Suday I took another 3500 winter hike in the Catskills.  Bearpen and Vly.  Started off late for me, and started up the road with my hiking companion.  This hike is mostly snowmobile trails, and there had been deep enough with snow that they've been well used, so were almost as if they were groomed trails.  We decided to start in snowshoes so we didn't have to put them on later, and we got to the hunters cabin without any issue and made our choice to do Vly first.

Today I went up Kaaterskill High Peak in the Catskills.  There are a few ways in, but I decided I'd take the shortest from Platte Clove and go up the north side of the mountains.  The south side is how I did it for my regular 3500, and that was a climb up Hurricane Ledges.  I wanted to avoid that this time.

Today I went to do a "short" hike up Sugarloaf mountain in the Catskills.  I came in via Mink Hollow, the old trail.  The trail starts off as an old road that crosses a stream a few times, and was anywhere from a few inches to no snow.  I got to the Devils Path and hung a left and in no time I was at the trail junction with the new Mink Hollow trail.  This is where the climb starts.  There was a lone set of tracks I was following, and they were covered in a couple inches of fresh snow.  But damn it is steep.  

This hike I did in reverse of what I did last time.  I parked at the big lot on Spruceston and started up the bridal path.  When I reached the hairpin turn, turned left and went up the ridge to the top of Rusk.  This has a stupidly steep section, but with microspikes and a bit of fresh snow, it wasn't that bad to get up and find the canister.  At this point, the tracks ended, so on went the snowshoes and over to Hunter I went.  I mostly went along what the likely herd path is, but there were a few places, mostly coming off East Rusk that I went a little awry.

This time I was able to get up Halcott as I got there earlier in the morning.  Also, this time I knew that the herd path is not straight up the mountain from where you park, but off down the road a little bit further, and I ended up leading a couple people and a lovely dog over to it.  This is the first time I've gone up this way, so I didn't realize how steep it was.  Started with microspikes but once the climbing began considered switching over to the shoes.

I went to go hiking and didn't plan on an early start in the Catskills, and never expected it would be a problem to find parking.  My goal was Halcott.  Well, I get there about 10 in the morning and the lot is full.  So I go down to Shaft road to think and come up with doing Sherill.  I had plans in the evening, so I only planned on doing one peak.

Making it 2 days in a row, I went and hiked Thomas Cole and Blackdome from Barnum Road as I didn't want to go up Big Hollow again.  This approach is longer, but only has one real steep section as you are going up the caudal.  It was icy, but it wasn't really anything I was worried about.  By the time I reached the big tree on Camel's Hump, I put my shoes on as it was getting more and more snow coverage, and it helped with the heel lifts going up Thomas Cole.

To start the year off, Windham High Peak for my first Winter 3500 of the year.

This time, I took the escarpment trail up and down.  I hadn't done that direction last time, so this was a new experience for me.  No need for snow shoes most of the way, just microspikes as it was a bit icy once you reached the lean-to.  On top though, it was melting snow, and I put the shoes on just for the top on my way down.  The eerie part of the hike though was just how there were so many trees that were down that I dubbed it a "tree graveyard".

Did a solo winter hike here.  Plateau has a couple ways up, and my concern was finding one that was broken out from the storm Friday into Saturday.  First stop was off of 214, and that was broken out.   This trail is a beast though.  1600 feet up in the first mile.  I was soooo thankful for my heel lifts, but it still took me nearly 2 hours to get up to Orchard Point.  Let me tell you though, the views though were well worth it.  I then started across the ridge to the true peak of Plateau.  This was a lovely forested, mostly evergreen, trail.

We started late for me, at 930, with the hopes that someone had been through and broken trail from the storm the friday/saturday before.  We were lucky.  It was broken.  Overall, it was a beautiful day. Clear sky, and warm.  I was sweating my ass off within a mile, and stripped down to just my long underwear top.  Unfortunately, I was wearing long underwear bottoms under my insulated pants, and my bottom half was sweating all day.  We made it to the col between the 2 mountains and went up Indian Head first.