I can’t say I’ve been working on the Catskill 3500 list as I’ve been hiking the list peaks for over 30 years and I’m still not done. Let’s call it nibbling on the list. I sometimes get the idea to do something foolish like visit one of the peaks I’ve yet to summit. So today it being in the 50s at home I figured it was a good day to check off my 3rd of the winter peaks, Panther Mountain. Mistakes were made.
I left home a bit late but my gps app said it was only 3 miles to the Panther Summit with about 1,600 of climbing. The numbers were off and really didn’t reflect the level of difficulty. Last week this area received over 24” of snow and most of that snow remains at elevation. The lower elevations are a slippery icy mess from all the traffic over the past holiday week. I saw more than one group of smart hikers turn back at the first of the steeper patches as they didn’t have proper footgear.
The first mile plus was either ice of well packed snow that only required microspikes to navigate. Still there were areas where footing was not great and my feet would often slip on the snow now warming enough to become soft slush. This would be a theme for the full trip.
The first vantage point is the highly trafficked Giant Ledge but even before the ledges there are some good off season views at the Burroughs Range through the trees. The drop from the backside of slide down to Cornell is very obvious from this vantage point. I remember one of our death march hikes when we were younger and more foolish when we dropped off Slide into a deep snow drift on what would then need to be a one way trip down to Woodland Valley.
There is a reason Giant Ledge is so frequently visited and its views like these. Very few locations let you see so many Catskill peaks in one panorama. The sun did break out later only improving the view.
The path up to Giant ledge, while slippery, was fairly well packed and had not softened as much as the col to Panther or the Panther summit. I only started to descend a few yards off Giant Ledge before it became clear that snowshoes were more appropriate to avoid postholing every third step. Snowshoes are both a blessing and a curse as they allow you to float over some obstacles but their general unwieldy size often make them tricky to maneuver in tight spaces or the typical Catskill steep rock climbs.
At this point I was regretting not bringing quite enough water or snacks a decision I would regret later. My late start was also becoming an issue made worse by the slow slippery travel. I met another hiker who called this a “technical day” and that sounds right to me.
I didn’t recall much of a view from Panther on my past visits but I was able to get some shots through the trees. I wanted to reach the summit by 2:30PM in order to have 2 hours to get back to the car and I was already about 15 minutes behind schedule.
News of the warming trend clearly not reached this elevation and I was wet, almost out of water and hungry. I drank most of my water, ate a Larabar and added another layer. What I could not do was linger as the sun would set in less than 2 hours and I figured that’s how long the trip down would take
My feet were soaked through my “waterproof” boots and standing still for more than a minute would make this painfully obvious. Even catching my breath was not ideal at this point as I was wet and needed to get moving and warm again. So I began the walk down.
At one point I tripped over my snowshoes one too many times and decided to take them off. I was too tired and they were not helping as much as I would like. I put the spikes back on an made better time. Yes I added a few post holes but I assure this trail was already cratered before I got there. Every step was twice as difficult as it would have been on a clear trail. It was a crapshoot if your foot would finish where you placed it. The ice, slush and soft snow made this portion of the hike an adventure.
I made better time without the snowshoes but I’ve rarely felt this worn out with half of the hike still left to complete. Hopefully the snack, water and heading back down would warm me up and give the enough fuel to finish before dark. In the end, it did. It was not the most enjoyable trip down but once I warmed up it went ok.
As I got down off the other side of Giant Ledge, on the way back to the car, I saw another hiker heading up. I assumed I would be the last person on the mountain today as the sun was only minutes from setting. I asked the hiker how far he was going and he said Panther. He clearly looked like he knew what he was doing and I enquired if he had lights and he pointed as some fancy led array of lights on his chest and mentioned he had just done the entire Burroughs range this morning. I remember when I was younger and stronger too.
At the blue/yellow trail intersection marking the last 3/4 mile remaining to the parking area, I changed my wet hat and gloves for a fresh dry set and this too gave me a boost. I also placed a flashlight in my pocket. The sun had set but twilight was doing enough. Good thing too as the flashlight died as soon as I tried to use it to light up a tricky patch. I have a few other lights but at this point I was very close to being done so I really didn’t want to take off my pack one more time to change lights. The only point I really needed illumination was to check out in the log book at the trailhead.
Gaia GPS said this was 3 miles up to Panther. My Apple Watch logged about 8 miles traveled and at least 500 feet more elevation that Gaia reports. The final (lesser) stats for the day show 6.5 miles traveled and 1,816 feet of climbing. It felt like at least 50% more due to the conditions and probably a few too many holiday cookies over the past week.
