Rose Brodell is a 3500er!!

[catskill_leanto]

For those of you who have been hiking in the Catskills in the past year, 8 y.o. Rose Brodell, who hikes with her mother, Kay (#67), finally finished her last summit on Blackhead, today.

My friend and left the parking area this morning at about 11:30 AM. We wanted to take a walk and I propesed the Batavia Kill LT. We met ten young people who had camped overnight at the LT; about five minutes later, we met a group of four with Tom Rankin and Laurie Moore. We talked for a few minutes and then Gail and I continued onto our destination.

Upon reaching the LT, I were surveying the site, The group that stayed over left the place an absolute mess: they cut green saplings and left a smouldering fire, with large lot stumps sitting on top. Gail and I placed snow and river ice to allow it to smother.

As we were standing there, we heard voices. I looked up to see the tenacious Rose leading the three person pack. When they were close enough, her mother was carrying an ice axe. They reported that the Escarpment trail off BH was icy and utilized 10 point crampons. Rose had a 3500 Club patch pinned to her little day pack.

Gail and I left the lean-to to hike up to the Acra Point lookout. The snow was minimal and so were the views. Since I wasn't planning a long hike I left my pack in my car. After consulting the map, we decided to continue along the ridge to the Acra summit and down to Big Hollow Rd, as we were halfway there. Snow was minimal and the temps were in the mid-30's, as it was overcase. At the junction with the Black Dome and Escarpment trail -- between Acra Point and Burnt Knob, we could see fog rising up from the valley. the sky to the south was quite dark and we hied it out of there.

Enroute, Very little ice was encountered. We did not need anti-skid footgear until we reached the PA. There, Manual and one of his hikers were pushing a small car containing a third hiker across the wet and icy roadway. Gail and I returned to the PA just in time to beat the rain.

Elie