Sky > McD > Allen

[mastergrasshopper]

the route between sky and allen is now open for all those seeking a bit of adventure away from the crowds.
the good parts were really good the the other parts were, well not as good.
Cory D took the lead most of the day as this was a test hike for my shoulder I dislocated 3 months ago, ie he tested for spruce traps
weather was PERFECT, snow conditions very good.
Cory D had a special delivery package ( breakfast in bed ) for Mr. arm completing his winter 115 and camped out at uphill leanto.
We ran into just a few people on allen today ( big suprise ) and heard that the magic rabbit master showed up to help break trail.
I like loops
I've now done this loop CCW and CW
Great hike with the Cory D
MG

[Highonlife]

Great to have you back MG and see a report from you

How is the shoulder feeling?

[mastergrasshopper]

Originally Posted by Highonlife

Great to have you back MG and see a report from you

How is the shoulder feeling?

shoulder much improved but still not supposed to take any major shock as in grabbing trees or pulling ones self out of spruce traps. It is sore from the PT but I'm 1/2 way through my 6 month recondition program. Cory had to twist my arm but not shoulder to go on this trip . he promised to lead down the big slope of Sky through mine fields and thick tangled prison bars of spruce which he did. My upper body got a real good work out and I got to cary my old friend my ice ax and as of this AM NO pain at all .
We thought of you and crew and I was going to call this the wheel of life loop with a few missing spokes or something. we didn't do Gray on way up though we were tempted and we didn't do Adams on the way out though the fire tower glinted in the late afternoon sun beckoning us to climb. I asked Cory if he wanted to scamper on up but he mumbled something about being tired.

Cory did give me a copy of the Adirondack newspaper Embark that has a really nice write up on he and Jan's epic journey in sept.

Great day to be out the views and vista from McD and Allen ridge are AWESOME. "trail" is broken. One tweek to route for next trip is avoid west side slope of McD. We did however do a very nice 180 degree curl up close around to the east of the evil bump of Allen, right up along some small cliffs.
Cory had his compass stolen by spruce trap monsters and I never pulled mine out but we had many discussions with my map and much pointing with ice ax.
Cory wanted to know the elevation gain up Allen ridge and counted the contour lines I said around 600 -800 and for those who are interested it's only 600ft gain and if you stay tight with the ridge very open. we came out dead on the view spot on north end of Allen and suprised some late afternoon view seekers ( our very own winterberry )who asked us where we came from. I told her Syracuse the land of snow and baby trail breakers.

MG

[yvon]

Happy to know that you are back on the montains MG.

[vieWseeker]

Congrats MG and Cory. I heard from adam and Boy was he surprised to see you two. Thanks for the Info at lake Tear, Gray was no problem and we went up and over Marcy to finish the day. Can't make'em any better than that for weather.

[Neil]

I must be a wimp. I'm waiting for April's bullet-proof crust. Took 2 steps off the trail between Alg and Iro yesterday and sunk in up to my chest. Took me 5 minutes to get out. Tried to step back onto the trail and fell in another hole, only deeper.

You guys must have had an incredible day. Nice (incredible is more like it) job Cory in making the trail and way to go Glen in smoothing it out for him!

I got a nice pic of Skylight and Magic-spire from Iro.

[rbalbs]

Wow, that is one cool trip. Nice way to link up these two high peaks that very few would dare to try!

[Adirondack Ladies]

Nice TR..glad the shoulder is doing well MG.

[Jim C]

Congrats MG and nice job Cory

[billandjudy]

It was good to see you and Cory yesterday....You guys are amazing...Glad to see you're back out and feeling well

[mtnhiker]

Yeah!! So happy to hear of your fun day in the mountains and of no pain, just smiles and bright yellow discs.

[JoeCedar]

I sure am glad there were two experienced mountaineers to break out the trail up Skylight. Without you I don't know if I would have made it .

Great to hear the shoulder is mending, Glen. Well, at least, you have learned patience . . . something I am not looking forward to.

