New York's High Point - "Mount Marcy"

New York's high point in Mount Marcy at 5,344 feet. The highest peak in the Adirondacks, this would be my most challenging hike as it would be done in winter and many foots of snow! We arrived at the Adirondack Loj at 3.30pm on the 24th March 2008 on a beautiful clear blue sky day and hiked an hour or so to Marcy Dam and camped the night in a lean to and hitched tent inside. The temperatures that night were near 0 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 18 degrees Celsius!!) and relatively clear. My minus 40 degree sleeping bag was a godsend!

The next morning in near freezing temperatures, we left Marcy Dam at 9am for the summit hike on what seems like a decent part sunny part cloudy day with some flurries. Following the Van Hoevenberg Trail, it was a strenuous hike (given we had heavy backpacks on) and it was mostly uphill with some steep areas along the way. The trail looked well used which made it easier as the 6 feet plus of snow was well packed down though we still needed snow shoes. It was a pain navigating past all the tree branches weighed down with ice and snow, but the view was beautiful. After three hours we rounded little Marcy mountain thinking we had reached the top only to get our first view of the true Mount Marcy and the summit. The clouds and rolled in over the summit, and the huge mountain ahead of us was very ominous and seems so far away from where we were.

Unperturbed, we pressed on determined to summit and passed frozen ice sculpture trees (given looked very short given they were buried under feets of snow and ice). This was my first winter snow/ice summit above treeline and it was both exciting though a little tiring. Just under the summit, we changed our snow shoes for crampons as the mountain face became a sheet of ice on the steep last section. We didn't reach summit til 1.30pm in very cloudy and windy conditions. A few photos and we headed back keen to get to the car before dark. An hour after summiting and back on Little Marcy mountain again, we looked back at Mount Marcy and the weather cleared! We reached Marcy Dam at 5.30pm to collect our camp belongings and started the torturous hike out to the Loj car park at 6pm...arriving just as it was about to get dark at about 7.30pm.