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with at least one of the following participants
for at least one of the following peaks
5 Climbing log entries Found.


Sep. 21, 2019 (Sat.)
Elevation: 3600 feet; Order of Height: 80
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Mouhcine Aitounejjar, Theresa Mammarella, Cheryl Nakamura, Ann, Babneet, Deepak
Click to Enlarge

Pitchoff Ridge was our first fall hike of 2019, done as a so-called above-the-clouds work outing.

Despite the fact that we were shy of the real start of fall by two days, I still consider this a fall hike. The leaves had started changing, although not very far along. The weather was still decidedly summer-like - warm and a bit hazy.

The best way to enjoy Pitchoff is via a traverse hike, and that's what we did. Having enough cars (i.e. more than 1) meant that we could park a vehicle at each trailhead. We started from the lower, eastern route 73 trailhead, and did the short steep burn up to the eastern end of the Pitchoff Ridgeline.

We had several Adirondack newcomers on this hike, and they were suitably impressed by the views. We then enjoyed the physicality of the twists and turns and ups and downs of the first part of Pitchoff's ridgeline, which then gave way to more sedate hiking. Down from the highpoint to what I like to call the "Great Western Lookout", where we fooled around with jumping and picture taking near and on the two massive erratics. We then endured the tedious descent down to the lower ridgeline and then from their, trundled out to the western trailhead, arriving at route 73 about five hours after starting out.

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: September 2019 Pitchoff Ridge Hike


Apr. 14, 2017 (Fri.)
Elevation: 3600 feet; Order of Height: 80
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Sophie Huggins
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A spring hike along highway-paralleling Pitchoff Ridge, with wall-to-wall sun and cool clear views.

We set up to do a traverse of Pitchoff (which is how I always do Pitchoff) from the eastern end. Only had one car, so I brought running gear along to fetch the car at the end. The initial climb was dry and clear down low, rough and blowdown-ish in the mid section, and still snow in the shadowed areas up high (but fortunately solid and walkable without snowshoes). With the beautiful day, the walk west along the ridgeline was superb, with super clear views to the still-snowy high peaks. We brought microspikes but mostly avoided the need to use them. At the far western end, enjoyed the final huge lookout and boulders, then backtracked a bit and descended the western approach trail to arrive at the western pitchoff trailhead by 2pm, about four hours after setting out. Changed into my running clothes and ran the 20 minutes back to fetch the car. Tidy!

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: Pitchoff Ridge Traverse


Feb. 17, 2014 (Mon.)
Elevation: 3600 feet; Order of Height: 80
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Jennifer Innes, Andy Brown, Andrea Craig
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An excellent winter snowshoe traverse of Pitchoff Ridge.

We did this as a traverse, leaving a single car at the eastern trailhead and hiking to the western trailhead. Once at the western trailhead, I got out a pair of running shoes I had packed and jogged bthe 2.6 miles along rte 73 to the eastern trailhead to fetch the car.

Weather was perfectly clear, and snow conditions were ideal - fresh, soft, deep snow. For the most part, the trail was reasonably well tracked out. One stretch of trail below the western summit of Pitchoff was done by people without snowshoes, making for a much less enjoyable time. Fortunately, that stretch was not long.

Winds were light but temps were quite cool, making for cold toes and covered faces. The jog from the western to the eastern trailhead took about 25 minutes. Road is fairly narrow for running; care is required.

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: February 2014 Pitchoff Ridge Traverse


Nov. 20, 2004 (Sat.)
Elevation: 3600 feet; Order of Height: 80
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Markus Wandel, Pu Chen, Caroline Doucet, Jennifer Innes, Yi Wang, Peter Krug, Asmir Arifovic
Click to Enlarge

This hike was the second in our 'kilimanjaro preparation series'. It was, at this point, 40 days until we were to leave for the Kilimanjaro climb. Even though the weather looked only reasonable for the first half of the day, we wanted to get out and climb something, so I thought about it a bit and picked a hike that I knew was pretty scenic but not too long, so that we could avoid the afternoon rains which were coming.

Well, as it turns out, it was quite an amazingly nice hike. The last (and only) time I'd done this hike it was in the clouds, and I knew that there were many lookouts. With good visibility, though, this hike is super scenic, with tons of good viewpoints as the trail follows pitchoff's ridge-like summit.

This hike was also characterized by many digital SLRs being used - resulting in a huge amount of picture taking. The day was warm for late November, and there is little to no wind. Ewart had parallel-hike along the Porter-Cascade ridge while we hiked, and, with radio contact, we arranged for a tele-photo flag-unfurling picture with him atop Cascade peak.

Another point of note is the fabulous open rock at the west end of Pitchoff's ridge. Very scenic and very interesting.

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: November 2004 Pitchoff Mountain Hike


May 14, 2000 (Sun.)
Elevation: 3600 feet; Order of Height: 80
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Lorraine Hughes

Lorraine and I parked the car at the Cascade Mountain trailhead, then crossed the road and started up towards Pitchoff. Lots of interesting lookouts not far up this trail, including some really good open ones with huge boulders. From some scorch marks here and there on these open areas, it looked like this was a popular spot with the local party-bonfire crowd. The path continued over the various bumps and knobs, often with good views, even though the day was mostly overcast. Then steeply downwards off the ridge, we rejoined route 73 some distance below Cascade pass and hiked back along the road back to the car. Would be better with a two-car setup, as the hike back along the road is long and with lots of traffic.

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