Solo. I’ve passed this trailhead a thousand times, so when I was trying to figure out what to climb for #199 & #200, I figured this would be a good pick. Not too long following the recent snowstorm, and smaller peaks.

Just call me the strugglebus captain. I got on trail around 0830 to bright blue skies and blinding white fresh snow. The first part of the path had been moderately broken by local cross country skiers, but following that, it was just me against the snow. The lower elevation was a nice walk, maybe 6” to break trail over. I tried my best to go “point to point” - trail marker to trail marker, but some of them were spread out a bit too far & I did wander off trail a bit here and there.

As I gained elevation, I started hitting the “double sink”- fresh powder, a layer of ice to break through, more powder under it. The trail breaking was really not fun at this point. I was slogging at a ~1MPH pace. When I hit the junction for the blue trail up Rooster Comb, I had a very hard time finding the trail. I broke out to Valley View Ledge and was extremely pleased with the incredible view! High winds, however. I went back the way I came, then broke out the .3 to the true summit- I was CRAWLING up this thing, the snow was insane & unstable, every footfall sent me back 3 steps. On my way back down, I discovered that this section of trail has a ladder on it- a fact I found out when I took a pretty good fall on a sheet of ice hiding under the snow and rode the ladder down on my butt! I was unscathed and made short work from here just plowing down the side of the mountain back to the junction.

When I got back to the junction, I saw two people heading up the trail toward me, and small-world phenomena ensued when I learned that the couple also hails from the Catskills, and the gentleman of the party is not only a 3500 Club member, he’s the “can man,” the canister maintainer! I had a total fan girl moment & he thanked me for breaking trail, we took a photo together and I proceeded to drag ass over to Snow.