Falcons feast on ill bats

A year ago, scientists learned that a large bat hibernaculum exists somewhere near Chapel Pond. They inferred as much when dying bats were discovered flying around Route 73 last March, long before bats usually emerge from hibernation.

A peregrine falcon chick. Photo from Wikipedia.

Peregrine falcons that nest near Chapel Pond also discovered the bats. They returned from their winter habitat early this year, in mid-February, and a state biologist thinks they did so to feed on the sick bats. The bats suffer from white-nose syndrome, which has devastated bat populations through the Northeast.

“We observed the falcons foraging on bats both last year and this year,” said Joe Racette, a senior biologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. “They’ve been coming back a little bit earlier every year, but I think they learned last year that there was an early food source.”

Racette said DEC has not been able to ascertain the exact location of the hibernaculum, but he noted that a rock climber has seen bats in a crack on the Spider’s Web, a cliff on the north side of the highway.

Meanwhile, DEC plans to close, starting Monday, more than two hundred rock-climbing routes on three cliffs to protect falcon nesting sites. Some or all of the routes should be reopened later in the spring or summer once scientists learn where the falcons are actually nesting.

“We close the routes early on to allow the falcons to choose nest sites without being affected by human activity,” Racette said.

All the climbing routes on Moss Cliff in Wilmington Notch and on Lower Washbowl near Chapel Pond will be closed until further notice. In addition, DEC will close all but twenty-four of the 167 routes on Poke-o-Moonshine’s Main Face.

DEC will post updates on the closures on its website.

Following is a list of the routes on Poke-o’s Main Face that will remain open:

1.         Opposition

2.         Goat’s Foot on Rock

3.         High and Dry

4.         Bushmaster

5.         Big Buddha

6.         Bushido

7.         Bodacious

8.         Pearly Gates

9.         Kaibob

10.       Battle Creek

11.       Static Cling

12.       Certified Raw

13.       Air Male

14.       Son of a Mother

15.       Phase III

16.       Bastard

17.       Ladder

18.       Puppies on Edge

19.       Hang ’Em High

20        Group Therapy

21.       Adonis

22.       Pandemonium

23.       Discord

24.       A Womb with a View

Gibson out as Protect’s executive director

David Gibson has stepped aside as executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, but he is continuing to work for the organization as an adviser on conservation issues, the Adirondack Explorer has learned.

David Gibson

Gibson had been the executive director of Protect since its creation last year, when the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks merged with the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks. Before that, he had served as executive director of the Association since 1987.

Gibson confirmed that the board changed his title at its March 6 meeting, but he referred most questions to board members.

In another change, Protect’s board of directors has eliminated the position of Gibson’s assistant, Ken Rimany. Gibson praised Rimany for, among other things, his help in raising $1.5 million for the Center for the Forest Preserve in Niskayuna, which the Association created before the merger.

“He put his heart and soul into the organization, and he will be sorely missed,” Gibson said.

Charles Clusen, the chairman of the board, who also holds the title of chief executive officer, will take on the executive director’s duties temporarily. But Clusen said Protect is launching a search for someone to oversee the staff. This person will hold the titles of president and chief executive officer.

Asked why Gibson was not assigned the new post, Clusen replied, “It’s a matter of transformation. We’re moving on. He’s been in that job twenty-three years.”

Clusen said the changes are part of a larger initiative to strengthen Protect. “This has nothing to do with Dave’s performance or his conservation efforts,” he said. “We’re delighted he’s staying with us.”

Death in the Catskills

I’m sure many of you have heard about the hiker who died following a snowstorm in the Catskills last weekend. He and his partner had weathered a night in a snow cave. The next morning, he left to get help but never made it. He was found dead on Blackhead Mountain a short distance from the temporary shelter. The Daily Mail, a local newspaper, published a fairly detailed account of the incident.

Blackhead Mountain is the peak in the distance on the far right. Photo from Wikipedia.

In a comment appended to an online Daily Freeman story, the daughter of the deceased hiker says the two men were experienced hikers and well equipped. She wrote, in part: “Yes, they did have snowshoes, cell phones, maps and even a compass. They were about an hour from the lean-to where some of their gear was stored, when they lost their way on Saturday. They did manage to get through to a 911 operator and made a snow shelter. By Sunday morning, they had lost mobility in their hands from the cold, and were physically unable to strap on the snow shoes.”

Avalanche survivor tells story

One of the survivors of last month’s avalanche has written a dramatic account of his ordeal for Adirondack Almanack. Here’s a taste:

“I don’t remember any pain when the avalanche struck me,” Jamie McNeill says. “The sensation is best described as almost instant acceleration in a river of wet cement. I was suddenly surrounded by this flowing snow bank. I have no idea how fast it was moving and I don’t remember much aside from the dark, the fear, and the thought that I had to try to stay on top of it somehow.”

Click here to read the full account.

Earlier, I posted an  interview with two survivors of an avalanche in the same location that happened in 2000. One skier was killed in that snow slide.

The mountain lion conspiracy

A top-secret confidential source sent me a link to a YouTube clip that offers definitive proof that the government is releasing mountain lions in the Adirondacks. It’s part of a Nazi plot.

Beaver resigns as state mammal

A coalition of environmental groups launched an ad campaign today to protest Governor David Paterson’s proposed $69 million cut to the Environmental Protection Fund, which is used to pay for a variety of green initiatives, including land preservation. The Adirondack Council sent us the ad below, which features a snapping turtle, eastern bluebird, beaver, and brook trout resigning as the state’s reptile, bird, mammal, and fish, respectively. The proposed cut amounts to about a third of the fund.

