The Good, the Brittle and the Dirty
Ice climbing at Cascade Pass proves to be a solid start for beginners to the sport
Snow Sports
All Stories
Wild Ice Skating
By Mike Lynch
A look back from January 2020: Dan Spada skates on wild ice throughout the Adirondacks in this video.
What you need for recreating in the winter
If you're looking to explore Adirondack trails in the winter, it's important to bring along essential gear for personal safety reasons.
Snowshoeing Sawyer Mountain
By Mike Lynch
Standing at the Sawyer Mountain trail register, his snowshoes pushing through more than a foot of snow, Ned yelled out: “The last person to sign the register was six days ago.”
A ski down Buck Mountain
Backcountry skiers descend Lake George low peak without breaking any bones By Alan Wechsler It was a Monday when we hit Buck Mountain. It was in late March last year, a week after the biggest nor’easter of the winter, which dropped several feet of snow all over upstate New York. That means that any skier…
Mount Marcy
Each year, the Explorer’s editor heads up Mount Marcy on skis. This is his guide to the region’s premier backcountry tour. By Phil Brown The spring equinox occurred on March 20. The baseball season opened on April 2 (the Yankees lost). The Masters Tournament will begin in a few days. As far as I’m concerned,…
Whiteface toll road
A North Country transplant relishes his first ski trip up the Whiteface toll road. By Jim Ormsbee I’d read about skiing the toll road. Listened to others tell their stories. But I never made the effort to ski to the top and back down. My brother and I would talk about it and concoct grand…
An early-season ski in the Adirondacks
By Phil Brown
We got three to four inches of snow Sunday night, just enough to lure me out of the office for a backcountry ski on my lunch hour on Monday afternoon. I went to the Bloomingdale Bog Trail, an old railroad bed that needs only a few inches to be skiable. The base was thin, but…
Jackrabbit Trail
Skiers enjoy a gustatory reward after a nine-mile trek from the Paul Smith’s College VIC to Charlie’s Inn. By Phil Brown Several years ago, I asked Bill McKibben, the author and climate-change activist, to ski the entire Jackrabbit Trail and write a story for the Explorer. I expected him to start in Saranac Lake and…
St. Regis Mountain
Snowshoers can enjoy a wild panorama from the newly restored fire tower on St. Regis Mountain. By Mike Lynch As we neared the summit of St. Regis Mountain this past January, the conditions changed dramatically. Tree limbs—caked in snow and ice—hung down over the trail, and as we walked crouched through the tangle of branches,…