Topping out at Buttermilk Falls

I sat down on a rock, stuffed my feet into my new pair of boots and stepped into my crampons. As soon as I stood up excitement filled me, After all, this would be my first time ice climbing. Brian handed me the rope and a pair of leashless tool, I tied into my harness and was ready to rock.

After a brief system check I was swinging my tools into the ice. My first climb was a bit sloppy, Being a rock climber I kept trying to edge and smear out of habit. By the end of my first pitch though, I was getting the hang of keeping my heels low.

I spent the hours following my first Climb continuously practicing my form. Fortunately I was climbing with a few guys who have been at it for many years, Their Insight and suggestions were greatly appreciated. Brian commented on how much better my form was, even after only a few hours of climbing.

Throughout the day I alternated between the leashed and leashless tools available to me. As of this writing I am leaning toward the leashed ones because for one it was nice to not have to worry about dropping a tool, and being able to rest on the straps was a nice bonus. On the other side of the coin though I could see leashless being beneficial for placing screws since you would not have to unleash your hand to make a placement.

As the day came to an end, the feared Christmas weekend Nor-easter began to blow in. Though I was only 50 feet from the road, the deteriorating conditions gave me an exhilarating feeling, as if what I was doing was far more epic than it actually was, I was elated.

Tying in.

Near dark I climbed a final pitch, but this time I went all the way to the anchor. Since the guys were kind enough to let me climb with them, I felt it my duty to dismantle their anchors. With both top ropes broken down, I threw the rope around a tree, sent the rope over the edge, and rappelled back down the waterfall.

With another great first experience behind me, and so much climbable Ice within a 30 minute drive, I am ready for more ice climbing. Beyond just having a great day and feeling really comfortable on the ice, I feel that my choice in boots and crampons seem pretty solid so far.

The Grivel G14′s have replaceable vertical front points and the leather La Sportiva Makalu boots I picked up kept my toes warm and comfortable, But the real test will come when the temperature plunges.

-Patrick

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

Despite what I liked, this resort did not offer anything out of the ordinary for me. it was your standard east coast small scale resort. It has 22 trails, offers night skiing, has snow tubing and the standard ski lodge with a cafeteria. I found some of the lifts to be not snowboard friendly since they were T-lifts designed for skiers, and they placement of the snow tubing area required completely unstrapping my snowboard to get back to the main lift after running some of the double diamond trails.

As for the general layout, many of the trails featured a lot of switchbacks and connection trails allowing for a lot of hard cutting turns which I happen to enjoy, and makes for some great racing if you and your friends are feeling a bit competitive like we were. The “expert” terrain on this mountain was a bit varied, but nothing to write home about. I often found myself losing my edging on the sheets of ice littering the trail called Avalanche which is coined “one of the steepest slopes in the east” on Ski Dentons website.

Lift ticket prices at Denton are comparable to other resorts in PA at 42 dollars for a weekend day pass, 36 dollars for a four hour weekend pass, 25 dollars for an eight hour weekday pass, and 23 dollars for a four hour weekday pass.

With the beautiful weather we had this past Saturday, and a few good friends along for the ride, I have to say I completely enjoyed my trip to Denton. The Resort was not without its shortcomings, but with such beautiful scenery in the area, and nearly perfect snow conditions, the shortcomings were easily over looked. If you like small crowds, and the beautiful scenery of north central PA then I definitely suggest giving Denton a go. Its also noteworthy that they are celebrating there 50th anniversary and offering 2 dollar lift tickets every Monday.

Denton By the Numbers.
Trails: 22
Lifts: 4, 1 triple chair, 1 double chair, 2 pomas
Vertical Rise: 650ft
Summit Elevation 2500 ft.
Base Elevation 1850 ft.
Skiable Terrain 75 Acres
Snowmaking 95%
Average Snowfall 80 inches
X-Country – 50km groomed trails

For Info check out skidenton.com

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

Wearing the Formula Sync Jacket

For those of you who dont know, Eastern Mountain Sports is a retail chain that spans most of the North Eastern United States. EMS as they are also known as specializes in adventure sports equipment ranging from Rock Climbing and Kayaking to Mountain Biking and beyond. They also carry there own line of Clothing and equipment available at there stores and on the website.

