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Mar. 7, 2020 (Sat.)
Elevation: 5114 feet; Order of Height: 2
Participants: Andrew Lavigne, Brian Connell, Gino Brancatelli, Alana Wilcox
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An exploratory expedition up the North-east face of Algonquin Peak.

Noticed what looked like a good winter line up the northeastern aspect of Algonquin while doing some image resizing of an older trip report. Further examination revealed that it looked like a mostly clear route up a landslide-widened creekbed, upper wider landslide and relatively open northeast face.

Rapidly walked into Marcy Dam and partway up the Avalanche Pass trail until a point where we put snowshoes on and started up the drainage coming down from Algonquin's NE face. With excellent snowpack conditions, quickly made it to the base of the landslide scar portion. Ascent under these good snow conditions was indeed sublime, with only a few detours required.

Steeper upper slide was also in good shape, requiring no more than snowshoes. Beyond that a band of dense fir trees was almost entirely under the snowpack, again making travel easy. Elected to traverse left across the base of the open NE face to the east ridgecrest. Steepening slope angle and harder snowpack here makes either crampons and/or ice ax the desired choice. Once on the ridgeline it was a short climb up firm snow to the summit. This route really does work and is quite enjoyable, provided conditions are good (A deep snowpack and good snow conditions)

Trip Reports, Image Galleries or Other References:
 Image Gallery: March 2020 Algonquin Peak via Northeast Face


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