Marcy wreathed in clouds A closeup view of Mount Marcy rising through the clouds. [enlarge]

Markus and Mt. Marcy A shot of Markus with Marcy in the Background. [enlarge]

Phelps Mountain This is Phelps mountain. We had considering doing this peak, since we had summited Tabletop so early (9:30-10:00am), and we had lots of time left. As it turns out, we decided to go for Esther peak instead (a 46er peak I had not yet done). [enlarge]

Big Slide Mountain Big Slide mountain is visible through an icy portal through tabletop's summit vegetation. Looks very neat from this angle! [enlarge]

Wright Peak This is Wright peak, a very nice mountain, with a large, pointy, rocky summit. Too bad it is often so busy! It is amazing how many of the prominent peaks are visible, close-up, from tabletop mountain. [enlarge]

Trail near trailhead A shot of the pleasant conditions as we hike back to the trailhead. [enlarge]

Signing out... We finish our hike at 30 minutes past noon. Our earliest day-hike finish ever! [enlarge]

Busted snowshoe We were planning to climb Esther as well, but just before we reached the trailhead, my MSR Denali Ascents suffered a critical failure. The Metal plate that forms the main boot support broke apart completely on one side. Fortunately, the snowshoes are only 2 years old and still under warranty, but the failure is a bit disconcerting. Hopefully I'll be able to get this fixed. So much for Esther! [enlarge]

Busted snowshoe closeup A closeup shot of the failure point on the snowshoe. [enlarge]

Killing some time in Lake Placid So... it being only noon, we decided to explore for a bit - went to check out the Van Hoevenberg Olympic bobsled run, but they wanted $45.00 USD for a bobsled ride... kinda steep, especially for us Canucks. So then we wandered over to Eastern Mountain Sports in Lake Placid, where we chatted with the staff and where I bought some cool waterproof inkjeft paper (for maps and stuff). All in all, not a bad day! [enlarge]

courtesy _markus

Interactive trackmap with photo points - Tabletop Mountain - click map to view Interactive trackmap with photo points - Tabletop Mountain - click to view

Elevation profile over distance This is the GPS-derived elevation profile of our hike, over distance. Note the little spike where I had to labouriously retrace my steps to retrieve the extenders to my snowshoes, which I had dropped while glissading down the trail. [enlarge]

Elevation profile over time This is the GPS-derived elevation profile of our hike, over time. [enlarge]

Annotated track of hike This is the GPS-derived track of our route, superimposed over a USGS topographic map of the area. [enlarge]

Todays track overlaid with failed attempt This is the GPS-derived track of our route, superimposed over a USGS topographic map of the area. Superimposed on top of that in purple is the track from our January 15 attempt on Tabletop. Note how our unsuccessful bushwhack attempt to the summit was at one point only 190 metres from the real trail to the top. Argh! (click here to read about that attempt on tabletop). [enlarge]