Avalanche Pass, NY — The Most Beautiful Backcountry Ski Trail in Adirondacks

Hey guys, we're back to Adirondacks. Today I'm gonna do an easy one. I'm just gonna go through the valley behind me. It's called Avalanche Pass. When I started it, it was minus 16, but the sun came up so hopefully that's gonna get better. I think the freeze will promise us blue skies, so that's perfect. The foot trail is closed. There is some kind of a landslide or something, but the ski trail is open, so that's where we're gonna continue. Here we are reaching what they call Wizarding Mile. It's the only steepish section of this trail. So far it looks like a fun mile all the way back, so that's a good sign. So this behind me is the avalanche slide. As the sign suggested, it's prohibited to ski on it. I think this is the highest point of the trail, so from now on it's gonna be skiing down to Avalanche Lake. I'm gonna take the skins off. Hopefully I'm making the right decision here. It's magnificent. I don't know how much further I can ski over and I need to put the skins back on, but one thing I can tell is that this functions as a funnel and the wind is picking up. It's going to be a little bit chilly. It is beautiful. Some people were trying to ski down Looks epic. Ice ice baby. I'm trying to stay in the sun. The wind makes it a little bit too cold for my taste. The lake seems to be in good shape. There are some patches that are just pure ice, but mostly it's snow. Oh yeah, I can feel the wind. Okay, we're back to some kind of a civilization. Interestingly, there's a sign that the trail is closed from the other side. We just reached Lake Colden. When we started today, my toes were so numb. I was like, will I be able to take it? It was really cold. I normally don't have a problem with blood circulation, but this morning my right foot was a little bit unresponsive when I was trying to work the toes. Eventually, I just realized I tightened my boots too much and I cut off my circulation. Once I undid that, everything was okay. So, my kids, lesson learned. My brain's freezing. We have a beautiful scenery all around. It's a little bit windy here. There is more to do if you continue down the cross-country trail. It actually continues a little bit further, but we're not gonna do it today. I just came to explore to see what this area is like. Oh, you're just checking it out? Yeah. Oh, okay. Eight days. So, you guys know what they like? Eight days on and then six days off. There's two caretakers. We're out here by ourselves. Yeah, it's quite amazing. I love it. Yeah, it's a lot of fun being out here. It's cool, huh? Yeah. Where are you from? I'm originally Czech That's awesome. Enjoy the rest of your ski. Are you just gonna head back out now? You just came out here for the day and kind of heading back? Yep. Nice to meet you. Yeah, you two have a safe hike out. They have to stay eight days in a row and then they get switched. I wonder what that's like in the middle of winter when the days are short and it's just darkness and cold. Today's a beautiful day. We're back to Avalanche Lake. Just a little bit left. Then I'm gonna climb back to the highest point and it's gonna be just the ski down. I was enjoying the beauty. This is like a paradise for climbers and ice climbers and even skiers. Some of these faces it seems like people come here to ski. I was admiring these bridges. I heard in the past when the first people came here in like 1800s the easiest way to get across these lakes was on a boat. Basically there were no bridges back then so they would pull the boats on dry land and just paddle over the lakes. That's how they used to get through Adirondacks in the old days. It's really pretty here. I kind of wish I could share it with somebody. I tried to reach France a few times with my wife. There is no signal here. Yeah, keep that in mind if you come. Basically starting from the highest point of the Avalanche Pass all the way to the end of Lake Cordon there is no signal. I tried to climb up a little bit higher here on Lake Cordon which is a wider like a more opened area and I had like a blip one one bar for like one second but that's it. So if you go here you better have some communication device that uses satellites. The sun came and made it all so much more pleasant. We still have two and a half miles to the trailhead. The skiing was super quick. For some reason I thought it would be a little bit longer and I think next time I can ascend it a little bit more. I didn't realize there's so many uphills in the middle. Basically you need to pick up speed to get over those. I wouldn't call it skiing. I would call it maybe like trail sliding on skis. Good day though.