Adirondacks ACC Toronto Section Trip 2025

Mid-February saw me returning to the Adirondacks with the Alpine Club of Canada’s Toronto section for the annual Family Day weekend trip. I had been on the previous year’s trip to New Hampshire, and I was looking forward to checking out the backcountry skiing that is available in the High Peaks. It looked like there would be a number of other folks attending who were also interested in skiing, which I was looking forward to.

The trip officially ran from Thursday evening to midday Monday, however I decided to go down a day earlier and put in an extra ski day on the Thursday. This decision was made easier by the fact I was recently unemployed. Prior to the trip, I bought an automatic food dispenser for my cat as this would be a long time to leave her alone (definitely felt a bit guilty about this) and made sure it worked properly before setting off. As I had only received it less than a day before my departure, I was a tiny bit uneasy that it wouldn’t do the 3x daily feedings on time, but overall confident things would be fine.

Day 1

I left Toronto at around 11am and made good time across the border and into the Adirondacks. My plan was to stay at the Wilderness Campground near the Adirondack Loj, in a lean-to rather than a tent to cut down on the gear I needed to bring and also avoid having to worry about drying out a tent (winter camping problems). I arrived just after sunset and checked in, and it took me a bit of time to find my site. I ended up snowshoeing a couple hundred meters in to my lean-to and set up.

Cooking dinner ended up being a nightmare. I was able to get my Whisperlite stove lit with no issues, however the pot overflowed (this always happens with red lentils) and from there I could not keep the stove lit as well as use my lighter. It looked like the fuel nozzle got clogged but I wasn’t keen on troubleshooting it. My food got cooked enough to eat but it was a pretty miserable dinner. I settled into the lean-to, and was able to get warm in my sleeping bag fairly easily. I listened to an audiobook for a bit (11-22-63 by Stephen King, fantastic book by the way!) before going to sleep.

Day 2

The night was fairly comfortable despite being somewhat exposed to the elements. The forecast called for a snowstorm overnight (part of the reason I arrived a day early) and the winds were pretty high as well. As a result, a fair amount of snow blew into the lean-to and I was still able to stay warm despite some snow landing on my head.

At around 6am I got up and packed up (breakfast was skipped as the stove was not usable), then relocated my car a couple hundred meters down the road to the hiker’s parking lot near the High Peaks Information Center. After applying my blister prevention tape to my heels, applying my skins, and letting my boots warm up with the heat blasting in my car, I was off and on the trail just after 7am. My objective for the day was to ski to Lake Colden, checking out the conditions on some of the more technical objectives like the Trap Dike (an ice climb on Mount Colden). If conditions were agreeable, I planned to completely circumnavigate Mount Colden by taking the trails that passed behind on its east side, linking up with the Lake Arnold trail and swinging past Indian Falls to return to the Loj. A “bonus” objective I also had in mind was to check out the Whales Tail Ski Trail, which links Marcy Dam and the Algonquin Trail.

Despite the recent snowstorm, the trail was very packed down and travel was easy through to Marcy Dam. At the Dam, I took a quick break at a lean-to and chatted with a couple snowshoers from Canada (one from Ottawa, the other from Quebec) before resuming. As I departed Marcy Dam and headed towards Avalanche Pass, the snow depth increased gradually and my pace slowed, but it was still an enjoyable ski. The weather also started to turn a bit as I approached Avalanche Lake, with a steady snowfall and strong winds. I took a bit of a tumble just before jumping onto Avalanche Lake and my watch was accidentally stopped for about 600m.

Crossing Avalanche Lake was quite the time. The wind was blowing snow directly into my face, so I layered up and put on my ski goggles. The ice conditions were good, so it was completely safe to ski across the lake. I took a quick stop near the Trap Dike (where I realized my watch had stopped) and took some photos for the ACC folks before resuming. I arrived at Lake Colden shortly thereafter and I decided to take a look at the trail that would swing around back north on the east side of Mount Colden. Getting to this trail involved a bit of a bushwhack through some deep snow which was interesting.

Within a couple minutes back on the trail, I reached some fallen logs and that was the sign it was time to head back the way I came and skip the trip around the back side of Colden. The snow was pretty deep and the trail breaking would have slowed me down considerably. It was a shame as I wanted to check out a slide on the back side of Colden (referred to as the 1990s slide) as there was some interest in climbing the Trap Dike with skis on one’s back, then skiing down the slide. I had a hunch that this bold objective would have to wait for another weekend.