For quite some time I have desired a jacket for my outdoor endeavors that was light weight and thin enough to pack, and layer under, but have solid wind stopping power. the problem was that most of the quality jackets in this realm were quite expensive, and considering my track record with ruining clothing I decided I wanted something versatile but cheap. One evening when I was in the North Conway EMS location I happened upon The EMS Formula Sync Jacket. at first look I was impressed with the look of the jacket as well as the 120 dollar price tag.

Asthetics
This jacket has your general winter soft shell, Two Tone color scheme, draw string billed hood, with two hand warmer pockets and zippered breast pocket. I personally was immediately drawn to the Pesto/Granite colored jacket, but is also available in Estate Blue/Granite and Granite/Black.

Functionality
My first use of this jacket was quite a trying test. I had picked this jacket up the night before I climbed Mount Washington, and I figured the high winds common to this mountain would be a fitting test.

Internal Stash Pocket

One of the features I immediately found useful was the under arm zips, they quickly helped cool me down after a bit of trekking. when I started for the day I had a fleece vest and fleece pullover on, but quickly found myself removing them and just wearing my base layer and the jacket which provided ample warmth.

The wind stopping capabilities of this jacket were clearly evident on the ever windy mountain summit. The wind was easily 30 – 40 miles an hour and only felt a mild drop in temperature. the hood also played a major roll in this by keeping tight around my head, though at times the bill slightly obscured my vision. the back of the hood also draws tight for use with a helmet.

I found the internal pocket extremely useful for storing my phone, It kept the phone close to my body to help keep it warm allowing better battery life. another nice internal feature of this jacket is the powder skirt which was adjustable to two sizes and helped keep the snow out of my shirt during a few sit down glissades I made during descent.

One other notable feature of this jacket is the Sync System. this is a 3 point system that allows you to snap in other Sync branded warm layers for those extra cold adventures.

Powder Skirt

The only gripe I had with this jacket at first was the zippers which seem to not want to zip without effort, but after a few uses they have seemed to get better.

Final Thoughts
While this jacket is officially intended for skiing and boarding, I have found this jacket extremely worthy of other winter activities. Like I mentioned, I used this for a Mountaineering outing on Mount Washington, and it was highly adequate. I have also used this on several other winter hikes. If you find yourself In an EMS location I highly recommend checking out this jacket.

More Info available at WWW.EMS.COM

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

CampTheSummit: An Unusual Day On Mount Washington from Patrick Gensel on Vimeo.

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

By Patrick Gensel

The alarm began to blare at 5:15 am and I sat up almost instantly with an anxious grin, not unlike a child on Christmas morning. This was my Christmas morning. after nearly a month of planning and studying routes and weather, the day was finally here, I was going to climb Mount Washington.

Now when you look at Washington from an elevation scale the 6,288 foot mountain does not stand out as much of an accomplishment when compared to some of the peaks of the western states, but do not let that deceive you. What makes Mount Washington so unique is that it happens to lie right at a convergence point for 3 major storm tracks and poses the only obstacle between these tracks and the Atlantic. This as you may have thought makes for some pretty extraordinary and unpredictable weather. The peak has be coined “The home of the worlds worst weather”, and rightly so considering that in April of 1934 the highest surface wind speed on earth was recorded at 231 mph. another pretty solid reason that this mountain is so fasicating is that is said to have a Subarctic climate.

After about 30 minutes of layering and preparation my friend John and I made our way to Pinkham Notch where we enjoyed a tasty breakfast buffet before setting out. the temperature was a brisk 5°F and it the sun was just beginning to be fully visible when we started up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail located behind the Pinkham Notch visitors center. layered in Polypropylene base layers fleece and a winter shell we began the 4.5 mile accent that would take us Along the Tuckerman Ravine Trail and Lions Head Trail. For the first 45 minutes of our excursion we sailed along at a steady pace while keeping warm, but not too warm, but within ten minutes of the sun clearing its last obstruction, the layers began to come off.

By the 9am I was down to my base layer and a fleece vest, It was certainly turning out to be a beautiful day. As we made our way up the trail we came in contact with many teams with the same goal in mind: The summit, and with the way the weather was playing out this morning that did not seem anywhere near unattainable. All the people we caught up with or passed always seemed to extend a friendly hello, which added a great deal to this experience.

