Whoops, Saddleback 2/14

[t46psk]

We were driving up to Keene Valley to climb Dial and Nippletop, making fun of the Ausable Club for their strict rules, when we remembered that we had a dog in the back seat. So much for those peaks, We quickly brought out our maps and looked for another option for the days hike. We settled on Saddleback from the Garden.

We took the southside trail up as it shaved a few tenths of a mile and was new ground for us to hike. This hike in was actually the most treacherous part of the entire hike. We used Stablicers and micro-spikes but a rather lengthy section where the trail runs right along the brook was very icy and warranted crampons.

From there out the trip was uneventful, we had cloudy/foggy skies the whole way up. We switched over to snow shoes shortly after we hit the Ore Bed lean-to, as the trails started to become more snowy. Hit the summit around 12:30 PM and saw nothing but wind and cloud (oh well not every hike can look like this")

We made quick time back to JBL with some of the best butt sliding (glissading, for the terminology nazis out there) I have ever seen in the ADKS. I love when it takes 30 seconds to descend what took 20 minutes to climb.

Switched back to micro-spikes at JBL, switched to auto-pilot and breezed out along the north side trail.

All and all a good day, and Saddleback is Winter 23 for me (half way), I suppose it's all down hill from here .

Pictures soon.

[Legsbenedict]

How did your 4 legged companion do?