The return trip involved temperatures rising considerably to just below freezing and resulted in snow quality deteriorating. I was able to get a bit of downhill skiing (skins off) heading back down Avalanche Pass but it was really difficult to pick up speed. At Marcy Dam, I stopped at the same lean-to to put my skins back on as I planned to ski the Whales Tail ski trail. My skins pretty much did not stick to my skis at this point – the snow was way too sticky and clumping between my skins and skis.

Whales Tail was a pretty route but quite the slog – turned out my route went up on the down trail and vice versa – when I transitioned the down trail was considerably narrow and the snow really slowed me down. As the trail transitioned into the old McIntyre trail (leading me right to my lean to at the Wilderness Campground!) I ended up switching to walk mode, and even without skins I was able to walk cross-country style – way too much grip on the snow. I arrived back to my car, soaking wet and very glad to be done for the day.

Before heading to the ACC accommodations in Keene Valley (a 30 minute drive from the Loj) I went to the Mountaineer, a local gear store, to inquire about ski packs. I was very interested in seeing what options they had as well as learn about how their design differs from a mountaineering pack, as I was thinking it would be great to have a pack that can carry skis in certain situations. I ended up buying an Ortovox Peak 45 as well as some skin wax (did I mention the snow was clumping on my skins as well?) and an extra pair of ski socks.

It turned out that our accommodations, at the Trails End Inn, were just 5 minutes from the Mountaineer, so it was a quick hop over there where I checked in. Pretty cool spot. Turned out I wasn’t the first to check in – Addie (who I had met at Limberlost in January) as well as Cecile had arrived shortly before. I was happy to learn that Cecile was an avid skier so that was one more person to join the ski objectives.

Training Peaks Workout (Lake Colden Ski)

Day 3

The official first full day of the trip had a bunch of the group head over to Chapel Pond to do ice climbing as it was a Friday and the crowds would be smaller. There were several others on the trip who were solely interested in skiing, so a group of four (myself, Cécile, Barb, and Wes) planned to do a half day tour in the afternoon. Truth be told, I was in need of an easy morning after my tour to Lake Colden!

We narrowed it down to one of two objectives – Owl’s Head Landing, which was not too far away and was a short climb to a nice viewpoint (continuing on the trail leads to Giant Mountain), or check out Bennies Brook Slide, one of the more popular slide skiing objectives in the Adirondacks, situated on the east slopes of Lower Wolfjaw Mountain. In hindsight, we were a bit ambitious as Bennies is typically a six hour round trip, and we only had a half day to work with. We settled on Bennies; the plan was do ski out to Johns Brook Lodge (JBL) via the Southside trail, take a peek at Bennies on the way (ski a bit it if time) and loop back via the Phelps trail.

Our departure was delayed somewhat due to a somewhat unfortunate circumstance. As we were heading down the road from Trails End Inn, another vehicle (owned by one of the couples who runs the inn) was heading in the opposite direction. She graciously pulled over to let us go by, but then she got stuck in the deep snow. We spent half an hour trying to get her out by using the floor mats for traction and pushing her car, before some folks came out of the inn with a bunch of cardboard boxes. Eventually we got her free and we were on our way.

The tour starts at the Garden, a trailhead I hadn’t been to in quite some time, likely when I was partway through working on my 46R. Was really looking forward to skiing the trails I had previously only hiked on. Our route started on the Phelps trail before turning off to the Southside trail after about a kilometer. The Southside trail is largely unmaintained and thus it took a tiny bit of routefinding after we turned off. This included descending a short steep slope and crossing a frozen Johns Brook. Once we were across there was a nice skin track to follow – a splitboarder we spoke with in the parking lot claimed he had been out to Bennies and made it halfway up.

After a quick break at a large boulder, we ventured over to Bennies Brook and it was a mess trying to see where the entry point to the slide was. After poking around a little bit, we decided to carry on and finish our loop as we would not have had enough time to ski much of it anyway. I’ll have to come back and tag it later. The conditions were still very good and it was a great day of skiing with friends.

On the return trip along the Phelps trail, we ran into a bunch of snowshoers who were staying at the lodge for the weekend, and also caught a glimpse of Bennies Brook Slide. It looked pretty bare up high so we likely would have only been able to ski half of it anyway.

