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Castle Trail's in fine shape - 99.9% ice-free and only one inconsequential blowdown. Was able to rock hop Israel River without a problem. Had blue sky for awhile higher up, just long enough that the sun shone on the castles. Above them, though, mist/flurries and a breeze from the northwest...

Sunday, 3/11/2012, A.M. The AT is well-packed & firm from the trailhead to the false summit where the southern views are. I wore microspikes and never postholed, although the moose did, about halfway along. I switched to snowshoes for the remainder of the hike, about a half mile of...

On Valentine's Day, at about 10:30 a.m., NYS highway crews reopened route 42, having finished extensive road repair and bridge reconstruction in the Westkill-Lexington area. You can now drive from Lexington to Shandaken without detouring through Phoenicia.

FR55 gate is now open. Drive right to the campsite. A half mile from the trailhead, the bridge over the creek is broken, with a "keep off" sign. One of the two main beams is splintered in the middle and most of the treadway planking is missing. Wading is difficult here as the creek is really...

Trail up this sub-peak of Sugarloaf was easy to find. Parked at the end of muddy Bigelow Mt. Road in the condo area (beneath a sign proclaiming parking was only for condo owners and their guests... two guys in a condo maintenance pickup truck assured me I was okay to park, despite the sign)...

Braved the blustery weather to nab these easy peaks. Crescent Mt. trail was a firm groove all the way up, coulda done it without snowshoes. Snowshoers had broken a bushwhack track to the true summit, even. The Crescent Ridge Trail to Randolph, though, hadn't been broken out, but the...

After whittling away at the New Hampshire Hundred Highest (which contains 108 peaks, go figure) the last few years, I was left with two: Fool Killer and South Hale. The Fool fell easily Thursday, Sept. 4, leaving South Hale for Friday. After a soggy summer, the weather this week was superb...

You don't get a patch for completing prominence lists, but you earn a great appreciation for the mountains that tower above the terrain. The "prominent" peaks may not be the tallest above sea level, but they dominate their surroundings. Each of the 55 northeast peaks, spread amongst NY, Vt...

Deep snow (4-5 feet) was consolidated well enough that I started with micro spikes, switched to crampons at 2400', and made to to the top without unlashing the snowshoes. Half the snow bridges are gone now, but the creek crossings weren't much of a problem. Killer views of Carrigain, Washington...

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008 Gorgeous day to get out in the woods - blue sky, decent temps, no wind, glittering snow. Snow in the Norheast Kingdom has a good crust underneath 3-4" newer light snow. The first third of Gore's trail was pockmarked by extensive postholing - courtesy of my cousins the...

Sure, NH and NY trump Maine when tallying the tallest mountains in the northeast. But check out the lists ranking mountains by “prominence” - a mountain’s height measured from its base rather than just its “above sea level” height. Maine has more mountains on both the “Northeast 2 thousand...

(continued from pt. 1, an earlier post) Erin and I left the Carrigain tower around 8:30 and followed paths west through Carrigain's little camping area. Then I charged ahead, beginning our bushwhack through enjoyable open woods. After a quarter mile or so, having dropped down 400 feet, we...

Every August my daughter and I meet up for a climb - usually in the Adirondacks, but this year we chose the White Mountains. She needed 4680' Carrigain for the NH 4k list, and I needed the 3540' Captain for the NH Hundred Highest. The plan was to haul our overnight packs up Carrigain Saturday...

A little more than halfway up the logging road that heads west toward the Savage/Spruce Mt. col from Stratford Bog Pond there's a very serious gate surrounded by countless "posted/No trespassing" signs. Although this appears to be directed toward the ATV crowd, the numerous "posted" signs...

Years ago I climbed Scar Ridge from the Kanc and signed in at the canister, not aware that the "canister peak" wasn't the ridge's true high point. Since then I've visited the ridge's other bumps and found the other canisters. But it didn't seem right that there was no canister identifying the...

Weather was iffy, chance of showers/thunderstorms, heavy humidity, perfect for a visit to scrubby, flat-topped, viewless 3472' Mt. Kelsey in northern New Hampshire. I drove up the logging/ATV road adjacent to the Log Haven Restaurant, off rte 26 east of Dixville. The gravel road was easily...

Just curious... How is it that Slide, Balsam, Blackhead and Panther are the four peaks requiring winter climbs to complete the list? I notched Balsam and Panther yesterday and today and pondered that question at length. (It almost seemed like cheating...no crampons, no snowshoes, no snow...but...

Back in Massachusetts after an excellent time at the 3rd annual Adirondack BBQ and climb fest at Spence and Maddi's in Lewis, N.Y. I'd hoped to tag along for Pat and Audrey's finish of the 111 on Marshall Friday. But I got a hopelessly late start Friday night, pushing off at 10 pm for a 350...

Volume 7 no. 4 of "Adirondack Explorer" came in the mail today. It contains a lengthy feature on the revitalization of the S.O.A. trails up Mts. Moose and MacKenzie. Word had spread through the hiking community about the excellent trails to these two peaks just west of Lake Placid. Now the...

How long do you savor the completion of one list before attacking the next? Do you bask in your accomplishment, content to take some time off, sit in the Swift or Boquet River, reliving your great accomplishment? Or do you immediately start scheming and plotting, as your next list looks...