Rally for the VICs

Andy Flynn, local writer and publisher, is organizing a rally at the Adirondack Park Agency to save the state Visitor Interpretive Centers at Paul Smiths and Newcomb. Flynn has served as the VICs spokesman until he left the job last year. Below is an e-mail from him:

To all:

I invite you to join us for a peaceful rally to protest the Adirondack Park Agency’s planned closure of the Visitor Interpretive Centers at Paul Smiths and Newcomb.

The “Save the VICs” Rally will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Thursday, March 11, 2010 in front of the Adirondack Park Agency headquarters in Ray Brook. Come for one hour or two, but please come help us celebrate the value of the VICs to the Adirondack Park.

What you need to bring:

-Warm clothing (as this is outside)

-Signage displaying your feelings (i.e. Save the VICs; We Love the VICs; Keep the VICs Open)

-Instruments (guitar, banjo) to play if you know “This Land is Your Land” (lyrics to be provided)

-Children if you have them

-A friend or two or three

-Stories about your experiences at the VICs

Remember, this is a peaceful rally to support the VICs – outside the APA headquarters. The APA Board of Commissioners will be holding their monthly meeting inside the building at the same time, and rally participants are asked NOT to take their protests inside the building. We will be singing and chanting and holding our signs proudly outside and will make enough noise to be heard.

I encourage you to help us pressure the APA Board of Commissioners to come up with a plan to keep both centers open.

Join us at the March 11 rally and let your voice be heard!

Thanks!

Andy Flynn

Former VIC Senior Public Information Specialist (2001-2009)

Saranac Lake, (518) 891-5559

Angel Slides still unsafe

Backcountry skiers who think it’s now safe to ski the Angel Slides on Wright Peak should be aware that an avalanche risk may still exist.

Two skiers were caught in an avalanche on the wider of the two Angel Slides on February 27, but they escaped with minor bruises.

Last Friday, Jesse Williams of Cloudsplitter Mountain Guides dug a test pit on the narrower slide and concluded that the snow pack was unstable. As a result, Williams decided against taking skiers to the slide as part of last weekend’s Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival.

Below is a video of the avalanche tests.

Billy Demong addresses hometown (video)

Hundreds of people lined the main street in the tiny village of Saranac Lake on Friday afternoon to welcome home gold-medal skier Billy Demong and other local athletes who competed in the Winter Games in Vancouver.

Olympic skier Billy Demong raises a victory torch after Friday's parade in Saranac Lake. Photo by Phil Brown.

Saranac Lake and nearby Lake Placid, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980, sent a dozen athletes to Vancouver, including two who won medals. Not bad for two villages whose combined population is about 7,600

Many of the athletes had moved to the Lake Placid region to train, but Billy Demong grew up outside Saranac Lake, in the rural community of Vermontville. He won a gold medal in the Nordic combined individual race and a silver medal in the Nordic combined team relay. The events feature cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

Amazingly, as a youngster, Demong competed on the same local cross-country-ski team with two other future Olympians: Lowell Bailey and Tim Burke, both of whom competed in the biathlon in this year’s games.

After the parade, Demong addressed a large crowd inside the town hall. “I feel like my life came full circle today when I drove up here from New York City …” he said. “This is the place where I grew up, in Vermontville, and at one point in my lived down the road from Tim Burke, three houses away and six miles or whatever.”

Demong, who will turn thirty this month, proposed to his girlfriend, Katie Koczynski. a few hours after he  became the first American to win a gold medal in Nordic combined.

The other local medalist was Andrew Weibrecht, who won a bronze in the men’s super G slalom and then made the cover of Sports Illustrated. Lake Placid, where he grew up, held a parade in his honor last week.

Another local hero, Peter Frenette, is still a senior at Saranac Lake High School. Frenette, who just turned eighteen, was the youngest member of the ski-jumping team.

The other regional athletes were: Ashley Caldwell, freestyle jumping; Haley Johnson, biathlon; John Napier, bobsled; and Mark Grimmette, Chris Mazdzer, Megan Sweeney, and Emily Sweeney, luge.

You can read more about these local athletes on the website of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Saranac Lake’s newspaper, which sent two reporters to the Olympics. Click here to read their coverage of the games.

Below is a video of Demong’s address to the crowd in the Harrietstown Town Hall.

Skiing Mount Marcy: Phelps Brook section

Alan Wechsler ascends into the clouds on Marcy. Photo by Phil Brown.

Yesterday I skied Mount Marcy with Alan Wechsler, one of the contributors to the Explorer. I had skied Marcy just a few weeks ago, but I never tire of this trip.

We had great weather until we emerged above tree line. The summit was a complete whiteout, and the wind was fierce, with wind chills below zero. Descending the summit bowl, we couldn’t see the bumps in the terrain or any landmarks to gauge our position. “It’s like skiing blind,” Alan remarked.

It took us a while in this ghostly atmosphere to reconnect with the hiking trail. Once we got below the clouds, we could see again, and the skiing was terrific.

One of my favorite stretches of the Marcy trail is along Phelps Brook. By the time skiers arrive at the brook, they have descended all the steep, difficult sections. Now they can relax while cruising the 1.2 miles between the two brook crossings.

I took a video of Alan skiing this part of the trail. I was right behind him until he took a small spill toward the end. The camera was strapped to my chest.