The only independent, nonprofit news organization solely dedicated to reporting on the Adirondack Park.
By Phil Brown
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…
By Phil Brown
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…
By Phil Brown
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…
By Phil Brown
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. Saranac Lake and nearby Lake Placid, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980, sent a dozen athletes…
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…
By Phil Brown
The Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival is back this weekend, and though most of the guided ski trips are booked, there are a number of cool events open to the public. For starters, you can test skis and boots at Otis Mountain, a private hill with a rope tow south of Elizabethtown, and enroll in telemark…
By Phil Brown
In light of Saturday’s avalanche on Wright Peak, I thought it’d be instructive to post an in-depth interview with two survivors of the avalanche that occurred in the same spot in February 2000. Four skiers were swept up in the earlier avalanche, and one died. The interview with Ron Konowitz and his then-wife, Lauren, appeared…
By Phil Brown
Two backcountry skiers were partially buried in an avalanche over the weekend on the Angel Slides on Wright Peak—the location of a fatal avalanche in February 2000. David Winchell, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said one man was pinned against a stump and buried up to his chest. The second was…
It’s barely above zero, and we’re skiing across Lake Durant into the wind. After pulling on my balaclava, all I can hear is my breathing. By Phil Brown
Here in the foothills near Boonville, the BREIA cross-country ski center has set its own path. By Tom Woodman