That evening, after dinner, the ski group (along with Addie, Rob P – who I had carpooled with for the New Hampshire trip the prior year – and Victoria – who was snowshoeing) gathered together to discuss our objective for the next day. There was strong interest in Mount Marcy, so we spent some time discussing the route, start and turnaround times, as well as carpooling, before turning in for the night.

Training Peaks Workout (JBL Loop)

Day 4

I was up at 5am and that was plenty of time to get my gear together and have breakfast before taking off just after 6am. I ended up running around like crazy to try and find my ski goggles for above treeline but I was unable to find them despite turning my room and car upside down. I settled on my sunglasses if I needed eye protection – I normally wear them when skiing in glades. We arrived at the Loj after about an hour of driving and got suited up. Two additional groups led by Rob L and Bryan (the trip leaders) also parked at the Loj as they planned to do a loop of Algonquin Peak, ascending the very steep trail from Lake Colden. Bryan suffered a snowshoe malfunction (after a crampon malfunction the day before) but luckily was able to borrow a pair from Rob P. There was a single snowshoe that had been left at the trail register and I joked that Bryan could’ve just used that, though it would have been a pretty wacky mismatch. Also, someone pointed out there was a set of ski goggles sitting on the register and that I should just use them for the day. Well…it turned out that they were my missing goggles! I must have taken them off while signing out at the register a couple days prior and someone stowed them. Pretty hilarious situation.

The groups made their way south on the Van Hoevenberg trail, with the Algonquin teams splitting off at the junction for the Algonquin trail. The group of us were travelling at varying speeds which made our overall progress slower than we’d like. I suggested to the group that we take a pow wow at Marcy Dam to discuss pacing and the approach moving forward. It took a little over an hour to get there; the trail was even more packed down than when I had last skied on Thursday.

At Marcy Dam, I suggested that we split into two smaller groups, one moving faster, the other moving slower. While it was not optimal to break the group up, we did ensure that both groups had radios so we could stay in contact with one another. With that, we set off, with the faster group consisting of myself, Addie, Cécile, Victoria, and Wes, with Rob P sticking with Barb. After Marcy Dam, the trail began a steeper incline as it approached Indian Falls and passed by the junctions for Phelps and Tabletop Peaks. We made really solid progress in this section and felt strong as a group. Super impressed with Victoria who was easily keeping up in snowshoes (we had initially thought she would be slower than the skiers on the uphill portion of our climb).

Approaching Indian Falls, we climbed a ski trail in lieu of the hikers trail and it was quite pretty with all the snow. After that, the trail mellowed out a bit so we were able to catch our breaths before entering a steeper section called “the Corkscrew”. We stopped at the top of this section for a break, at the junction with the Hopkins trail. There was a sign at this spot which read “TOILET” and we referred to this location as “the toilet” for the rest of the day. After pushing through some steeper, narrower sections flanked by spruce trees, we reached the junction with the Phelps trail and the treeline. The summit awaited ahead.

We had bundled up at the Hopkins intersection in anticipation of dealing with chilly, strong winds on the summit dome, but it was relatively sheltered as we left the treeline. The snow became super crispy and hard, almost ice-like, and we had to be careful ascending to take more gently sloped paths, often switchbacking up in places. It did get a bit gnarly in places and I had to hold on for dear life to avoid losing my edges and falling down. At one point Victoria, who was at the back, came in on the radio yelping that she was stuck in a spruce trap. She was pretty close to me and could see her the whole time, and she was able to extricate herself.

Eventually, after five hours, I stepped out of my bindings due to all the rocks on the summit and bootpacked the final few meters to the plaque marking the summit of Mount Marcy, the highest point in the Adirondacks and New York, and my twelfth winter ADK high peak (and first on skis!). I was joined shortly thereafter by Addie, Cécile, Victoria and Wes and we relaxed for a few minutes before preparing for the descent. The views were absolutely spectacular of all the surrounding peaks. Winter above treeline is truly a magical place and it was such a treat to share it with everyone.

We had planned for 12:30pm or so turnaround time as the weather looked a bit iffy in the early afternoon (cloud level forecasted to drop) and right on cue just before 1pm, the summit became shrouded in clouds and it began to snow. Unfortunately we didn’t all leave the summit together which made things a bit interesting. Of the skiers (Victoria left a bit earlier as her descent would be slower on snowshoes) Addie and I left first and she started skiing down as she was getting a bit chilly, and I waited for Cécile to step into her bindings before beginning my descent. None of us waited for Wes, and after skiing a few turns (the snow was incredibly hard and the snow “dunes” made the terrain interesting to handle), we realized that Wes was nowhere to be seen. He had a radio and indicated he was beginning his descent, but it was very clear he had gone the wrong way down, possibly skiing north rather than east.

