Day 79 - Mount Mohican, Hangovers

Went to Mount Mohican this weekend. It's the 4th highest peak in New Jersey and 4th most significant in the state. It's also our last peak in the Kittatinies, and was the only peak in Jersey 1,600' or more that we hadn't gotten.

The weather was great. . .a little too great to try out my new Buff though (I tried it anyway. Pretty fun). We started at the Delaware Water Gap and hiked up the AT to Sunfish Pond, which I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of. I was too busy messing with my new video camera. More on that in another entry.

The pond was cool though not so much for it's looks--it looked like a regular ol' pond--but it's sounds. The pond was frozen over, and being that it was a relatively warm day, the ice was thawing and shifting and it caused the pond to groan quite loudly. Very interesting.

Next we hiked over to the Upper Yards Creek Reservoir, pictured, which was also at the top of the ridge, though this one was man-made. It was surrounded by barbed-wire so no playing in the pond this time. The first* highpoint, Mount Mohican South (a name I gave it--it's actually unnamed) was just off the access road. . .hardly distinguishable from the surrounding terrain though, so we decided this big rock would suffice. I wedged the camera between a few tree branches to get the shot of both of us. *the topo map actually showed two places of equal elevation, so we decided to get to both just to be safe.
























The second highpoint was a little harder. We fought our way through some very thick brush in an attempt to find a point where the GPS reached 1,600', the elevation on the topo. Alas, the closest we got was 1,597, even with stretching as high as we could. I'm going to chalk it up to the accuracy of the GPS. . .the place was pretty flat and there was certainly no point 10' higher than the ground we were standing on
























The rest of the hike was fun but uneventful. We did see some wildlife. A family of white-tailed deer scurried through the woods as we passed, raising their bushy tails to signal one another of danger. That was pretty neat. We also passed this bizarre steal plate on the top of the ridge. A helicopter landing point, perhaps?



















The views from Mount Tammany of the Delaware Water Gap were excellent. It's about a 1200' drop to the river from the top, and very steep. The giant Delaware River was partially frozen as it went behind the shadow of the gap. In the first picture you can see the view across the gap, and the second is looking downstream through the gap at Arrow Island.











































The hike was fun because most of the second half was right along the ridge with great views. The bad part about that is that when we were within a half-mile of the car, we were still 1,200' or so above it. So the last bit was very steep. Made for great views though. Overall a great hike. I'd like to hike more of the AT in the Kittatinnies, it's very enjoyable hiking on the ridge.

The first of the 'Hangovers" mentioned in the title of this entry is the 'hangover' I got after the hike. Ace and I went back to Hoboken we celebrated the hike by ordering some pizza from Benny Tudino's (very good by the way), getting a case of beer and watching a good ol' fashioned zombie flick. And by good ol' fashioned i mean Australian, very bizarre and quite ridiculous. After about 3 beers though i started feeling sick and had to kick ace out. I went to bed feeling like I had a fever, but felt fine in the morning.

The other Hangover was the movie, The Hangover, which I watched today. Very funny, lived up to the hype. Clever making a bachelor-party movie about the day after instead of the day of.

Okay got to wrap this up--I'm talking to Tory and I think she's starting to get impatient. Especially since I told her I'm going to bed soon.

16 days till she comes to Hoboken:-)!

Song: "Gentleman's Pact" by Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

Day 75 - Significance

A pretty uneventful week this week. I've been rushing to get a number of things done and it's kept my pretty busy. Not a whole lot of very exciting things though. Except I got a box of pain-relief heating pads in the mail from Tory. . .I'm not sure what kind of pain she expects me to be in. . .now I'm a little worried.

Ohhhh I was pondering about my choice of hobbies and decided to write a bit about my peak-ranking system, so if I ever say things like "climbed the #5 peak in jersey" or "it's number #12 in the whole northeast", people will know what I'm talking about.

