winter camping

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Pulling a pulk in the Adirondacks…the last big winter trip of 2015

This past weekend I led a group of Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) backpackers into the Marcy Dam area 3 day/2 night winter base camp high peaks adventure.

Usually I carry my large winter backpack, Gregory Diva 85 but this weekend I traded that in for a pulk…yes a pulk! Which is pretty much a sled attached to poles that clips onto a harness worn on your waist. 



 A trail buddy of mine, “Nails” had been talking this whole pulling a pulk thing up for sometime and when we were discussing my upcoming Daks trip, I decided to give it a try. 

Why this trip?

A few reasons: First, this trip is a basecamp, meaning that we will hike in to a designated campsite and go hiking from there each day, hopefully tagging some high peaks. Secondly, the trail leading to our base camp is approximately 2.5 miles of fairly wide level trail and lastly…it’s much more comfortable to pull a pulk with 30-35lbs of winter gear than it is to carry it on your back. 



the high peaks weather forecast for friday



 At the start of our trip I was a little concerned. The temperature was minus 12 and the wind was probably 20-30 mph. It was COLD! I had some thoughts of calling the trip as I was driving to meet the rest of the group on Friday morning. I had been watching the higher summit forecast for the area like a hawk all week. We would be down in the low lands but the temperature was still projected to be as low as 40 degrees below zero. Game time decisions would have to be made about what peaks to hike but my intended plan was to hike Phelps (4161′)the first day, Colden (4715′)the second day and tag Tabletop (4427′) on a quick day hike on the third day.
I attached my sled to my waist of my osprey day pack and easily glided my sled the 2.5 miles to the Marcy dam area where we set our base camp.



home sweet home. no heat but plenty of fresh air!



 The wind died down by the time our group set up camp and geared up to climb Phelps. The trail to Phelps was nicely broken out and snowshoeing was a pleasure. We hit the turn off to head the mile up to the summit and up, up and away we went. The view was spectacular and we hung out there and soaked it in for a while before heading back to camp. 



 Our group of seven hung out in the lean to and melted snow for water for a couple of hours. I was in my tent by 7pm and snoozing shortly after…winter is my time to catch up on sleep. I never sleep for more than 6-8 hours at home so getting 12 hours in my sleeping bag is just fine with me. 

 The next morning the weather had turned very very windy. Even down at our lower elevation the wind was blowing 30 mph. I really wanted to go with the plan to hike the 8 plus miles round trip to Mt. Colden but the climb to the top of Colden is exposed and steep  and would not be easy in very high winds and blowing snow. We discussed it as a group and decided that hiking to Tabletop would be a better call but three of the guys decided it was even too cold and windy to do that so they decided to hike up Mount Joe. 



The other four of us set off to Tabletop around 9am. Along the way lots of hikers and skiers were on the trails too. Quite a few hikers were headed up to Marcy which was interesting to me because if the wind was 30 mph at 2000 feet I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like on top of the highest peak in the range! Then I began to question my decision to call off going to Colden. Did I wimp out? Was I being too cautious? I’m not one to be scared by weather but I was not feeling anywhere near 100% – I had been plagued with a bad head cold all week and while I felt well enough to hike I just didn’t think pushing myself physically would be smart. If the hike to Colden went perfectly I would probably be fine but if something went wrong, if one of our hikers suffered an injury or the weather conditions deteriorated any further I might be a hinderence. As a trip leader that’s never a good scenario – so to Tabletop we hiked. 



hiking up the trail to tabletop



The route up tabletop is very protected from the beastly wind and we had a lovely climb up to the top. Just enough of an opening at the summit to see Mt. Marcy across the way and take in views without being blown over. 



lookking at Mt. Marcy from summit of Tabletop Mtn



We headed back to camp early and I retreated to my tent to get some rest, I was definitely feeling worse. After an hour or so I psyched myself up to get back out of the tent and start melting snow for some much needed water. The wind was now blowing snow and gusting up to 35 mph. Usually, melting snow in the lean to protects me from the weather but the wind was blowing the snow right in the front of lean to. Soon I melted enough snow to rehydrate my dinner and made a hot beverage to take back to my tent. I was really glad to get back in my sleeping bag. I was even more grateful that I had downloaded one of my favorite t.v shows, Suits, to my smartphone to keep myself entertained for a while before I could take my dose of NyQuil and get some much needed sleep. 



larry, all smiles …the wind is gone!



The next morning I awoke to the sound of…NO WIND! I stuck my head out of my tent at 7am and the sky was blue and the sun shining bright! A perfect day to hike but everyone had had enough and wanted to hike out and go home. So I packed up my stuff, put it in the pulk and pulled it home! 

My thoughts on pulling a pulk…it is the way to go! I didn’t even notice I was pulling any weight until the up hills and even the  it was much easier than having the weight on my back. 