Rob P was ascending the summit dome as we were skiing down it (Barb turned around at the junction with the Phelps trail), and Victoria immediately took charge and told Wes to climb back up to the summit to meet Rob. The rest of us reconvened just above treeline and made a decision on what we would do. Addie was getting cold, and the rest of us weren’t too bad, though I started to get chilly after standing around for a few minutes. It was decided that Addie (who didn’t have a radio as I had hers) would ski down with me to the “Toilet”, while Victoria and Cécile would wait for Wes and Rob. The skiing down to the toilet was very interesting, with tons of trees to navigate, including losing the trail at one point, and narrow trails to ski down. I am not great at tight turns nor have the confidence to blast through these sections, so there was a lot of side slipping and quick turns to the side to bleed speed. When I arrived, I made the triumphant announcement on the radio:

“This is André. I am at The Toilet. I repeat: I am at THE Toilet.”

After a long wait at the toilet, we were joined by Cécile and Victoria, and found out that Wes and Rob were able to link up and were on their way down. We decided to all link up at Marcy Dam. Addie and I continued on down through the corkscrew (featuring a lot of very tight hairpin turns as well as many flat sections which were pretty frustrating to traverse without skins. Addie decided to put her skins on at this point, and I eventually gave up side stepping and doing the “herring-bone” and barebooted one particularly long section (technically a no-no given the deep snow pack in the Adirondacks). The skiing down the ski trail just below Indian Falls was a little bit better than the hiking trail, but I was pretty tired and couldn’t link turns effectively, even on the slightly wider trail.

I had met up with Victoria at the top of the ski trail and agreed to wait for her where the trails reconnected. While waiting at the intersection, a number of very skilled skiers came tearing down the trail – it was pretty impressive. Cécile whipped past as well, so fast that she didn’t even realize she had passed us – she was very surprised when I caught up with her a little bit downhill! The skiing down to Marcy Dam was a little more enjoyable – while still on the narrow hiking trail, it was much easier to control speed and it was a great ride down.

We had arranged to meet at the lean-to where I had met the snowshoers a few days prior on my Avalanche Lake excursion, but Addie had confused the trail register at Marcy Dam for a lean-to, and we found her hunkering under the register. Shortly after we were joined by Rob, and learned over the radio that Wes’ binding had gotten twisted and was giving him some issues, and Victoria planned to head down with him. The four of us transitioned into skins and set off at a brisk pace back to the Loj. Barb had skied down with no issues and was waiting for us back at the visitor’s center.

We arrived back just under ten hours after we set off in the morning. Barb had just been kicked out of the visitor’s center which closed at 5pm, and was waiting in her and Rob’s car. Unfortunately, the other vehicle was owned by Wes, and the keys were still with him, so two of us had to wait until he and Victoria returned. Addie was pretty cold and not feeling as great as myself and Cécile, so she hopped in with Rob and Barb and they returned to the Trails End Inn. Cécile and I waited about an hour for Wes and Victoria, but they arrived safe and sound. I ended up hanging out in the bathrooms on the side of the visitor’s center – I contemplated taking my boots off to relieve my feet but decided against it as I did not want to put my sweaty feet back into my boots later. As a result my left foot in particular was pretty sore.

Overall, a very exhausting, rewarding day with many lessons learned!

Training Peaks Workout (Mount Marcy)

Day 5

The next day (Sunday) was an easy day for almost everyone, particularly the people who went to the Loj. Bryan ended up hitting Wright Peak with Bharat, which was the first time Bharat ever climbed a mountain. It was also his first time ice climbing the day prior. Super awesome to see people try new things on this trip. Rob L had gone with Oleksii and Antoine up the steep trail from Lake Colden up Algonquin Peak and it sounded like an insane slog through heavy snow, drainages and lots of trees and debris. They made it to the summit but it sounded like an challenging climb. A lot of people ended up going to a local cross-country centers to try cross-country skiing (including Bharat – his first time skiing as well!). I was a bit indecisive on what I wanted to do – initially I planned to cross country ski but ended up settling on doing a snowshoe hike, my first in the Adirondacks in two years.