Most peakbaggers (folks who make a list of peaks and try to get to the top of all of them) base there lists on one of 2 things: Elevation and Prominence. Elevation is easy--height above sea level. The top 10 peaks in the northeastern US, by elevation, are

Mount Washington, NH: 6,288'
Mount Adams, NH: 5,774'
Mount Jefferson, NH: 5,712'
Mount Madison, NH: 5,366'
Mount Marcy, NY: 4,344'
Katahdin, ME: 4,288'
Mount Lafayette, NH: 5,240'
Algonquin Peak, NY: 5,115'
Mount Haystack, NY: 4,961'
Mount Skylight, NY: 4,925'

Focusing on the highest peaks has it's merits--especially in the northeast. All of the peaks above have an exposed summit, which means fun scrambling and great views. There are significant drawbacks though. Except for Katahdin, all these peaks are in New Hampshire and New York. Moreover, save Katahdin and Lafayette, they're all within a 4 mile radius of either Marcy and Washington. Not much variety.

The other common ranking method is prominence. Prominence is the height the peak rises above it's lowest point not shared with a higher peak. In other words, if the sea levels raised so that the peak was the highest point on an island, that islands elevation. On every list of mine (and generally excepted in much of the mountaineering/peakbagging community) a point is only considered a stand-alone peak if it has a prominence of at least 300'. The 10 most prominent peaks in the Northeast are

1. Mount Washington, NH 6,148'
2. Mount Marcy, NY 4,914'
3. Katahdin, ME 4,288'
4. Mount Mansfield, 3,633'
5. Mount Lafayette, NH 3,320'
6. Killington Peak, VT 3,315'
7. Slide Mountain, NY 3,280'
8. Sugarloaf Mountain, ME 3,160'
9. Whiteface Mountain, NY 3,093'
10. Equinox Mountain, VT 3,040'

Prominence gets the biggest peak in any given range or area. The good part? Bigger hikes, more variety, and arguably "bigger" mountains. The bad parts of prominence are the opposite of elevation. Peaks like Killington, Slide, and Equinox aren't 'much' higher than the neighboring mountains, and don't rise above treeline therefore giving poor rewards (read: views) for the long climbs*.

I think I've come up with a much better way to decide which peaks are the best to focus on. I take a combined height--prominence + elevation (generally shown divided by 100 to be a little more manageable). For lack of a better name, I've come to calling it "significance". It tends to give the most prominent peaks weighted by elevation, singling out the most truly significant peaks. The top 10 most significant peaks in the eastern US, then, are

1. Mount Washington, NH 124.4
2. Mount Marcy, NY 102.6
3. Katahdin, ME 95.6
4. Mount Lafayette, NH 85.6
5. Mount Mansfield, VT 80.3
6. Whiteface Mountain, NY 79.6
7. Mount Moosilauke, NH 77.3
8. Carter Dome, NH 76.5
9. Dix Mountain, NY 76.1
10. Giant Mountain, NY 75.8

Significance gets the best of the best. The top 4 on this list are in the top 10 of all 3. Peaks that stand out in one category or the other tend to be higher, but it also captures those that are both very high and prominent, such as Moosilauke and Whiteface. I've tested this method in lots of scenarios--top peaks in the country, in individual states, areas and even separate ranges. Every time I'm satisfied with the results. Here's some pictures of the 5 most significant mountains I've climbed:

5. Handies Peak, CO--159.4 (el: 14,048', pr: 1,888')


















4. Wheeler Peak, NM--165.7 (el: 13,161' pr: 3,409')


















3. Mount Harvard, CO 167.5 (el: 14,420' pr:2,327')


















2. Sierra Blanca Peak, NM--175.1 (el: 11,973' pr: 5,533')


















1. Blanca Peak, CO 196.7 (el: 14,345' pr: 5,326') **view from the top


















All 5 of these peaks are in the top 5 I've climbed either ranked by prominence or elevation, but only Blanca Peak(#2 on both lists, fittingly #1 on this one) is ranked on both. And moreover, I think these 5 really are some of the most, if not the 5 most incredible peaks I've climbed. And here, for your reference, is the least significant mountain I've climbed (that meets the requirement of 300' prom.):

26. Bearfort Mountain, NJ--18.0 (el: 1,480', pr: 320')

















Okay, so that's not the VERY top of bearfort. . .but that's about it, really.

So now you know what I'm talking about. Feel better? Whenever I post about a mountain I'll try to remember to post it's significance, etc. along with it.

*Killington has views from the top, but only because of logging.

