7 men vs. the 3 santas

“[cue space odyssey music]

every century or so there comes an epic battle so great it resounds throughout history.

Thermopylae 480 BC, chalons 450 AD, hastings 1066 AD...

...and santanonies 1-15-2005 AD



The plan was a simple one.
hike the 4.7 miles to the bradley pond.
stay the night.
head out at dawn and conquer the 3 main peaks of the santanoni range.
hike back to the cars the 3rd day.

a simple plan but alas, victory was not assured by any means.
meer yards down the trail the brave 7 became 6. with his last words, gasping for life he cried,"i'm horrrrnnnnyyyy"

the mighty unca germlin had fallen.


that night we mourned his loss but steadied ourselves for the frigid night and the battle that lie ahead. we could see panther mt, the smallest of the 3 from our lean-to. it kept watch over us through the night.

the next morn brought sad tidings.
during the night ted, climbhi's friend, had gotten sick and could not go on.
so climbhi and ted would retreat back to the cars leaving only 4 men to face the 3 santas.
but within moments it became clear that all was not well with (ADK)lee either.
he had suffered stoically during the night, but dared not face another night with only a +20 degree bag as defense against the sub zero temperatures. lee, climbhi, and ted all left together...

...and so it was that 3 men faced 3 mountains.
undaunted by the now late start we became to climb...

...and made it 20 minutes before ben's knee twinged in protest.

it took only a brief glimpse at pennsy to know we two would continue on.
with a maniacal grin and an evil glint in his eye pennsy simply nodded.
we bade farewell to ben to face what was now seemingly overwhelming odds.



to hear the conclusion of this adventure, please send $5.00 to my paypal account.

thanks,
sacco”

“LMAO!”

“Guess how much firewood I ended up having to stack this weekend.






0
The 7 could have been 8.”

“funny little hobbit.

Now finish the tale, dammit!”

“good story!


so go on?.....”

“LMAO!! good so far...and?? Continue! Did send you the $5 under my anonymous name. (sorry, can't tell you...but I did send funds)”

“The plot tickens (and I'm still horny).”

“you gonna post pics pennsy?”

“still waiting, oh story teller.

I only took 4 pics. I can post them individually later. Hey, did you go xc skiing today?”

“I'm losing grip and m fingers are slipping off the cliff!!!”

“that Sacco is such a tease. I was on the dang trip, and I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to find out how we made out.”

“LOL Pennsy!

but really - i cannot wait to hear what perils befell the unsuspecting hikers next!”

“I could post some facts about the rest of the trip, but I don't want to rain on sacco's parade. Besides, I'd hate to have the truth get in the way of a good story.”

“my short attention span is wearing thin....”

“you're killing us Sacco. He's thinking about fishing in Pine Creek”

“Horny? WTF? Tell us more.

What happend to those who remained? What of the peaks?

Don't make us beg...too much.


(See? Contrary to belief, people really do read trip reports. It's just not often that they respond to them.)”

“Where's the rest of the report?”

“lumberzac did NOT go???

See y'all later, I'm gonna faint...........”

““lumberzac did NOT go???

See y'all later, I'm gonna faint...........”
MarkO
7:39:15 AM
1/18/05
ignore this user
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No Santanoni Range for me. 8(

I did have dinner with Treebeard, Mapleleaf, and family on Saturday.”

“No schitt?

Country boy in the BIG city, huh?

It looks like it's up to you and me to get Gremlin up there, Zac.

The Santanonnis are the Santa-No-No's for Unca Gremlin.”

“Country boy in the BIG city, huh?

Nope, city folk came to hicksville.”

“O I C !!

They were whoopin' it up up the country while we were risking life and limb on the Maryland AT.”

“"reminds me of that scene in the omen", pennsy commented.
"aye", i nodded. actually i was thinking something different, but even more ominous. i kept my thoughts to myself, for i did not want to frighten my last remaining partner even more.
To me, they were the claws of the great cat who’s namesake we were climbing. giant icicles, easily 10 feet long hung menacingly above us. the frozen stalactites were the claws of panther mountain to me. I prayed that the cat continued it’s slumber.

