"There is just a beautiful layer of snow on the ground deep in the woods. And it is still and cold. I'm starting early, climbing a mountain called Wright Peak. That means moving through near darkness in the hour before sunrise. There's just enough light in the woods. I can see, but there's no color. It's just like I'm walking through this black and white world of snow and charcoal lines of the hemlock trees, the boughs already really heavy with snow."
"I've climbed high enough that the ice is getting thicker on the trail, and it's also just getting a lot steeper. Pulling on a little microspike. Traction - you just have little metal teeth that dig into the ice. With my cleats digging in, I climb on. In places, I'm on all fours using trees and rocks for handholds. The air shimmers with particles of ice, but whenever there's a view, I sit to rest and catch my breath."
An early, severe winter transforms the Adirondack high country into a stark black-and-white landscape of snow-laden hemlocks and icy trails. A pre-dawn ascent of Wright Peak traverses near-darkness, frozen streams, and a large waterfall encrusted in layered ice with flowing water beneath. Trails grow steeper and icier, requiring microspikes and careful use of trees and rocks for handholds; climbers sometimes move on all fours. Air fills with shimmering ice particles and vistas reveal massive rock shelves layered in snow and ice. Despite the physical challenge, the mountains offer slowed rhythm, solitude, stillness, and glimpses of wild, spectral beauty.
Read at www.npr.org
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