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Jun. 24, 2000 (Sat.)
Elevation: 4926 feet; Order of Height: 4
Participants: Brian Connell, Peter Guidry, Gilbert Benoit, Andrew Lavigne
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Brian, PG and I did this hike as part of our training regimen for climbing Mount Rainier (plus I'd never summitted Skylight before, so that worked, too). We did it entirely in a day, and with extra weight to simulate the full packs we'd have to carry up Rainier. In my case, I put an 18L water cooler jug in my pack along with the rest of my stuff. I estimate the weight to have been around 45-50 pounds (Gilbert was just along for the fun - he had his normal very light load).

Anyway, this being a pretty long hike (30km in total), we made special efforts to move along quickly. We zoomed through to Avalanche Lake and unfortunately chose to take the left-hand (south-east) trail along Lake Colden. What a yucky, uneven, rooty mess. Remind me not to go that way again. The trail up the Opalescent was really nice - lots of interesting flumes and gorges and waterfalls - definitely one of the more interesting 'river sections' of trail in the high peaks region.

Finally reaching four corners, we turned right and were soon on the very broad but also nicely bare summit of Skylight. At the very top is a huge cairn (the biggest in the ADK high peaks, as far as I know). Marcy looms very big from the summit of skylight. Also looming big were some huge wasp-type insects that were very attracted to our brightly colored outdoor gear. We found these creatures a bit unnerving, so we kept our goretex on with the hoods drawn tight. A ceremonial dumping of my jug of water (wanted to save knees on the way down) and we were off, trying to make best time back to the car before it got too late. In the end, we managed the full 30 kilometres in 10 hours flat. An excellent average speed of 3km/hr including all stops! Good training hike!

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: June 2000 Skylight Climb


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