Mt. Marcy, High Peaks-Adirondacks, NY

Expedition Date: Presidents Day weekend- February 19-21 2011

Crew: Dylan DeVesty, Jeremy Herman, Ryan Devesty

Distance: 20 miles

Summits:1

Elevation Gain and loss: 6,000 feet

Average Temperature: 15 degrees
Completion Time: 3 days

We had been preparing and discussing this trip for weeks, so our stoke-a-meters were mad amped.  Many plans had been kicked around, but when the dust settled we planned to set up a base camp and summit Mt. Marcy, then snowboard down.  We also planned an optional summit of Mt. Colden via the Trap Dike route. 

This was the first true winter camping experience for the Brothers DeVesty and my first true winter alpine ascent.  We geared up like never before for this trip, grabbing all sorts of new and borrowed toys. 

We jam packed our vehicle the night before the trip and left bright and early at 5AM on Saturday morning.  The trip up was great and went very quickly.  We were talking this expedition up the entire way and were so excited we had some trouble finding the trailhead.  Ryan also got a little too excited and slammed the car into a huge snowbank before we got there.  We were absolutely frothing by the time we finally got to our jumping off point.

As we unpacked the car and prepped in the trailhead lodge, we encountered a local hero who was picking apart everything we were doing.  After listening to this guy tell us everything we were about to do wrong, the team morale was totally wavering.  We dropped our ambitious goals and left the harnesses, ropes and technical ascent gear in the car so we could focus on Marcy. 

After finally getting the enormous bags on our backs, we started on our journey.  The hike in was short but difficult with all the gear on.  Ryan found it a little difficult to walk in his ginormous snowshoes and gear.  He ended up taking two headers into the woods.  He got the hang of it shortly after and we cruised the rest of the hike. 

 We found a nice tent site a mile or so past Marcy Dam.  It looked like we were the first to use the site this winter.  We had to completely pack it out with our snowshoes and dig our kitchen.  After making our little nook into a completely bomber campsite, we took a break and soon turned into human popsicles.

 The first lesson we learned this trip is to never stop moving.  We decided to take a hike to warm up and we headed over to avalanche lake.  It was a fun little trip to keep us busy and we were able to check out the Trap Dike route that we were scoping before the trip. We went back to camp, cooked dinner and went to bed.

We woke up to a perfect blue bird day, although it was absolutely freezing.  After cooking breakfast, we threw on our summit packs and boards and headed out to bag Marcy.

The hike to Marcy was gorgeous.  The sun was reflecting off of everything and the air was crisp and fresh, just like the snow under our feet.  As we neared the summit the trees became shorter and our views became clearer.  We had our eyes on the prize.  We threw on the crampons just before breaking the tree line and went straight up for the summit.  It was extremely windy and cold on the summit, but you could see everything.  After snapping some summit pics, we dropped off the far side for our snowboard descent.

We rode the hiking trail down and were beelining through the trees.  It was totally cramped and insane.  We rode down to the four corners and hiked out.  On the way back Ryan and Dylan made the best use of their boards and were sledding down the mountain.  As we neared our camp, they strapped on their boards and were ripping down the trails in the dark.

After getting back to camp, we cooked a quick meal and went to bed.  The next morning we decided to hike back up a little ways and get some last turns before heading home.  We warmed up and had some fun before having breakfast and breaking down camp.

On the way out we figured out a more efficient way to lug our gear.  By strapping our big packs to our snowboards we could drag the gear as a sled.  The ingenious idea saved our backs and cut our hike time in half.

Overall we had a lot of fun and learned a lot about ourselves.  It was a great experience and a building block in our adventure experience.  Get Some!

TEAM VINE SWINGER'S GEAR PICKS OF THE TRIP!
















Posted By, Jeremy Herman

3rd NJ Winter Trail Series Race @ Lewis Morris Park NJ

Race Date: Feb. 5th
Team: Ryan DeVesty, Dylan DeVesty
Distance: 5 Mile and 10 Mile Course
Completion time: varies

       With weather giving us the worst conditions possible, we showed up for our 3rd trail race of the 2010/2011 winter season. The trails were covered in a snow/ice mixture (a solid inch of ice that was covering several inches of snow). Breaking through this ice happened more often than not, was horrible on the ankles, and made the yaktrax slip to the side of our shoes several times making it necessary for timely adjustments.

       I participated in the 5 mile race consisting of roughly 80+ runners and finished in 2nd place overall. Ryan participated in the 10mile race consisting of roughly 70+ runners and finished in 4th place overall. I was completely toast after my race! I was awarded with a pint glass (w/ the nj trail series logo on it) and headed straight to the cooler to reward myself with a victory beer out of my new glass while I waited for my brother to finish his race. And for Ryan, doing the 10mile course, was wayyyyy more shot than I was. Im sure his legs will be feeling that race for a while...Anywho,  I am stoked on both of our performances. The 4th and final race of the NJ Winter Trail Series hosted at Lewis-Morris Park is on February 26th and has 5k, 10k, and half marathon (13.1miles) options.

2010/2011 winter trail race standings thus far:

Race #1:
Dylan(5k): 3rd place overall 21:35
Ryan(10k): 2nd place overall 43:40

Race#2:
Dylan(5mile): 4th place overall 46:11
Ryan(10mile): 9th place overall 1:35:12

Race#3:
Dylan(5mile): 2nd place overall 46:55
Ryan(10mile): 4th place overall 1:34:25

-Posted by Dylan.