Now moving again, we quickly warm back up and can put our minds on autopilot, enjoying the great late-day views and reviewing the high points of our just-completed climb.
One of the [many] awesome things about winter hiking in the Adirondacks is how an annoying summer trail is transformed into beautiful smoothness. This is nowhere better exemplified by the MacIntyre range trail down from Algonquin. Today it was entirely free of boulders, steps, and ice. Just a nice, slopey, firm-snow slope that took the teeth of our microspikes (oh yeah, we switched back to microspikes at the summit). Gino and I had a bit of fun glissading in a few spots, but even that was unnecessary. An Adirondack trail covered in a proper layer of firm winter snowpack is a beautiful thing.
We passed an injured couple from Quebec at one of the last little vertical steps on the trail - apparently one of them had twisted their ankle on this section, and we stopped to offer help as the injured party was being wrapped in emergency blankets and extra clothes by her companion. We offered to assist with a carry but apparently they had called down to the Loj and had been in contact with the rangers, who were supposed to come up and render transport aid. So, we continued on down.
The rest of our hike down was easy and quite uneventful. We arrived back at the trailhead at 4:30pm, a very reasonable time given the off-trail ascent we had just done. I was quite pleased with how it all went, except perhaps for our slightly sketchy handling of the crux section before the ridgeline. Perhaps work towards better procedures for the next time (and I quite like these sorts of off-beat exploratory ascents, so I'm pretty sure that we'll be doing this again). Thank you to you all for being willing participants in today's explorations!
Algonquin ascent via Northeast face - Hike Data
Start Time:
8:03a.m.
End Time:
4:32p.m.
Duration:
8h28m
Distance:
14.26 km
(8.86 mi)
Average Speed:
1.7 km/hr
(1.0 mph)
Start Elevation:
2197ft
(670m)
*
Max Elevation:
5129ft
(1563m)
*
Min Elevation:
2052ft
(625m)
*
End Elevation:
2148ft
(655m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Total Elevation Gain:
3111ft
(948m)
*
Total Elevation Loss:
3158ft
(963m)
*
* : +/- 75 feet
Elevation Graph
