Snowy Backpacking Trip to the Catskills - Trip Report and Pics

We all met at the trailhead around 7am. My brother and I got there at around 5 and we arrived in time to catch an amazing display of Northern Lights illuminating up the sky.

There wasn't much snow down in the valley, so we all decided that we'd most likely be ok with out crampons, so they were left behind.

We hit the Woodland Valley trail somewhere around 730 and started the steady climb to the jct with the Wittenberg Trail. The more the elevation gained the more snow we encountered, still nothing to worry about and we were fine with out crampons. It sure added to the scenery though.

We got to the Wittenberg Jct around 10am and then turned up towards Wittenberg Peak. It gets fairly steep here and there were some good scrambles as well. This was a great stretch of trail.

We arrived on Wittenberg around at 11 and soaked in the view. It was an amazing view. It was clear as can be and you could see well into Mass. Down below was the you could see the Ashokan Res.

There we took a break and enjoyed the surroundings.

From there we dropped down into the col between Wittenberg and Cornell and then up the steep side of Cornell which had some of the best scrambling on the entire trail. On the top of Cornell we stopped briefly to enjoy the view of Wittenberg and the ridge we had just traversed to get up to Cornell. From there we dropped down into the col between Cornell and Slide. Once we had reached the campsites in the col, we stopped for lunch and then we embarked on our climb up Slide Mountain which also includes several steep and tricky scrambles and a steep ladder section. At around 3pm we arrived at the summit of Slide.

There we had to make a decision because we still had 7 miles to hike and only two hours left of daylight. Originally we were planning on camping on Giant Ledge. We decided that with the limited amount of daylight and the fact that Giant Ledge would be much colder and windier that we would camp a mile below the Ledge and this would give us a tad shorter hike as well.

View coming off of Slide of the range that the famous/infamous Devils Path traverses.

We reached the road walk at dusk and the easement trail just before it got dark and pretty much night hiked the last 2 miles into camp with our headlamps on.

Sacco and Phantom Soul got there first and were able to get a camp fire going. We had a good time in camp, I was one of the first ones to crash because I got in my sleeping bag and after that, there was no getting out. It got pretty cold Saturday night, but I think everyone stayed fairly warm.

camp at the crack of dawn.

The following morning, we all started getting up around 7ish. But we slacked off and hung out around the campfire until 930.

All of our boots were frozen, so it was imprtant that they be thawed out.

At around 930 we hit the trail. It was only 3 miles to the parking lot to complete the loop. Only the Stairs of Death stood between us and victory! And when we got there we were sure we met our peril as a nasty troll was guarding its passage. As you can see from the previous picture, he let us pass after we all answered the "questions three" correctly.

We then made it back to our automobiles virtually unscathed at about 11:30 and enjoyed a great breakfast at the Phoenicia Diner where we all parted ways and so ends the story. Till next time! See ya on the trail.

Here is the entire photo album. Hope you enjoy. Great trip!

Nice Report

Wish I could have made it. I love that trail, glad you guys had fun.

Sounds (and looks) like a fun trip, and no doubt I enjoyed reading the report, but I'm colder now than I was before I read it. Burrrrr!

thanks guys

yeah it was a very cool trip and I very much enjoyed the trail, especially the scrambles. The view from Wittenberg was exceptional. This trail has quickly climbed up to be one of my favorates. It was quite cold too, which I enjoyed. The weather was great thogh.

EarthNsky - Noticed there weren't too many replies to your trip report. In my opinion, trip reports like yours are so good and complete (awesome pics) that it's hard to add anything!

So, thanks, for in incredible report. I was scheduled to do the escarpment loop that weekend but put it off due to cold weather (equipment a bit heavy for 12 year old son). I'll live vicariously through your report.

Thanks for organizing the trip, ENS. It was great fun. I never get tired of doing that loop (except for that dang road walk).

just got back completing the same hike(basically) yesterday.
did you notice a large, low flying moth population below 3500, kinda reminded me of salmon swimming upstream.

YES, we did see several moths while hiking out on Sunday. I thought I was seeing things until everyone else saw them also. I'm sure someone has a reasonable explanation?

Yeah, we noticed those moths. I thought that was very wierd. It was pretty nice Sunday once we dropped below 3500 and I wonder if the mild temp. brought them out. That was great hike and I would do it again. I'm really glad we had snow and equally as glad that the views were crystal clear on Saturday. More exploration of the Catskills is definitely in order.

Very nice trip report. And also one of my favorite hikes.

I've seen the moths as well. Last November, there were thousands flying around the lower flanks of Rusk. I had thought maybe they were Elm Spanworm Moths which have been described as looking like a summer snowstorm. But from what I've read, these moths are active in July & August. Don't know if they would still be around in November.

Nice report and pics. Never been to the Catskills. Not sure those near vertical scrambles would have been "fun" for me lugging a winter pack. In photo "warming the boots", I notice a jetboil stove in the background. Not that I need a new stove, but how do they work in the cold or in general?