46er Finish | September 25th, 2016
This day was two years in the making. It felt very surreal knowing by the end of the day I would be an Adirondack 46er. The excitement of the group as well as myself was very high. I was lucky to have such a good and knowledgable group of guys with me. Kevin and Tim both completed their 46 already and Isaac is an all around experienced hiker, climber, and outdoorsman.
Before heading up the Trap Dike we had to tackle Marshall. I frankly was not looking forward to Marshall knowing that it's a long climb on an unmarked trail with a wooded summit. We hiked from the Adirondack Loj to Marcy dam, then to Avalanche Pass, and finally around Lake Colden. Passing the trap dike along the way only seemed to heighten my nerves. I am not much of an experienced climber but even knowing that I had the skill set to make it up didn't seem to put my mind at ease.
We finally found the cairn marking the trail to Marshall and started our ascent. Much to my surprise the trail was quite beautiful and went up a slide for a good portion. We also expertly managed to lose the trail and went on an exciting bushwack for about 20 minutes before hitting a dead end. We summited and had a quick bite to eat before heading back down, this time without getting lost. The whole walk back to Avalanche lake I had a mix of excitement of nervousness.
We arrived at the base of the trap dike and took a breather before our ascent. My nerves quickly wore off and I was purely stoked as we started the climb. We climbed over the waterfalls and watched Avalanche lake get smaller behind us. Before long we reach the top of the dike and now had to ascend the Irene slide which was created by Hurricane Irene in 2011. This is where the adrenaline really started to kick in for me. With burning calves we climbed up this steep no fall zone, putting our trust entirely in our boots.
I became a 46er on September 25th, at 4:45PM. Just like a birthday, I didn't feel any different but something had change. When I hiked my first 46ers I had no real ambition to complete all of them. Then here I was two years and another 42 mountains later, standing on top of Mt. Colden with three good friends drinking a PBR and thinking of the next adventure.