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1 Climbing log entry Found.


Jan. 15, 2006 (Sun.)
Elevation: 4059 feet; Order of Height: 38
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Jennifer Innes, Ewart Tempest, Pu Chen, Maureen Hughes, Brian Connell
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Today's hike's objectives: Introduce some new people to Adirondack winter hiking; Get Jenn and Brian some more as-yet-undone 46er peaks; and something with nice views. I figured the porter-cascade traverse would fit the bill, because it was fairly short and had quite a lot of good lookouts, and the summit of Cascade offers big open terrain on a relatively low peak.

We left Brian's car at the Cascade Mountain trailhead, and drove around and started at the Porter Mountain trailhead at Marcy Field.

The forecast was unsettled. The previous few days had seen very warm temperatures and heavy rain; the last 24 hours had seen an abrupt deep freeze. We were at the tail end of a winter storm and flood warning combination. As a result, I was unsure of exactly what weather and trail conditions to expect.

There was very little snow at the lower elevations, and the streams were flowing vigorously, although crossing them on this particular hike is not hard because they are still small.

We only got to use snowshoes above the 3000-foot level. Weather was actually pretty nice if you weren't in the wind, and there was a lot of blue sky. The final ascent up to Porter's ridgecrest had a lot of tiresome blowdown (from about 300 to about 3600 feet).

Pretty brisk and cold on Porter's ridge, but we made good time. Brian noticed that he'd forgotten his keys!!! back at Marcy Field, so we aborted the Cascade summit and I went ahead at a run to see if I could flag someone down at the Cascade Trailhead to bring me around to the Marcy Field trailhead.

Fortunately, a very kind Mary Brandt stopped and gave me a lift, and I was able to fetch both the CRV and Brian's Accord keys within the CRV and bring both back to our finish spot. A somewhat more eventful and tiring day than I had planned for!!

(a more detailed report and lots of images available by clicking image gallery link below)

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: January 2006 Porter Mountain Traverse Hike


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