Song: "All the Old Showstoppers" -The New Pornographers

-U

PS. the mountain i mentioned the other day, the big adventure for 2010, will be my first peak with over 200 significance. 203.0 to be exact. Another hint. . .as if anyone who reads this doesn't know already:-)

Day 71

I'm on a posting rampage today. Just finished reading an article about K2 that Ace sent me. I don't know. . .as much as I love climbing, hiking, being out in the wilderness, the challenge, the danger etc., I don't think I'd ever be interested in attempting that mountain. I always say I'm not that interested in Everest. If someone offered me the chance to climb Everest, thought, all expenses paid, I would do it. Wouldn't even hesitate. But K2 I would politely decline. I'd hike to basecamp. I'd love to look at it. But that's enough.

Speaking of mountains, I just talked to Whit about our big trip this year. I was thrilled that he was as excited as I was. We talked about logistics, preparation, etc. and I think we've picked our peak. I don't want to say what it is yet because nothings for sure and I don't want to jinx it, but it's a big one. A life-list peak. Something I'll actually have to do serious training for.

Something to be excited about.

Something else to be excited about? Tory's home from yurt trip and she's going to call when she gets home from work:-)

Song: "Who are you?" by The Who

-U

Day 70 - Mount Moosilauke

This weekend Ace and I took our first trip up to New England to test our mettle on some real mountains. We drove up after work Friday and stayed with a friend of Ace's in his condo at Sugarbush Village, Vermont. We stayed up way to late Friday night drinking then woke up at 7:30 Saturday morning to make the 2-hour drive to Mount Moosilauke, NH.

Mount Moosilauke doesn't sound like much at first--at only 4,802' it hardly seems to compare to the 13ers and 14ers we climbed in New Mexico and Colorado (or the 12-, 11- or 10ers for that matter). But when stacked up against the peaks in the Northeast, it's one of the biggest. It's has almost 3000' of prominence--more than Mount Harvard in Colorado or Santa Fe Baldy in New Mexico--making it the 3rd most prominent peak in New Hampshire and 13th in the Northeast. That plus the elevation (14th in NE) gives it a combined rank of #7. It is one of the few peaks in the east to actually break treeline.

Our route was Southbound on the Appalacian Trail which goes directly over the summit. We started at 10:30 AM at the mountains key col--3000' below the summit. Both of us were using brand new snowshoes and the first quarter-mile or so was spent getting used to the feeling. It wasn't long, though, before playtime was over and the real climb began.

I can't remember ever hiking a trail that was so steep for so long. It was made doubly difficult due to the snow and ice. Every step i took up I seemed to slide right back down. At one point there was even rebar nailed into the rock to aid the climber. I honestly didn't think we'd make it to the top. We didn't really get any pictures of the steep climb, but occasionally we had a good view on the way up

At about 1.9 miles in, the halfway point, we came out of the gulley and onto the ridge and the trail started to mellow out. The rest of the day was thoroughly enjoyable. First we were treated with and ever more bizarre world of the snowcapped peak. From about 3500' to 4700' the scenery went from beautiful to jaw-dropping:

As we approached treeline we could easily see that the walk-in-the-park was over. Everything was covered in a thick layer of wind-blown ice. We could hear the wind howling as we put on all of our layers, hats and gloves (those of us that had brought gloves). We started huffing the last 100' to the summit, following these bizarre formations. I think they were at one time cairns marking the trail. We passed one every 100' or so. As you can see, the summit was a total grey-out and we could barely make out the sky from the icy slopes. We seemed to reached the summit (marked by a sign that seemed more ice than wood) at about the same time as everyone else--a different group approached from all three summit trails at the same time. That worked out because we could snap a picture of both of us at the top.


Notice the near camoflauge dog in the corner. He huffed it up the mountain with a bell and little dog boots. Poor guy needs some doggles.

Because of the conditions--30 mph winds, constantly being bombarded with ice, zero visibility and numbing cold--we only stayed at the top for less than 5 minutes. On the way down we took our time a little more, no longer being in a rush to get to the top and back before sundown. Hre are a few more pics:




The steep first half that was so miserable on the way down now provided a wonderful snow-sliding adventure on the way down (Ace got a video, but I think it's too big to put up here). After sliding down nearly 2000' of mountain to the trailhead we drove down to North Woodstock to the Woodstock Station and Brewery to unwind with some delicious food and fresh craft beer. We decided to call off a second peak and drove back to Jersey/NYC. I came in, hit my bed and passed out.

