Porter/Cascade and Noonmark 3/4 and 3/5

[billandjudy]

With this past weekend and next weekend as my last free weekends before my busy season hits Judy and I decide to make a fast run up to the ADK's. After working til 2AM Friday it was a quick 4 hours of sleep and hit the road at 8:00 figuring a 12:00 arrival at Cascade's trailhead. But with a lunch stop and a speeding ticket on the Northway we arrived at 12:30. All 3 lots were full and we squeezed in the last parking spot. It was snowing heavily w/ a good stiff wind blowing with temps in around 20. As the last people to sign in I knew we would see alot of traffic coming down. We stopped counting at 60 before reaching the Cascade/Porter sign. A lot of people said they had not reached the summit because of the wind. After seeing some of the gear being worn I was not surprised--everything from Penn State sweatshirts to jeans--no poles--no packs no hats!!! I could tell just by looking who had summited--We decided to do Porter first--we found deep fresh fluffy snow all the way over and passed 1 group 4 guys running back down. It was windy and snowing hard--no views of course but great wild conditions. As we headed back to cascade we passed a single guy who had just come from cascade and reported very strong winds. As we got to the summit rocks we took off the snowshoes and bare booted up. It was bare rock all the way. Very little ice and snow. The wind was howling and bitterly cold so we stayed a short while and headed back down. We did crampons becauce of the ice flows, made for an easier decent. We had seen several people struggling down w/ snowshoes. Judy butt slid several sections until a crampon stuck and she twisted a knee. She sucked it up, but that was it for sliding! On the way we could see the sky clearing in the west and by the time we were well towards Rt73 it was beautiful blue sky above--missed the views by 45 minutes! Pics http://community.webshots.com/album/548301611PInqIZ

On Sunday with a sore knee we decided to keep it simple and headed for Noonmark. It was beautiful--clear skies--no clouds--a great day to be out. we headed up the Stimson trail, barebooted until the first junction and then chose crampons. I'm glad we did--lots of ice on the way up especially the steep sections near the summit. For being a "little mountain" the climb was quite a workout. Lots of steeps and ice the whole way up. Passed 1 gentleman coming down. Spent some time on the summit in the sun and as we were getting ready to go a couple came up. We decided to do the loop heading down the Adler trail--snowshoes were the call as the snow was much deeper on that side--Lots of great buttsliding--w/ no mishaps--passed 1 group of 4 coming up from the Dix trail. When we got to the junction the trail back to Huberts was unbroken so we had 6-12 inches of light and fluffy to walk and slide through. A great day!
Pics http://community.webshots.com/album/548301968tMLmvw

[Rik]

Hey, I did Noonmark as a loop today. Thanks for breaking trail.

[billandjudy]

No problem--It was actually a nice way to walk out--soft on the knees!

[Hitched Hiker]

Hey, I was on Cascade on Saturday too! I remember seeing you guys on my way backdown. I was with my Dad and I was wearing a yellow coat, black pants. WOW was it windy on the summit. This was my first winter peak! I really enjoyed your pics because I couldn't get any off at the summit. It was too windy. I couldn't get my camera out and alls I wanted to do was stay put on the summit and not get blown over to Porter. Thanks for sharing.