December 13, 2025
My usual ADK trips involve a o-dark thirty wakeup call followed by a gruelling 10-14 hour hike where at some point either at the beginning, end, or even both parts are under headlamp. This trip was different. This trip was planned to be a "civilized" mountaineering adventure, where we enjoyed good food, relaxed start times, and time for afternoon tea.
With that in mind, Phelps was our goal today. After a relaxing breakfast at Keene Farm, Bill, John, and I drove over to the Loj, arriving at the unthinkable hour of 09:00. Lo and behold, there was even a half dozen open parking stalls within spitting distance of the sign in register. Given the usual hunger games for Loj parking in the summer, who would have thought? We strapped our our snowshoes and struck out down the Van Ho towards Marcy Dam.
I gave us a 50/50 chance of a clear view from the summit during our drive, but arriving at the dam revised it to 20/80 as the peaks were now fully enshrouded as it started to snow on us. We crossed the creek above the dam, probing the ice and back tracking a couple times, but finally finding a good spot right at the mouth of the dam where some of the old broken timbers made for decent stepping stones. I was struggling a bit with cold feet today, and I just could not get my numb toes warmed up. As we began climbing the gentle ascent I finally decided to pick up the pace a bit and scooted ahead of the other two to get my heart rate up. By the time I reached the junction to Phelps the blood was circulating and my toes were painfully telling me that they were waking up, though not too happy about it.
We regrouped for the steep climb up to the summit and about mid way up this my feet were toasty warm. Just before the top it got very windy, and with the clouds and blowing snow Bill downgraded the view potential as 0/100, and sure enough we arrived at the summit ledge with nothing but fog, blowing snow and cold wind to keep us company. As it was now lunch time we retreated a bit into the trees to get out of the worst of the gale and I deployed a 4 person bothy bag so we would have a bit of shelter. Cramming three people with snowshoes inside was a bit of a twister-yoga contortion adventure, but once inside the wind was no longer an issue, and except for the uncomfortably odd angles of our various body parts, it was reasonably cozy while we refuelled with hot tea and sandwiches.
Dropping the bothy reminded us how bad the weather was as the cold wind bit through the clothing, so we quickly packed up and got off the summit, though not without trying to get a frost bitten photo first. Dropping a few hundred feet did wonders for warming us up and we soon were stopped to delayer. A relaxed pace had us back to Marcy Dam in no time and I remarked as we wandered down the Van Ho back to the Loj that this was probably the first time I had hiked this trail in this direction without being utterly exhausted.
Arrived back at the parking lot still in daylight after a slightly less than six hour outing, which gave us plenty of time to relax a bit in the afternoon around the fire back at the hut.​
Pics:
https://web.ncf.ca/mbowler/hiking/ad...25/phelps.html
December 14, 2025
After another relaxing breakfast we arrived at the Whiteface toll gate mid-morning and strapped on our skis as a gentle snowfall settled onto our heads. As we slowly plodded up the toll road a woman blasted past us slow pokes. Shortly after I found a lonely toque sitting on the snow in the middle of the track. Given that it looked fairly fresh with little snow on it, I figured it probably belonged to her and pocketed it. At one straight section of road I saw her in the distance as she was stopped for some reason so I picked up the pace to try to catch up. As I approached she started going again and I sprinted a bit and managed to catch up to her and reunite the poor hat to its rightful owner. After a brief friendly chat she was back on her way and I waited up for the other two.
​Bill stated that he was not feeling the summit today and urged John and I to go ahead without him. We sync'd some radios and parted ways, Bill at his own pace, while John and I scooted along a little faster. At the Lake Placid turn the clouds cleared for a brief instant and we caught sight of the summit castle which looks tantalizingly close, but oh-so far away to ski on such a low angle climb.
At the Willmington turn we met a woman coming up the hiking trail, and she offered to race us to the top. John and I skied the last kilometer to the lower castle and ditched our skis, switching to crampons for the climb up the icy staircase. We arrived at the summit in the fog, with fresh snowshoe tracks come and gone, with just enough visibility to see our competitive companion disappearing down the trail back into the trees. On the radio we learned that Bill had decided to turn back just after the Lake Placid turn, and he would meet us back at the car.
​
It started to snow hard so we descended back down to the lower castle to get some shelter for our lunch. It was a quick one as the wind picked up and funnelled through the tunnels we were trying to shelter in. The ski down was a slow going affair with the deep snow. This was probably good as it kept us warm having to actually push along instead of just gliding. Most places we could not get enough speed for decent turns unfortunately. Finally at one point I found some thin snow and got in a turn or two before my skis hit pavement, stopped abruptly, and had me faceplanting embarrassingly in front of another skier coming up. I directed John around this section to avoid a second mishap.
A short while of uneventful coasting had us back at the toll booth, reunited with Bill, and then packed up for the drive home, in time for supper. Only 5 hours for this trip up and down Whiteface. A successful, low-key weekend in the ADK!​
Pics:
https://web.ncf.ca/mbowler/hiking/ad...whiteface.html