Friday and Balsam Cap Mountains

This is one of those times that you may want to back up to the previous post and
read it first or this one will make less sense. As I have noted before,
this blog posts the most recent comments first and I have set up the background
to these mountains in the previous one...

The group for this hike was so big that it was split into two smaller groups. Mine had 16 people in it and the plan was to hit Friday Mountain first as it is the more difficult of the two. The make up of the group was about 50%/50% men and women raging in ages from 22 to 61. You hike at the speed of the lowest common denominator. I should have known what kind of day that it was going to be when one of my group tripped and fell over a log in the first hundred yards.

Sarge and I have been "power hiking" for the last four days, not because I was trying to but only to determine my own pace and strengths. Now with a group, we would climb for a short time, they wait for a while for the rest to catch up. By staying up front, I was able to listen to others who had already done mountains that I haven't and learn some the best ways to complete them.

It was a steep, steady climb all the way up the side of Friday which included two hands over feet 50 foot scrambles up through sheer rock crevasses. I was amazed that a couple members of the group made it through there. As we started our last push for the summit, the same individual that fell 100 yards into the trip, fell again only this time something "cracked." It was her wrist, which was better than an ankle, but at 3500 feet and her having a panic attack about didn't make it easy. She caused herself to go into shock, passed out for a while, then threw up several times. We made her as comfortable as possible on the closest thing we had to a level spot and wrapped her in a "space blanket" while we tried to make some decisions.

Now this story could go on for a long time so I'll try to give it the Reader's Digest version from here. Both groups met back up. The two guides and one lady from our group stayed with her, while the rest of his pushed on for the summit which only about 20 minutes away. On my first trail-less hike I ended up leading the group up to that one. (top picture) We returned to the injured woman, who was doing somewhat better. The guides had contacted NYS Parks Service Rangers and the local fire department and were waiting for them to make a decision on how to move her. No matter what, it was going to take at least two hours for them to get there. The rest of us made the decision to continue on (still guide less) to the top of Balsam Cap. Following a "herd path" (unmarked, unmaintained, but somewhat discernible path made by previous hikers and animals) we made our over the relatively short distance between the two mountain passing a lookout where I took the above inset picture of the Ashokan Reservoir in the distance.

We all signed in at the summit canister and had a short lived celebration for still being able to complete both mountains before we headed back knowing that there was a good possibility of not making it out before dark.

Back at the accident sight we found a note from the guides saying that with their help, they were walking the lady down the mountain slowly to meet Rangers, the Fire Department and a local land owner who where coming up the mountain on ATV's. We started back down the mountain (once again guide-less) retracing our steps using mine and another hiker's GPS's. The emergency folks were able meet up at with the guides and injured lady at about 2700 feet after having used chain saws to clear several large trees blocking their path. She was safely transported out to a waiting ambulance.

We met back up with the guides who led up out the rest of the way (still an hour and a half down steep, lose, rocky terrain) reaching the road just before dust. What was supposed to be a six hour climb turned into an 11 hour ordeal. One of the other hikers commented at the bottom that we all looked like the characters from the first episode of "Lost" after the plane crash.