Ride In The Big Snow of 2010

Christmas in Michigan was awesome.  Had a great time with my brother Steve and my nephew Stephen.  We stayed with Stephen's family and loved our time with Krysten, Sergio, and Eliana.  Family bowling and lots of Wii play!  Micah, Annie, Ty and Micah Jr. met us for dinner on Christmas night at John and Thelma's (Steve's mother and father in-law) for some warm conversation and yet another chance to eat a holiday meal!

We had some great family time sharing meals, presents, conversation and laughter!

Four of My Michigan Duffys, (Lynn and my brother Steve on the right)

Krysten, Sergio, Eliana, and Stephen opening presents!

John and Linda (Krysten's parents)

A planned attempted to touch on the high points in either Pennsylvania (Mt. Davis 3213 ft) or Ohio (Campbell Hill 1,549 feet) on our return trip had to be aborted, as we made an ill advised run to return to NYC ahead of the big Blizzard of 2010.  We left early, 7:30 am, planning to outrun the storm and arrive in NYC just in time. But, we did not succeed in getting ahead of it.  Still it resulted in one of our more memorable family experiences.

All was going smoothly as we entered the Delaware Water Gap just after 5:30 pm but things went quickly "south" as we continued eastward.  Traveling on Route 280 turned ugly as the snow intensified and the snow plows lost control of the rapidly falling snow.  As we approached West Orange, New Jersey all traffic came to a complete standstill.  It turned out that everyone trying to exit there was stuck and/or had spun out  and blocked the roadway.  The stranded traffic in front included a semi-tractor trailer and a bus.  Some brave souls eventually emerged from the hundreds of cars trapped there and began to push away the smaller vehicles in front...I gunned my engine and shot off like a cork from a champagne bottle only to find that I and two other vehicles were now the only vehicles moving on 280 toward the NJ Turnpike.  Two and a half white knuckled hours later, we entered the Lincoln Tunnel and succeeded in traveling where no vehicle had moved for long, the streets of my neighborhood in Manhattan.  True to my usual charmed parking life there was a spot, I said my last prayer for the night and we were home!!!

This will be the closest that my family will come with me to experiencing a blinding alpine snow storm.  40-60 mph winds and blizzard conditions were all part of one of the biggest storms ever to hit the NY/NJ area.  As unplanned and scary as it was, it turned out to be an amazing conquest, taking Manhattan together under the most difficult circumstances.  Sometimes adventure comes when we least expect it.

Home safely with the snow still falling

A bus and cab, both trapped on our corner, were still there in the morning

That's a car in front of our building after the 20" of snow finally stopped falling!

Holiday Planning

It's been about one month since I reached my first high point, Guadalupe Peak in Texas.  Sorry for the long silence, but with the Holiday season upon us, I have been using the time to get in condition and plan for the task before me.  It's clear to me that reaching the remaining 49 high points will take a substantial amount of planning and organizing.  So, on Friday, in need of inspiration I went to a favorite NYC high point to clear my head, get the big picture and begin to formulate my plan.

Here are some views from a big apple holiday tradition (the christmas tree) and from one of NYC's better, if not the highest perch, the Top of The Rock, Rockefeller Center.

The NYC icon

My neighborhood in the foreground and the GWB in the background

That's the Chrysler Building behind Metlife

Can you see Saint Patrick's Cathedral down there?

For all of you NBC sitcom fans

The Rink and Tree at Rockefeller Center

The statue of Prometheus bringing fire to mankind by sculptor Paul Manship

On January 14, 15 and 16th I will be in Keene Valley, NY participating in Mountainfest, (Mountainfest Link).  I am signed up for sessions on alpine mountaineering and for intermediate snow and ice climbing.

Next steps are to organize the high points by both geographic proximity and technical difficulty.  My current thinking is to start with the easy ones on the eastern seaboard and branch out as the weather gets better and I improve my mountaineering skills.  Some of the high points are just geological markers in an otherwise fairly flat State like Lakewood Park, Florida elevation 345 feet, Ebright Azimuth, Delaware 445.25 feet, or Jerimoth Hill, Rhode Island 812 feet.  Still those trips will be fun and quirky; good for many laughs.  But others are tests of conditioning and determination like Mt. Katahdin, Maine 5,267 feet or Mt. Washington, New Hampshire 6,288 feet, either of those would be truly difficult and or dangerous in the winter.

The challenging mountains with some technical difficulty include many of the western peaks:

Mount Rainier, Washington 14,410 feet (tentative plans summer 2011 with  the climbing school there)
Mount Hood, Oregon 11,239 feet
Granite Peak, Montana 12,799 feet
Gannett Peak, Wyoming 13,804 feet (and a 50 mile round trip hike!!!!)
Mount Whitney, California 14,494 feet
Mount Elbert, Colorado 14,433 feet
Wheeler Peak, New Mexico 13,161 feet
Boundary Peak, Nevada 13,140 feet
Humphrey's Peak, Arizona 12, 633 feet

But the Mother of them all is Denali, Alaska 20,320 feet....This quest will take years, but I am determined to make the process as satisfying as reaching the goal!!!