At around 10am we arrived at the beginning of the Lions head trail where a group of people were preparing for the next part of the ascent. Some where Donning there Crampons, others putting on Avalanche Beacons, and some where just taking a break and enjoy the day. John and I dropped our Packs, pulled out our ice axes and put on our crampons. after a quick drink of water and an energy bar, we were ready.

The initial part of the Lions Head trail was not too challenging, it was a single track packed into the snow, wide enough for single file travel. I veered off the trail once or twice to find myself Calf deep in snow, but proptly corrected course. Within 15 minutes we reached the bottleneck of the trail which consisted of a 15 foot near vertical climbe which required a little front pointing with our crampons, and some ice axe work. after that it was fairly smooth sailing. once the trees started to thin out, It started to sink in that this was happening and my excitement raced. at around 4000 feet I caught a glimse of the beautiful White Mountains and the terrain that lie ahead. we proceeded up the trail and rounded a corner where I could see the Lions Head off in the distance high above the tree line, I knew that I soon would be leaving the shelter of the forrest and enter the barren land above the alpine line.

Within a half hour of my first glimpse of the Lions Head the trees began to thin and ultimately gave way to a seemingly endless sea of snow. At this point the trail all but disappeared only to be marked by the occasional stone cairn or team of mountaineers. the punchy snow crunching beneath my crampons was reminiscent of walking across Styrofoam, yet the warmth from the sun reminded me of a spring day, this perfect weather was not at all the norm on this mountain, and happened maybe once or twice a year. our timing for a summit day couldn’t have been any more perfect, if there is such a thing as luck, this was it.

An hour of Switchbacks across the sea of snow gave way to the large rock out cropping known as the Lions Head. once we reached the Top of the Lions Head we were offered our first Clear view of Both Tuckerman Ravine and The Summit cone, which looked deceivingly close. I turned my head to the left to see a team of mountaineers working the ridge that would ultimately route them to the summit and was surprised at how far away they actually were. It is quite humbling how that a snow covered mountain can really mess with perception of depth and size, and now fully understand how someone can get lost on a snowfield.

At around 1pm we arrived at the point where The Lions Head meets back up with the Tuckerman Ravine Trail and begins its final push up the Summit Cone. I recall as we worked our way up the slopes of the summit cone people cheering us on as they made there way back down after there successful ascent. Positive motivating comments came from every passing mountaineer helping me to push my burning calves to the limit. we finally crested the last ridge and the building of the Observatory came into view, and with that view, also came the cold and the wind. though it was not as windy as it commonly is, the 45 mile per hour wind was enough to chill the air to nearly negative temperatures. everything was covered in a thick coat of rime ice, a brittle wind blown fusion of ice and snow. To me the Summit of Mount Washington in the dead of winter is how I imagine Antarctica, and it felt like it too.

At Approximately 1:40pm January 23rd 2010 we had reached the summit of Mount Washington, the roof of New England, and it felt great. We promptly made our way over to the sign that marked the true summit, and snapped a picture for a couple before posing for a few snapshots and some video with the sign. the top of the mountain was teeming with life, with people from all over the world, there was even a couple with a pair of huskies that posed with them for a photo at the sign, it really was a perspective changing experience. we originally intended on eating our lunch on the summit, but there wasn’t much to keep shielded from the wind and in the interest of keeping warm and our stove lit, we decided to begin our decent.

after a much quicker decent down the summit ridge, and much encouragement to the teams making there summit push, we arrived back at the Lions Head. Thanks to a Technique called a Glissade where you essentially ski without ski’s, we made it back to Lions Head in less than half the time it took to get from there to the top.

Now Shielded by the wind at Lions Head we decided that it was now time for our first real break since starting early that morning. the rest, and a warm meal did wonders for our energy levels, and we also shared stories of the day with fellow mountaineers resting at the Lions Head. After Snapping a few photos and reorganizing our equipment we started our final decent back down into the forest below. the rest of the decent was made quite quickly by employing a sitting Glissade and the use of our ice axes as brakes. The entire Lions Head trail was like a mountain sized snow slide. after about an hour of sliding we made it back to where we could slide no more, and at around 5pm we arrived safely back at the Pinkham Notch Visitors center.

