We've dealt with some serious rough news on the board lately in very short succession. At times like these I always have a little trepidation posting thread like these. As I've said time and again, we all need the good news as well as the bad, especially for new members. A cancer diagnosis, even one of Stage IV, does not mean you can't still do some of the things you love. With that I'm honored to share with everyone being able to do something I love.
By now most of you know about this years' climbing in the Adirondack High Peaks aka "Into to Bear Avoidance." Two of my best friends and I went on this 2-day backpacking adventure with the goal of climbing Basin Mountain (4,827'), and Haystack Mountain (4,960'). Both of these mountains are some of the more remote in the ADK high peaks, accessible from "The Garden" parking area. Given their remote-ness (around 9 miles one-way for Haystack), we decided to backpack in with heavy packs and camped at Slant Rock, about 6.8 miles in. Alas, the lean-to there was taken, so we were happy we brought our tent. Se set up camp, squared away our bear canister, un-packed our heavy packs and strung them up for a "quick" jaunt to the top of Basin. We collected and sterlized some nice cold stream water, grabbed a sandwich, and headed out.
On our way in, the weather frankly sucked for climbing mountains. It was low and overcast and if you know what the term "Cloud Forest" means, that's basically what we were in. The Ranger we encountered on the way in warned us that the peaks were all shrouded in low clouds, which was of course not what we wanted. But we set out anyway hoping. The climb up from Slant Rock was steady at a moderate grade for the ADK and climbing about 1000 feet up. Typical granit rocks everywhere in the trail acting as steps, and a few streams here and there. As we were getting up above 4000ft the clouds started lifting up and the sun came out, emboldening us further. From there, the trail decends off of the base of Hastack down about 400ft to move over to the foot of Basin mountain. I HATE the whole up-down thing when climbing mountains, it's demoralizing knowing you have to just go back up all that you just came down
. But, still good weather abounded with sun and mid-level clouds, so up we went.
The climb to the top of Basin was decently technical actually. Some serious rock scrambles, a little bonafide climbing, and a few ladders for assistance. Ultimately we reached the summit and while the sun went in, the clouds stayed mostly mid-range and we enjoyed a fantastic view. The GoPro took a fantastic panoramic shot with the fisheye lens, so please enjoy
(full-HD if you want it)
http://youtu.be/LZUoPCDRlJoUltimately we returned by the same route and made it back in time to relax, make some dinner, and have a relatively early to bed. I was personally GASSED coming down off Basin and was really worried about my ability to hike the next day on Haystack. Luckily, through the magic of a good nights sleep and plenty of Naproxen, I woke up the next morning refreshed enough to do Haystack, the real goal of the trip.
Mercifully the trip up Haystack was much steadier than that up basin, altough there was one really tricky part where we had to descend bald rock faces at a 60% grade for at least 100feet and just switch-back on it. It was totally a "don't look down" moment and I had a mini freak-out in my head, only continuing by knowing that thousands had done it before me. Most of the last few hundred feet of the ascent to Haystack is bald, with views all around. The mountain itself offers SPECTACULAR views as it is out all-alone at the end of the great range and STEEP on 3 sides which really gives you that top of the world feeling. Weather was similar to the day before, a little sun through medium clouds and both days it was calm on top. No raging winds. Up atop Haystack the battery on my camera was dying as I at some point during the hike managed to turn it on and take an hour of video of the inside of my pack
. But, I was able to squeeze just enough juice out of it for almost the 360 panoramic view. Please enjoy
http://youtu.be/jQ7Rhh1oYucThe hike out was pretty grueling to be honest. Coming down off Haystack wasn't too bad, but once we geared-up at camp and put those heavy packs back on, I knew it was gonna be tough to make it all the way out. Much pain, cursing, and dreams of a bacon cheeseburger and a beer helped me get through it. In the end, the accomplishment and the top of the world moments were totally worth it. I feel exceptionally blessed to have been able to have succeeded at climbing these guys. Perhaps, climbing the top-10 might be possible. A full-fleged 46er, maybe not so much as I do live pretty far away.
If you've read this far, give ourself a pat on the back
. And then whether you're a newbie or an old vet, I hope my story can be an inspiration for you to go out and do what you love. Giving cancer the middle finger and doing something amazing and outrageous is empowering to be sure. Thanks for letting me share with you guys.