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By Phil Brown
We finally got a bit of snow in Saranac Lake. Not enough for backcountry skiing, but enough to get you thinking about it. On my lunch hour yesterday, I hiked Baker Mountain and took the photo above. The few inches we got might be enough to ski on golf courses, the Whiteface highway, and a…
By Phil Brown
Want to do something good for the world? Then watch the new Teton Gravity Research ski film at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts this Friday night. Proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit the Adirondack Ski Touring Council and the Barkeater Trails Alliance, two nonprofit organizations that maintain trails for cross-country skiing and…
By Phil Brown
We had a brief snow squall in Saranac Lake this afternoon. No accumulation, but the cedars outside the office window got a nice dusting. So I wasn’t too surprised when Ron Konowitz called to say he had just skied the toll road on Whiteface Mountain. As the robin is to spring, Ron Kon is to…
By Phil Brown
In 1987, David Goodman got a dream job for a ski bum trying to survive as a freelance writer: the Appalachian Mountain Club hired him to write a guidebook for backcountry skiing in New England. The following year the club published Classic Backcountry Skiing: A Guide to the Best Ski Tours in New England. Unlike…
By Phil Brown
Winter hasn’t ended yet. It has been snowing off and on since early Tuesday. Driving from Plattsburgh to Saranac Lake last night, I found myself in a blinding snowstorm. The new accumulation has amounted to only a few inches, but it was enough to inspire me go for a short ski through a pine forest…
By Phil Brown
The Mountaineer in Keene Valley will host the ninth-annual Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival this weekend. As in the past, skiers can sign up for a variety of intermediate and expert tours. The most difficult outings entail skiing slides in the High Peaks. As of today, there were still three openings for the High Peaks Traverse…
By Phil Brown
The March/April issue of the Explorer contains an article about skiing the Kilburn Slide outside Lake Placid. I went with Josh Wilson, a backcountry snowboarder, shortly after a big snowfall that prompted an avalanche warning for the region. One purpose of the trip was to test the avalanche conditions on the slide. The greater purpose,…
By Phil Brown
NOTE: THIS IS ANOTHER POST FROM OUR PUBLISHER, TOM WOODMAN. The attorney general issued a news release pertaining to the motion to intervene in the Shingle Shanty case. See our earlier post to download the legal documents. ATTORNEY GENERAL SCHNEIDERMAN SUES TO PROTECT PUBLIC’S RIGHT TO TRAVEL ON ADIRONDACK WATERWAY State Seeks to Stop Property…
By Phil Brown
On Sunday, I skied the Marcy trail from Adirondak Loj with Mike Lynch and Chris Knight, two reporters from the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. We followed snowshoe tracks nearly to Indian Falls and then broke trail as far as the junction with the Hopkins Trail, 1.2 miles from the summit. We turned around there. The 6.2-mile…
By Phil Brown
I shoveled my driveway four times in twenty-four hours, and I am a happy man. If you’re a backcountry skier, you understand. Saranac Lake got more than a foot of snow in this week’s storm—enough, I imagine, to render skiable most of the backcountry trails in the area. Yesterday, my son and some friends skied…