One of the big benefits to the pulk is not having to be so mindful of the weight of each item. This trip I was able to bring my alite camp chair, an extra down jacket and my BD shovel. My total weight was probably almost 40lbs with food, fuel and water. My winter backpack weight is usually 30-32 lbs and if feels much heavier! While pulling a pulk isn’t practical in every winter backpacking scenario I think there are a fair amount of winter routes that I could use this on in the future. 

When u got home, I called my buddy “Nails” and told him all about my love for the pulk. Needless to say he is making me one of my very own for next winter! So there will be more pulk pulling adventures next winter but for now I look forward to more spring like weather and getting back to my light weight backpacking kit! 



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Cold Weather Backpacking…sometimes it is about survival.

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This morning I read about a woman that unfortunately lost her life while hiking in the White Mountains. It’s a very tragic situation but also a real risk when winter hiking, especially solo.

This story reminded me of a trip report I had been working on for my blog. I never actually posted it because it was well…just another winter trip report and the trip didn’t go off as planned. The working title was “winter backpacking: plan, revise, repeat…lessons learned about surviving the COLD”. The unfinished post had been in my drafts queue waiting to be published. This morning after I read the news article about this hiker losing her life, I reflected on my recent trip to the Catskills and whether or not I should have “called the trip” because of terrible weather.

This overnight backpacking trip took place in the Catskills, New York the second to last week of January. I’ve done this particular trip every winter for the past 4 years and really like the route. The first day is 1500 ft of elevation over 3 miles or so up an old truck road that tops out at the Hunter Mountain Fire Tower. From there it’s another 4-5 miles to our campsite near the lovely Diamond Notch Falls area. The second day Is the real challenge heading up the Devils Path over Westkill Mountain (3,880′) down the other side and back to our cars. A total of 16.7 miles over 2 days with a full winter pack. However, this weekend the mountains had other plans.

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The morning temperature was zero degrees and the winds were forecasted to be up to 30-40mph. Our group was small, made up of 4 experienced four season backpackers. Heading up the jeep road towards the fire tower was hard work but doable since snowmobiles had packed down the trail. Until we reached about 3500 ft then all that lay in front of us was a foot or more of fresh powdery snow, lovely to look but not so easy to hike through with a heavy pack and snowshoes strapped to your boots. We switched to a rolling lead, 25 paces then fall out and let the next in line break trail. The rotation helps even out the workload and catch some rest as we roll the leader. With only four people this was still quite tough.

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At 11:30 am we reached the Hunter Mountain fire tower and took a minute to regroup. The wind was whipping and we needed to keep moving in order to stay warm. At this time one guy in our group mentioned that his feet were getting really cold. He was also getting fatigued from carrying his pack and was contemplating turning back.

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Knowing the route and consulting the map, I knew that further along the trail was fairly flat and there was a lean to in 2 more miles. We discussed the option of getting to the lean to, taking care of his feet and making a decision from there how we would proceed. We all agreed. We pushed on and broke trail for another two miles to the Devils acre lean to. Excited to have reached the 3 sided structure but slightly disappointed to see the floor of it with 6-8 inches of snow drifts and an umbrella, of all things!

We worked quickly to get our friend onto an insulated mat and into his -25 degree sleeping bag. Shortly later we started pumping him with snacks and hot beverages. Before long his feet began to get toasty warm. Thankfully, at no point did this guy ever exhibit signs of hypothermia. His spirits were good and his feet warm but he didn’t think he could hike any further so it was then we all decided the best thing was to stay put, set up camp and hike back out the way we came to our cars.

Setting up camp is usually a no brainer…whip out the tent and wholla! Well, in 30-40 mph winds it ain’t so easy. I have a 4 season free standing tent which I couldn’t get to stay put! Every time I got it on the ground the wind would just HOWL and flatten it out. Trying to put stakes in the ground to hold it down proved useless, the snow was a fine powder with no sticking power and the ground frozen solid. Finally, I just tied a guy line to a small tree and began hunting for large branches to weigh down the other guy lines. An hour later I finally had the tent up and pitched. It was now 2pm!

As we all sat – for hours – in the lean to we melted snow for water, ate our food, talked gear (of course) and all agreed that these conditions were really challenging. The wind was absolutely blasting, which made the temperatures plummet into the negatives, Making even the simplest tasks seem monumentally difficult.

We eventually all got our tents anchored down but the wind continued to whip it up! At one point I was in my sleeping bag and the side of my tent was touching my face because the wind was blowing with such force. We still all managed to get a great nights sleep despite the noise and awoke to a very cold but windless morning! We packed up and started 5 or so miles back to where we started. Thankfully the wind had not blown in the trail we broke out the previous day.
We made it to our cars within a few short hours, with smiles on our faces, happy that we were able to spend the night in the woods, even if it wasn’t the trip we had planned on.

As I drove home I reflected on this trip and for me it served as a reminder of how flexible I need to stay during winter hikes and overnight trips. Even though I plan a fairly detailed itinerary, bring a map and all my gear I think the most important thing I can do is to remain flexible…each trip unfolds differently.