The Quest for Cascade and Porter's Summit Views

It was 12/19/19 which means I had finally finished all four of my finals. Krista Cook had come up to visit the night before to visit. On the 19th, we woke up, got ready, put air in Krista's tires and then drove up to the Adirondacks. We had planned on doing Armstrong but got a bit of a late start and didn't arrive to the Adirondacks until 9AM, meaning we would spend the last few hours of the hike in the dark. Instead, we opted for some more Type I fun and changed our plans to Cascade and Porter instead.

I had hiked these peaks as a freshman in college, but I had done so in a whiteout, so I never got to see the views (which were supposed to be some of the best of the 46ers).

It was a fairly clear but cold morning, with summit temperatures forecasted to be -26 degrees Fahrenheit with windchill and 40mph winds.

Hair freezes when it's too close to your warm breath.

It had been a while since I've done some high peaks that felt easy. It was really nice to spend a Type I fun kind of day on Cascade and Porter. The views were lovely and the climbing felt easy. I felt like it never even really got very steep at all. I had fun taking in the beautiful winter vistas with Krista and taking our time and as many photos as we pleased.

The trails only had a dusting of light snow. It had been warm and even rained the week before. We used boots for a while and then switched to microspikes due to ice.

It wasn't before long when we reached treeline. Krista and I both gasped as we took in the bare rock before us leading up to the summit of Cascade. It was beautiful and I was excited!

I'm really glad I hiked Cascade again. We were the only ones on the mountain which was crazy, knowing that the peak can see 400+ visitors on a nice summer day. The winds felt powerful as we moved across the open summit and I loved the views.

Porter has some nice views too... it definitely gets a bit overshadowed by Cascade though. I remembered the large boulder near the summit from the first time I hiked the peak.

These were my second and third repeat mountains (I rehiked Giant as part of the Giant-RPR-Bald traverse). Cascade and Porter were actually my second and third mountains for my first 46er round as well!

I had a great time on this hike, but I definitely wouldn't want to contribute to a 400+ person crowd in the summer. So if I do these again, I'd probably stick to winter again. I think Cascade would offer a lovely sunrise or sunset though!