This day was a wonderful experience, and my first real mountaineering experience. I highly encourage anyone with a desire to climb mountains to check out Mount Washington, but definitely plan ahead, and check the weather often due to the highly unpredictable conditions found here. Mountwashington.org is and indispensable resource for mountain conditions and general information, and as alway you can send your questions to Patrick@campthesummit.com

More Photos from my trip can be Found on my Flickr Page

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

The plan is to leave Northeast PA around noon and make the 7 hour drive to North Conway. When we get there a trip to Eastern Mountain Sports is in order to grab any last minute gear. Saturday morning, My friend John and I intend to summit Mount Washington. Our plan is to get to the Pinkham Notch visitors center by 6:30 am at the latest, make a final gear and conditions check and then make our way up the Tuckerman Ravine trail no later than 7am. Our route will follow the Tuckerman Ravine trail, which will take us to the Lions Head route then eventually join back up with the Tuckerman Ravine trail for the summit push. during the course of this climb i’m going to document the day with my HD camera for a video podcast for this site. as long as the conditions agree I expect a nice amount of video content.

Below is a list of gear that I will be carrying on to the mountain. when I return i’m going to evaluate what was useful, what could have been left behind, and what I wish I would have had.

Clothing
Under Armour Cold gear top
Under Armour Cold gear Pants
Under Armour Cold gear glove liners
Burton Gloves wit wrist gates
Columbia Wind/Waterproof Shell
fleece lined waterproof pants
Thermal Shirt (x2)
Fleece vest
Fleece half zip
smart wool hiking socks
Outdoor Research Rocky Mountain Gaiters
Asolo Fugitive GTX gore-tex boots.

Gear
Stubai 10 point crampons
Black Diamond raven Ice Axe
Garmin 60CSx gps
Snow Peak Litemax stove
GSI Pinnacle soloist Cook set
Balaclava
Goggles
25 feet of Static rope
Trekking Pole
8×8 Tarp (emergency shelter)
Marmot Sleeping bag (emergency)
Vacuum Bottles
Osprey Talon 44 pack

I didn’t include obvious things in the list such as lights and other, and I may pick up a mountaineering helmet before saturday, but otherwise the list covers the necessities. below I included a map outlining the proposed route.

For more info on Mount Washingto head on over to Mountwashington.org

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

Stubai Trekking Crampons

When it comes to winter hiking, or glacier travel, probably one of the most important pieces of equipment needed in your arsenal is a pair of crampons. Without a sharp set of crampons your likely to slide around, and not really get all that far. If your like me, and are not sure how much glacier or snow travel your going to do, then you probably don’t want to break the bank on your first set of crampons, and rightly so.

Stubai Buckle

While browing at my local gear shop, I stumbled across a pair of Stubai crampons, and the 95 dollar price tag was really appealing. before this, I had never heard of Stubai. Usually I do some research before buying brands I am unfamiliar with but i decided to take the plunge with these. (And I really wanted to do some winter hiking that weekend.) When I got the home I unboxed them and began to look them over in further detail. I was really impressed with the solid steel construction of the metal parts and the points, which i might add felt unbend-able. The plastic portion of the bindings didn’t feel like the cheap plastic you see in most products today, it was thick and bendable. the laces for the bindings kept the crampons securely strapped to my feet though they did seem unnecessarily long.

These crampons fit very well with my Asolo boots, and even in the rare occurances where the straps would losen, they would still stay snugly attached to my boots. I haven’t really wore many other crampons, but I can say that I did stick to the ice like glue. I wore these during my Ricketts Glen Winter Hike and had no problems at all traversing the varied ice terrain. The points on these are very rigid making front pointing very effective, I was even able to shimmy across and ice wall with just my front points into the ice and they did not slip at all. Just keep in mind these are not ice climbing crampons and should not be used as such.

One down side with this particular model is the weight. Steel is not very forgiving in the realm of weight and therefore these do add quite a bit of weight to your boots, but for an extra 20 dollars you can pick up the aluminum version and save some weight. These crampons make a great first step into the exciting sport of mountaineering, and at just under a hundred dollars you really can’t go wrong.