We had left ben at the base of the mountain. It was now approaching noon and we were finally nearing the crest of panther mountain’s feet when two lumbering souls came into view.
They looked beaten, dejected. Their bleak expressions left no doubt as to their failure, and they told us their story…

Like our group, they had been 7 strong to start. Instructors at the Adirondack mountaineering school, they were skilled, athletic, and self-assured from the start. But the 3 santas had destroyed them all, one by one. They mentioned spruce traps, rock faces, and losing their way.
“we were on the trail one minute, off the trail the next” they cried with painful recollection. It was obvious their wounds were still too fresh for details. It would take many nights before they slept well again…

another hour later and the evidence lay in front of us. a confusing disarray of snowshoe tracks twisted and writhed all around us. we did our best to make sense of where the other group had gone wrong and eventually we were breaking new tracks, surpassing their groups efforts.

Soon we were nearing the peak of the mountain. as the vegetation grew shorter and more sparse, the wind became a frigid torrent threatening to throw us off the dome with one misstep. The last hundred feet were so treacherous they brought us to near insanity. I would climb 15 feet only to slide back down 20. on one particularly nasty fall my leki broke, making things even more difficult.

Eventually, through sheer will power we attained our mark.
At long last we triumphantly stood atop of panther mountain!

A quick time check dashed any hopes of achieving our original ambitious goal of all 3 santas.

so I sat on my ass and slid ½ way down the entire mountain. We got to the lean w/ little time to spare before dark.

The end.”

“Great trip report / story. Now make with the pics Pennsy.”

“Giddy Yap, Pennski!!

Hey, wait a minute!

That fool was just up there in September.
last edited: 1/18/05 9:30:54 AM”

“I could post some facts about the rest of the trip, but I don't want to rain on sacco's parade. Besides, I'd hate to have the truth get in the way of a good story.”
Pennsy

hey, while i obviously "spruced" things up a bit- all the info is there. i didn't add, subtract or drastically alter any facts.

my journalistic integrity remains intact.

hmmpff.”

“So the mountain didn't beat all of you.

That was a good read this morning. When are you going back?”

“Great trip reports guys.”

“i dunno ruby, gremlin still needs to get two of them for his 46er title.”

“Santa was bad to Gremlin this year.”

“its all those impure thoughts of young nubile females catching up to him.”

“nice finish to the trip report, Sacco. I only took 4 pics. Sorry, no pics from the top. It was too dang cold and windy to take my mittens off.

View of Panther from the lean-to
Group photo
Sacco the Thinker
Pennsy in a winter wonderland

Sat night, it got down to 10 below zero, so it was a tad chilly. We had to put out the fire because the wind continously blew smoke into the lean-to. Thanks to Ben for gathering all the firewood. We also had a camp mascot, a cool looking marten who kept sneaking up to the lean-to looking for handouts.”

“How did Sacco's Jetboil work in the cold? I know he has been testing it out for cold weather use.”

“I am planning my revenge.”

“I’m not very happy with your picture of Panther Peak Pennsy (say that 3x fast), you didn’t manage to get the outhouse in the shot.”

“How idd the jetboil do at -10????”

“i only used it the first night when it was low + teens.
worked fine.

after that, pennsy always had his whitegas monster roaring so the 3 of us pretty much just used it, since it could boil a couple liters at a time.

i have used the jetboil before down to negative 15.

works ok, with the canister in a hotwater bath.”

“You guys saw a marten??

How do ya say that in Canuck?”

“oh, ADKlee used his jetboil first thing in the morning sat. it was probably around 0*”

“I hear ya Zac - my third trip up there, finally get some great views, and I just couldn't deal with the camera. :o(

btw - I think I am now qualified to be a Times Square tour guide. Who the heck goes up there THREE times?”

“Some kinda nut?”

“The scary thing is I think I'll be going back up there at least 2 or 3 more times.”

“that marten was pretty damn cute, but a little too curious.




this is what a marten looks like:

last edited: 1/18/05 1:59:53 PM”

“I can't see a thing!”

“Hey, I resemble that remark! and since Gremlin still needs 45 and 46, I imagine I'll be up there again.

I think I spelled marten right? From the weasel family, looked like a big ferret. Cute as hell.”

“Well written and a really fun trip report, Sacco. Sorry, Grem. Git 'em next time, big guy!”

“ah, I've been trying to figure out what kind of creature it was that I saw when I was in the Adks in December. It was a Marten (cue Martin theme song). I was thinking it was a fox, but it just didn't look quite like a fox.”

“Those martins are very cute when they are ripping your food bag down and eating all your food.”

“yup, they're in the weasel family.
they look like a big puffy weasel/red fox cross.

glad you guys liked the report.

grem, there's a guy on adkforum who is looking for a partner to head up to couch real soon, while the trail's still broken.”

“Claw your eyes out, man!!!

Now I see it!”