require that I have technical climbing gear, the experience to use it, and still be able to move quickly over extremely challenging terrain. I’d have to have the physical and mental endurance to keep it up for 16 hours or more.
I wanted to optimize for speed and efficiency in the conditions I mentioned above. So, I spent the last year experimenting and learning what was possible and what might work for me. After doing it, there is still a lot I could have done better.
My goal was to do it in less than 16 hours, and I was on schedule for most of it, until I had to break trail in deteriorating snow conditions to get up Mt Haystack. That broke my time, and my will. It was a struggle to finish Marcy after that. I finished in 17:44 which is good enough for me.
I’ll have a lot more to add later. A gear review, planning, nutrition, workouts, training, mental fortitude, etc. But for now, I just wanted to share the numbers and show off some pics.
Update: Gear Inventory and Review
- Start and end in the Keene Valley “Garden” parking lot.
- Run: I chose to run down to the Rooster Comb parking lot (1.9 miles) and include that in my counted mileage for the trip (most GRT folks park a car in both lots to avoid this).
- Peaks: Lower Wolfjaw, Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong, Gothics, Saddleback, Basin, Haystack, and Marcy (at 5,343ft, the highest in New York State).
- Miles: 23.5 (Still need to get a better measurement. Some say more like 25).
- Elevation gain: 10,000 ft +
- Total time: 17 hours, 44 minutes.
- Lunch break: 1 (Melted snow for another liter of water, then heated heavy cream, butter, and Carnation Instant Breakfast over a Jetboil backpacking stove)
Steep and snow choked climbing conditions near all the summits.
A lot of steep ice to navigate. The technical crampons and ice climbing tools were definitely a required part of the kit for moving quickly and safely.
Mountaineering boots provided protection and stability in the steeps without sacrificing too much flexibility for the 7 mile hike back out.
That’s me, on the summit of the first peak: Lower Wolfjaw at 9:30am. Right on time.
I was postholing into snow drifts up to my knees in most of the cols between peaks.
Summit of Upper Wolfjaw at 10:30. Still on schedule.
It was hard not to pause and take in the views. This is a preview of what I had left to climb. Marcy, the last one, is that little white pyramid off in the distance.
Me on Armstrong. I think I was still close to my schedule at this point, but my next benchmark was to be at the col between Gothics and Saddleback at 1pm.
Climbing up the exposed ridge on Gothics is an awesome experience, especially in winter.
Near the summit of Gothics. Halfway there!
There is a lot of snow up in the southern half of the great range. A lot.
After making it to the col between Gothics and Saddleback. Brewing up some heavy cream, butter, and Carnation Instant Breakfast, mountaineer style. I got there 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
Summit of Saddleback, and the forcasted weather is starting to close in. Temps wouldn’t rise above 32 until I got to Marcy, despite the “rain” that began to pelt me and freeze on everything I was wearing.
Steep climbing in deep snow. Those mountaineering boots are made for days like this. It makes them happy ;-)
By the time I got to Basin the gusts were driving hard and I had to get the hell outta there. I was barely able to keep my balance for this selfie. There was another climbing pair that had just completed the slide, and we descended together. They were 1 of only 2 groups I saw all day, however I did see tracks up Haystack and Marcy.
You can tell when things start going wrong when a climber stops taking photos. For me, I had a long slog out of the col to get to Haystack from Basin. The trail was not broken and my crampons were balling up in the warmer snow. On top of that, I kept dropping into waste deep postholes. I tried to switch to snowshoes but the traction was terrible in the deep and steep snow. I finally developed a method of plodding along 12 inches at a time that worked. I had run into the this problem in the same spot back in December, and there really is not much a person can do about it. Between the crampon and snowshoe changes, and the long slog up out of the col, I summited Haystack an hour late (17:30) and completely out of gas. Never mind the near complete whiteout. Marcy was going to be a challenge.
After descending Haystack, I started up Marcy. Totally gassed, I’d move for 2 or 3 minutes before collapsing in the snow to find the energy and motivation to get it done. Once on the summit cone I used my ice tools and crawled up the snow and ice. I convinced myself it was climbing, but when you are on tools and front points on a 35% slope … that’s crawling ;-) I sat on the dark summit at 19:30 with the driving rain to my back. Sitting under my puffy jacket with my hood up, I threw my tools down at my feet, pulled off a mitten with my teeth, and snapped this summit shot.
The 7 mile hike down the valley was epic. At first I felt on top of the world. Descending still seemed easy. Then about the time I hit the John’s Brook DEC outpost it all collapsed. My hip flexors gave out, my mountaineering boots were yelling at me, and I was bonking quickly. I’ve never been so happy to see the parking lot.
