Catskillmountaineer.com Forum

Hi I'm Doug an new to the forums as well.
I was wondering if maybe someone would be able to tell the trail conditions for the devils path??
I was up that way bout a month ago and it was a dusting with a sheet of glass underneath.. Which in the long run ate me for breakfast.. Ice giving way during the accent of plattkill an spewing me back down bout 70' or so..
So now at the end of this month were going back to hopefully complete the devils path in 3 days 2 nights.. Conditions permitting... Hopefully meaning that I can keep my crampons in my bag..
(Now for the locals) if we continue to have this warm weather do you guys think all the ice should clear by 3/30? ..
Thanks in advance,
Doug

Welcome to the forum Doug.

We hiked Overlook Mtn (next to the Devil's Path) last week. Still has that beautiful clear sheet of ice under the snow. I suspect that it will be gone soon. We got 6-12" of snow this week. They are calling for rain tomorrow, so that should help melt some of it away. It is going to warm up next week, so it should be gone in a week or two. I think you would be safe by March 30th.

This sheet of ice is unusual for the Catskills. Dangerous too. We have been sticking to hikes with a southerly exposure and easy inclines for the last couple of weeks. Glad to hear that you didn't get hurt. Another guy fell on KHP and broke his ankle.

mike wrote:Welcome to the forum Doug.

We hiked Overlook Mtn (next to the Devil's Path) last week. Still has that beautiful clear sheet of ice under the snow. I suspect that it will be gone soon. We got 6-12" of snow this week. They are calling for rain tomorrow, so that should help melt some of it away. It is going to warm up next week, so it should be gone in a week or two. I think you would be safe by March 30th.

This sheet of ice is unusual for the Catskills. Dangerous too. We have been sticking to hikes with a southerly exposure and easy inclines for the last couple of weeks. Glad to hear that you didn't get hurt. Another guy fell on KHP and broke his ankle.

Oh no I got hurt pretty good.. What stopped me from going much further down the mountain was the wrist loop on my trecking pole got hung up on a root dislocating my shoulder.. Luckily I was able to get it back in .. it was still a very painful walk back to the truck after the adrenaline was gone an heart rate back to normal.. I defiantly had the big man looking out for me. it could of been so much worse. Maybe even a statistic.

Wow! You are so lucky. I would go home and count my lucky stars. A guy got killed on Hunter when he slide down 200' and hit a tree and a rock.

The ice lately has been really bad.

Feedback on the DP section between the Mink Hollow trail and the Pecoy Notch trail (Sugarloaf section):

Two of us snowshoed the whole Sugarloaf loop on Saturday (Roaring Kill trailhead to Mink Hollow trail to the Devil's Path up to Sugarloaf from the west and then back down via Pecoy Notch).

Trail conditions were heavy wet snow - anywhere from 8 inches at the lower elevations to a foot at the top.

We broke trail the entire time and saw no one the whole day.

The snow was so waterlogged that that a layer unlike slippery banana peels was always lurking, mostly at the level of our snowshoe teeth, making for unusually slippery snowshoe conditions ascending or descending - but still nowhere as slippery as plain ice. There was just enough good snow depth yesterday to negate the need for crampons on this leg. However, I can only imagine what the subsequent freezing, melting, and refreezing cycles have now created. At least on that leg of the DP, you can snowshoe our tracks but I would absolutely recommend bringing crampons for wherever you would need them on what may now be icy and/or extremely crusty ascents and descents.

Good luck, have fun, and stay safe! It's a winter wonderland up there right now. It's about time!

This weather is absolutely ridiculous! Just to be on the safe side I'm going to have to lug like an extra 10 lb of gear with me.. Granted I love hiking in the snow. I hate not knowing what I'm up against.. Conditions in harriman (my normal stomping grounds) are always pretty much predictable unlike the skilz... Those catskills mountains are some mean mothers.. But I do enjoy their challenge.. Keep the updates coming guys thanks..

So has anyone been out on DP? I would like to think that with all this warm weather we have had should of melted most if not all the snow & ice?? I'm really hoping to leave the crampons and micros @ home.......
Thoughts anybody???

I hiked Huntersfield Mtn (3450') this weekend. No snow. There might be a small amount of ice here-or-there on the DP right now. It is suppose to be in the 70's this week, so all the snow in the Catskill Mountains should have melted by this coming weekend. I think you are good to go.

It was close to 80 today. But, some hidden areas that do not get sun might still have ice on them. I would bring microspikes along with me.

i would vote for pack em. They're only a few pounds. We didn't on our expedition up Wittenberg on Sunday and paid the price with time and my buddy almost slipping right off the mountain. Wittenberg is more southern than devil's path, and they all have thick pine forests on top that shade the trails from the sun during the day. Even in 80 degree temps anywhere else, it's like a refrigerator on top of some of those mountains.