In summary, Moosilauke was one of the most fun climbs i've ever done. I can't wait to do some more winter peaks. My new snowshoes, TSL Over the Top 30's, worked great. I take back everything I've said against the peaks in the Northeast. They can definitely hold their own. I can't wait to try some more.

Song: "Hard Sun" by Eddie Vedder

-U

Day 63 - Sunrise Mountain

A little behind in my postings. . .my excuse is that I need a lot of time to post because these pictures take so long to load. So, like everything else, I put it off.

Last weekend Ace and I went back out for another mountain and another adventure. This time it was Mount Paradise, the second highest peak in New Jersey and #5 on my list for the state. I hadn't been out in the woods since Christmas so I was realy jones'n for some hiking. The overall hike was pretty easy--5ish miles one way with only about 700 feet of vertical--so it was pretty relaxing overall. We also put most the elevation behind us right away, making for some good views the entire trip.

The summit was developed, unfortunately, but the road to the top was closed for the winter so no big crowds. Just a big stone shelter and some wonderful views of Stokes State Forest and the Deleware River Valley to the west, Jersey farmland and a number of frozen lakes to the East and more "mountains" (inlcuding the monument on Jersey's highpoint) to the north. We stopped for a while to take in the views and I brewed up some hot tea using my new jetboil cooking cup--a gift from my wonderful girlfriend (doesn't she know me??)

The hike down was along the road so it should have been uneventful. We became quite intrigued, however, when we noticed a blood trail going down the road. Eventually it turned off into the woods. We followed it, half expecting to find a grisly Sopranos-style murder scene. The blood kept getting worse and worse, until instead of just drops there was streaks and puddles. At the end, instead of a murdered henchman from a rival mob, we found the innards of some sort of large animal, likely a deer. Pretty gross, really. I guess the hunter killed it, gutted it and dragged it up the mountain. Fun.

Normanook Watch tower, on top of a sub-peak. We climbed a bit but the wind was too cold to stay long

View from about 2 flights up the watch tower. Sunrise Mountain was our goal for the day, but you could see all the way to High Point.
A wintery walk on the Appalacian Trail. . .I think I've done more miles on it already than the CDT (note: that's likely not actually true).

This apparently wasn't Ace's first time at the summit shelter.

Taking a tea break on the summit. Very good views, especially for New Jersey.

My new Jetboil cup, and my new beard.

Well that's it. I'm going to post again laer tonight with more on my week and my trip this weekend, which was a blast.

Song: "Unguided" - The New Pornographers

-U

Day 54

Long weekend is almost over.

Today was a good day. To be totally honest, that is mostly because of SLEEPING IN. After our adventurous night of bar-hopping around NYC last night, if I had woken up before 10:00AM (or before noon for that matter) this day would have been much less enjoyable.

Went down to the Jersey Shore Outlet center. That was pretty fun, I'd never been to an outlet mall before. Lots of great prices on all kinds of fancy brands (Banana Republic, Lucky Brand Jeans, Fossil, etc.). Again I'm not really a big impulse buyer when it comes to clothes, all though there were lots of things I wanted and that I think would look stunning on me. I did, however, knock running shoes and work socks off my list. We also stopped at this tasty pizza joint, and each of us ordered our own Extra-Large pie (that's east-coast-speak for pizza). So needless to say I have leftovers.

Tonight Tory and I had a date--we watched Hot Fuzz, which I think is one of the funniest movies around. She said now that she knows sort of how those movies are she'd consider watching Shaun of the Dead. I'm very excited about that, on my behalf and on hers. It's a great flick.

And I got my Christmas gift from Tory finally (not finally like "oh it took you long enough" more like finally as in i've been STEEPED in anticipation :-) ). It's a 24" x 30" canvas blow-up of what I have come to call "The Best Picture I Ever Took".


It's from my 2006 trip to Yosemite with my brother and the columbians. We camped on the shoulder of Clouds Rest which is just upstream of Half-Dome and the eponymous yosemite valley. The view was incredible and after about half an hour of taking pictures I bagged this beautiful shot of an old tree (maybe a bristlecone? I have no idea. somebody look that up.) wth Half Dome's profile in the background as the sun set over the valley. I'd like to hang it over my bed but I have to ask my landlord/roommate first.

Yay for 3-day weekends! another day off tomorrow! WHO-DEY!

Song: "Refugee" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

-U