I decided on Rooster Comb, which had a trail right off of Trails End Road. It looked like a fairly short out and back (8km) with a moderate elevation gain, perfect for a half day. I put together a light day pack and set off shortly after eating lunch. To start, there was a ton of trail breaking through the deep snow (did I mention the Adirondacks got hit pretty hard overnight?) but I quickly hit a more well-travelled part of the trail and though there was some additional snow cover, it was still easy going.

About a kilometer into my hike, I hit a junction with the choice to go to Rooster Comb or Snow Mountain. I decided on Snow Mountain as it had a bit less elevation gain and I wanted an easier day. The hike from the junction was a steady incline for a while, with the trail gradually disappearing under heavy snowfall. Luckily I was able to still make out the impressions in the snow to see where the trail was, and had to do some pretty hefty trail breaking for about 600 meters before hitting a main trail which headed out to the Adirondack Mountain Reserve (AMR) in the other direction.

The final stretch up to the summit of Snow Mountain was very steep in places but I was able to manage with my snowshoes and also grabbing onto tree branches. I made it up to the summit with relative ease, walked around until the trail ended, then reversed course back down. The steep descent involved a tiny amount of butt sliding, to my satisfaction. The rest of the return was not too bad but I really missed my skis! My ankle was acting up a little bit as it was not used to being flexed.

I made it back to the Inn in great time, and dinner that night involved everyone giving a trip report for all the days thus far. Some pretty funny stories and it was great to share with everyone. After dinner we watched a couple movies including “Here, Hold My Kid” (very fake and over the top, in my opinion) as well as Bryan’s most recent film, “Chaos Glacier Country” where he and a group from the ACC headed out to BC to take a second crack at Mount Waddington (the highest mountain entirely in BC) using replicas of gear used in the first summit by Don and Phyllis Munday. Pretty entertaining movie, highly recommend.

Training Peaks Workout (Snow Mountain)

Day 6

Our final day (Family Day) had most people heading home immediately first thing in the morning. I tried to rally a bunch of the skiers to go ski at Jenkins Mountain (Paul Smith’s Visitor Information Center or VIC) but was only able to wrangle Barb and Rob P.

Paul Smith’s is about an hour from Keene Valley, and the drive was made even longer owing to blowing snow and whiteout conditions. Upon arrival, I grabbed myself a pass for the day and chatted with Wes (who was nsure if he would join – the site was on the way back to Toronto) before suiting up and heading out to the glades on the southeast slopes of Jenkins Mountain. Barb and Rob were about an hour behind and I told them I would do a lap and meet them there.

The glades on the Paul Smith’s VIC property are pretty special in that they were blazed by members of the Adirondacks backcountry ski community, headed up by Ron Konowitz (or “Ron Kon”), a legend in Adirondacks backcountry skiing who was the first to ski all 46 High Peaks. To get to the glades you have to ski on a groomed trail for about 3 kilometers, and the runs feature about 1000 feet of vertical, with an easy to follow skin track and plenty of delightful descent options. This was pretty much a bigger version of Limberlost with a longer approach.

I arrived at the glades after about 50 minutes, and began following the yellow “Where’s Ron Kon?” trail markers for the skin track, which had been tracked out somewhat prior to my arrival. It was a pretty steep climb, which didn’t quite reach the summit (there were some hefty ice walls further up) but the descents were still fantastic, with a ton of first tracks opportunities. Rob and Barb joined me as I was descending my second run and I quickly skinned up to join them for lunch at the top of the trail. We did two runs together and the skiing was fantastic, other than the ski back to the office, which felt like it seemed to go on forever. Not surprising given I had ski toured 64 kilometers in five days, not including the snowshoe hike I did on my “rest” day!

The drive home was pretty slow due to weather, traffic, you know, the usual suspects. I even saw a vehicle engulfed in flames in the eastbound side of the 401. What made my trip home even more unique was that I had nowhere to park my car near my building as the city had not removed any snow from the recent TWO snowstorms that hit Toronto (apparently, 50 centimeters in total). As a result, I had to spend over an hour digging out a parking spot. At least my avalanche shovel got some action! (side note, the snowplow debris I had to dig through is pretty much the same consistency as avalanche debris!).

Overall, a really fantastic trip with some incredible people, definitely the highlight of my winter thus far. Got a ton of ski experience in and definitely feel a lot more comfortable touring in the backcountry. Can’t wait for my next ski adventures!

Training Peaks Workout (Jenkins Mountain Touring)