[Tmax]

SWEET! Sounds like an awesome hike.

[randomscooter]

Glen, I've gotta ask... did you and Cory have high confidence that the Allen trail would be broken? Or were you prepared for the possibility that you'd be breaking trail all the way out? Of course you always could've backtracked over Skylight.

Reminds me of a nice day I spent with JoeCedar on the Dix Range a few years ago, just after the winter season ended. We started at Elk Lake and came out at Round Pond trailhead. As we started down off Dix we were having a blast "skiing" down through a good 2 feet of fresh powder. Then suddenly it hit us... the trail isn't broken!! It could be like this all the way out! But we got lucky. When we reached the slide there was a set of tracks from someone who had come in and climbed the slide. It was only a single set of tracks, but much easier than breaking through virgin powder.

You might have gotten home late for dinner if the Allen trail wasn't broken.

[1ADAM12]

You guys are nuts but in a good way HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Cory D]

Originally Posted by mastergrasshopper

Cory D took the lead most of the day as this was a test hike for my shoulder I dislocated 3 months ago, ie he tested for spruce traps

Originally Posted by Neil

You guys must have had an incredible day. Nice (incredible is more like it) job Cory in making the trail and way to go Glen in smoothing it out for him!

It was a perfect working combo, I lead through the haunted spruce trap forest and when we got to the North face of Allen Glen did the leading on the way up since we found (relatively) open woods giving me that little bit of rest. When we got to Allen the other forum members had a highway in place without government approval. We of course had our fair share of chest deep holes followed by the tree dumping its piles of snow off its branches on to your head and making you a little snow groundhog but it added to the charm.

Originally Posted by mastergrasshopper

I asked Cory if he wanted to scamper on up but he mumbled something about being tired.

I think I remember hearing, "I'm liking this trail" not say it.

Cory did give me a copy of the Adirondack newspaper Embark that has a really nice write up on he and Jan's epic journey in sept.

A friend of Jan's, Mike Lynch writes for both the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and publishes the Embark paper asked to do a story so we said ok. Here is the Enterprise article.

One tweek to route for next trip is avoid west side slope of McD. We did however do a very nice 180 degree curl up close around to the east of the evil bump of Allen, right up along some small cliffs.
Cory had his compass stolen by spruce trap monsters and I never pulled mine out but we had many discussions with my map and much pointing with ice ax.

I think the only time we used a compass was when we were at 4 corners and I said what is the bearing to the Little Nipple top ridge and then we looked at the sun and had our bearings for the whole day set. That combined with Glen's recollection of his previous trip we made out real well. Found a new "bad" spot on Micky D but our "S" curve route up Allen was near perfect.

Originally Posted by Neil

I must be a wimp. I'm waiting for April's bullet-proof crust. Took 2 steps off the trail between Alg and Iro yesterday and sunk in up to my chest. Took me 5 minutes to get out. Tried to step back onto the trail and fell in another hole, only deeper.

On our way up Allen we said, "where the hell is Neil?! He'd be loving this!"

Originally Posted by JoeCedar

I sure am glad there were two experienced mountaineers to break out the trail up Skylight.

It wasn't us! We followed the path of what must of been some more experienced mountaineers who broke out all 3 inches of crust! I only break trail at home safely in my arm chair, Joe. Me and Glen later laughed because a ranger who stopped us in the morning asked what we were doing. We told him and he said Skylight was broken out yesterday. Ahh.. ok I guess we'll just break out the Sky>McD>Allen part then.

[Cory D]

Originally Posted by randomscooter

Glen, I've gotta ask... did you and Cory have high confidence that the Allen trail would be broken? Or were you prepared for the possibility that you'd be breaking trail all the way out? Of course you always could've backtracked over Skylight.