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

As driving usually can be in the northeastern winter, it was a bit of a slow go thanks to the fresh snowfall we received the night before and my billowing excitement wasn’t helping any to say the least. After what seemed like an eternity, we pulled into the Ricketts Glen lot just off of PA state rte 118 and began to suit up. Our gear set included waterproof jackets, Gore-tex boots, leg gaiters, Crampons, Ice axes among other pieces of equipment. Upon suiting up we made our way to the approach trail, crossed over kitchen creek and began our trek up to the falls trail.

The hike up the approach trail is somewhat deceiving, it is a fairly easy trek in contrast to what’s to come. There isn’t a lot out of the ordinary to see on the first part of the approach trail other than some nice woodland scenery, but once you get to the fork the fun begins.

After about a 25 minute walk we made it to the fork in the approach trail. The wooden sign declared: upper trail – moderate, lower trail – difficult. John and I Looked at each other with a mischievous grin and proceeded down the lower trail. the lower trail dropped us right along side kitchen creek, and most of this trail passed over top unstable footing and ice shelves. This is where our days hike truly began. As we arrived at a particularly outreaching ice shelf that John walked out onto to test its strength, as you would imagine the ice cracked and John Promptly stepped back.

After maneuvering the tight unstable lower trail we joined back up with the moderate trail and the falls trail began.
The first waterfall we had the pleasure encountering was the 16 foot Murray Reynolds, a gushing little crevasse carved in the rock. We proceeded up the trail and passed by Sheldon Reynolds, 36′ and Harrison Wright, 27′ before arriving at waters meet where the path splits yet again to form a loop. We decided after a short water break to head up the right leg. Along the way up the right leg we experienced some particularly icy steps, but we were also greeted by some beautiful ice formations as well. Some notable falls along the right leg are: B. Reynolds, 40′, Ozone, 60′, and F.L. Ricketts, 38′.

After about 2 hours of walking be reached the top of the first leg. We stopped for a water break and to un-don our crampons for the flat walk down the highland trail. A little ways down the highland trail we arrived at Midway Crevasse, a large walk-through boulder where we stopped and decided to make lunch. We set down our packs and John fired up his Snowpeak canister stove so we could boil water. On the menu today was Beef stroganoff for John, and Instant Ramen lunch for myself. We sat for a good 25 minutes enjoying our food and sharing stories on a beautiful winter day in the northeast. After cleaning up, gathering our trash, and checking out gear we set out for the left leg.

We arrived at the left leg at around 1pm where we put our crampons back on and started down the icy trail. Beyond Mohawk, 37′, Oneida, 13′ and Cayuga, 11′ we descended the frozen steps leading to Ganoga, the largest waterfall on the trail at approximately 94 feet. Around halfway down there is a trail that leads behind Ganoga, so we decided to follow it and have a look at the frozen beauty and treachery that was there. At the bottom of Ganoga, the mist coming off the falls can be felt, and after a leg pumping decent it felt quite good. Across the creek from where the trail reaches the bottom of the Fall  there is a a decent sized ice fall on a 45 degree slope, and of course we had to go over and check it out.

We traversed rocks all the way across kitchen creek until we reached the the other side. the ice chunks laying here were as big as large appliances in some cases and the ice hanging from the cliff above seemed unstable, which was evident from the previously mentioned chunks. The 45 degree slope required a little front pointing with our crampons and an ice axe to prevent the 25 foot tumble into the creek below.

Following out little detour, we met back up with the trail and and made our way the rest of the way down to where the trails me. We ran to a couple down here who weren’t equipped for winter travel, and when saw our gear they inquired about the conditions above us. They decided to head back out due to there lack of equipment.

On our way back down the approach trail a light snow moved in, bring a nice end to what i thought was a great day on the trail and a wonderful introduction to 2010. I highly urge anyone with a set of crampons and an ice axe to check out the falls trail, it is by no means a big mountain trek, but does offer some technical walking and the gear is definitely needed.

For More information on Ricketts Glen State Park follow this Link: Ricketts Glen State Park DCNR

For More photos from this hike check out the Flickr Photo Set

-Patrick

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.

    

-Patrick

Patrick gensel

Patrick is a lover of all things adventure and photography. When he is not at home in Northeast PA, he can be found traveling with his camera and climbing. One of his most memorable experiences outdoors is his recent summit of Mount Rainier.