We woke up in New Hampshire to about six inches of new snow. The storm was predicted to bring a foot or more of snow to the Adirondacks, so we had driven east Friday night to avoid some of the snow. Grace.points and I made it to Saddleback ski area mid morning and met up with BillB, rbalbs, Boghollow, and our new friend Mike, who is close to finishing hes NE67 grid. We ascended through the ski area on the dedicated climbing trail. We had purchased uphill passes online, but there is no guarantee that ski patrol will allow you to leave the ski area to reach the summit of the mountain.
On the climbing trail in the Saddleback ski area
When we got to the top of the ski area, the trail to the summit was open, with a sign indicating that we needed to be back into the ski area by 3:30PM. It had been very windy in the parking lot, and the ski area wasn't running the lifts due to the wind when we started uphill. As we broke treeline and found the trail, the wind continued to be strong on the ridge. We quickly found deep snow, and no sign of a route.
Somewhere along the ridge
It was slow going across the Saddleback summit and down to the col. Climbing The Horn was a little easier with less snow and more cairns. We weren't going to have much for views on this day. After re-climbing Saddleback we found the wind had subsided, and we were able to stand on the summit in calmness. We had limited views into the ski area, but no view of
Rangeley
Lake or the surrounding mountains.
Climbing Saddleback on the return from The Horn
Leaving Saddleback's summit
We made our way back into the ski area a lot closer to the afternoon cut off time than we expected. The short 'easy' hike that we all expected turned out to be the opposite. We all made a quick decent through the ski area and battled the afternoon traffic trying to get out of the parking lot. The first day of a multi-day trip was a success, but required more effort than we had hopped it would.