I met Glen at the Allen trail head where we spotted his truck. The parking lot looked more like the ADK Lodge during peak foliage so I figured we'd find something at some point. The snow down low is real shallow this year and has a good base for only a few inches of trail breaking. Our plan for the day was to go to Skylight and see what happens. If we didn't like the snow after descending a little ways we'd go back and tag Gray and celebrate with Arm who was finishing his W115 yesterday. I'll stop hiking the day I can't break trail DOWN the Allen slide though! I was thinking about getting a dog and stop chasing rabbits one day anyway. I hear Keene Valley is in need of someone to be in charge of their polar bear club.

You might have gotten home late for dinner if the Allen trail wasn't broken.

I had a box of Mr Goodbars and Cinnamon raisin bagels for the trip. Glen had snow fleas, pine needles and a little yellow disk of happiness to keep him fueled all day.

[mastergrasshopper]

Originally Posted by randomscooter

Glen, I've gotta ask... did you and Cory have high confidence that the Allen trail would be broken? Or were you prepared for the possibility that you'd be breaking trail all the way out? Of course you always could've backtracked over Skylight.

Reminds me of a nice day I spent with JoeCedar on the Dix Range a few years ago, just after the winter season ended. We started at Elk Lake and came out at Round Pond trailhead. As we started down off Dix we were having a blast "skiing" down through a good 2 feet of fresh powder. Then suddenly it hit us... the trail isn't broken!! It could be like this all the way out! But we got lucky. When we reached the slide there was a set of tracks from someone who had come in and climbed the slide. It was only a single set of tracks, but much easier than breaking through virgin powder.

You might have gotten home late for dinner if the Allen trail wasn't broken.

Adams thread and the allen parking lot full of cars gave us a fair chance that someone would make it to the summit before us.
we were more concerned about crust conditions and getting out onto the McD blow down / snowfields and having to backtrack.
We were going to "test" out the snow on sky then proceed. When I stoped for a quick gear up for summit wind Cory went on ahead. When I got to the summit I saw Cory a 100 yards on down waving his poles and so I headed on down and we were fully commited "in a good way" and we never looked back.
MG

[Highonlife]

Originally Posted by mastergrasshopper

shoulder much improved but still not supposed to take any major shock as in grabbing trees or pulling ones self out of spruce traps. It is sore from the PT but I'm 1/2 way through my 6 month recondition program. Cory had to twist my arm but not shoulder to go on this trip . he promised to lead down the big slope of Sky through mine fields and thick tangled prison bars of spruce which he did. My upper body got a real good work out and I got to cary my old friend my ice ax and as of this AM NO pain at all .
We thought of you and crew and I was going to call this the wheel of life loop with a few missing spokes or something. we didn't do Gray on way up though we were tempted and we didn't do Adams on the way out though the fire tower glinted in the late afternoon sun beckoning us to climb. I asked Cory if he wanted to scamper on up but he mumbled something about being tired.

Cory did give me a copy of the Adirondack newspaper Embark that has a really nice write up on he and Jan's epic journey in sept.

Great day to be out the views and vista from McD and Allen ridge are AWESOME. "trail" is broken. One tweek to route for next trip is avoid west side slope of McD. We did however do a very nice 180 degree curl up close around to the east of the evil bump of Allen, right up along some small cliffs.
Cory had his compass stolen by spruce trap monsters and I never pulled mine out but we had many discussions with my map and much pointing with ice ax.
Cory wanted to know the elevation gain up Allen ridge and counted the contour lines I said around 600 -800 and for those who are interested it's only 600ft gain and if you stay tight with the ridge very open. we came out dead on the view spot on north end of Allen and suprised some late afternoon view seekers ( our very own winterberry )who asked us where we came from. I told her Syracuse the land of snow and baby trail breakers.

MG

Cory is the man...nice to have a partner help you out.

Well I am sure your shoulder is going to take some time but it sounds like you are really making progress.Keep up the good work and knowing you, you will be stronger than before

I am glad you are finally getting back out, your reports and adventures have been missed.

[RTSpoons]

Sounds like a great route. Nice report. Hey send me a PM with some contact information so I can get that resume.