Basin and Saddleback 35'th and 36'th High Peak Ascent

Basin and Saddleback Mountains

The 9'th and 17'th highest peaks in New York State with elevations of 4,827 and 4,515 ft.

Climbed Sunday 8-2-15 with my good friend Paul and his son Peter.

I decided after my last climb that when I returned to climb Basin and Saddleback I could not do it in one day. I thought that it would be a great time to try a stay at JBL.

So I went on line and made reservations for a one night stay. I e-mailed ahead and requested three trail lunches for Sunday morning pick up. We then would return for dinner, spend the night, and then leave after breakfast on Monday morning and drive home. On Sunday morning we left Speculator at 5:00 AM and arrived at the Garden Parking Lot around 7:00. We were lucky to get one of the few spots left in the Garden lot. The shuttle was running but it is still nicer and quicker if you can park there. We signed in at the register and then hiked straight in towards JBL. It was a clear and sunny day and the trail was a lot dryer than a couple of weeks ago when Josh and I had hiked this same route. We signed in again at the T intersection for the Interior Outpost and arrived at JBL around 8:15.

We stopped in at JBL for a few minutes to get our trail lunches and to drop off our overnight gear in our room. At JBL there are two bunkrooms for sleeping 10 and two that sleep four. We had one of the four bunkrooms but since no one else came in our room we three had it all to ourselves which was nice because the rooms are cozy.

We got to hiking again and we arrived at Slant Rock around 10:00.

After Peter climbed Slant Rock we hiked a very short distance and took the much maligned Shorey’s Short Cut up and over towards Basin. This was as bad as I had remembered it.

Paul was really feeling it and was bringing up the rear with me in the lead.

Peter was in the middle and did a nice job kind of bridging the gap between the first and third members of our party. After we headed towards basin Paul and I would switch places as he got his second wind and I began to drag.

Peter again stayed in the middle not loosing sight of the head or the tail. We summited Basin at 12:00 PM.

We had seen several people between the Garden and Slant Rock but hadn’t seen anyone since Slant Rock and the summit of Basin. But while we were on Basin another single hiker showed up from the Saddleback side and said he was going to meet his wife who was climbing Marcy. Seemed weird to me that they were both hiking in the same area climbing different mountains at the same time but not together. Oh well to each his own. He reported to us that the cliffs coming down off Saddleback were dangerous. The way down Basin towards Saddleback wasn’t too bad but it was steep and wet in a couple places and I did take a little slip banging scraping up both knees and forearms pretty good.

It had been a long time since I took a spill like that and it reminded me just how dangerous this could be and how important it was to always be aware and careful. If you get hurt there is no quick or easy way out. We also passed a group of boys with full packs climbing up Basin who had also descended the cliffs of Saddleback. The two leaders told us about the danger of the cliffs. Having now gone up them I have no idea how those kids with full packs got down them without someone getting killed! 

The ascent to Saddleback wasn’t too bad until we reached the “cliffs” directly below the summit. I’m not sure what I thought the cliffs were from talking to other hikers or from the trail reports I had read but this was not it. The cliffs looked more to me like a steep rock slide with absolutely no hand or foot holds in several places. In fact getting onto the cliff was such a stretch that I don’t think I would have been able to get onto it unless Paul had literally pulled me up onto it.

Unfortunately I had my camera in my front pants pocket and the lens got damaged and my pants got a couple holes ripped in as I got pulled up the rock face. The next part of the ascent up Saddleback was so terrifying and hectic that words can’t express my impressions. Paul took a couple of pictures of me on the cliffs and although it shows what we were doing still nothing can do justice to the danger and the fear that we experienced on this ascent.

Up until this point climbing the trap dyke on Colden was the most dangerous thing I had ever done in my life, not just climbing but ever! I think the cliffs of Saddleback were even a notch above the danger of the dyke. 

At one point I asked Paul to take a few pictures of me and he said “ok but you better make it because I’m not going to show these pictures at your funeral” I don’t think he was kidding either. He also said “I’m getting vertigo just taking these pictures”.

Well obviously everything worked out and we all three made it to the summit of Saddleback at 2:30.

The descent down Saddleback and back to JBL was long but not difficult and I was extremely grateful to not have to hike out the last 3.5 miles to the Garden that night and to be able to get a good nights rest. We came down via the Ore Bed slide and without question the largest set of steps in the Adirondack Mountains. This is a truely unique feature and we were very glad to have them.

Without the stairs the descent down the slide would have been much tougher.

We arrived back at JBL at 4:00 PM. We then had a couple hours to wash up in the river, change clothes, and to rest until dinner at 6:30. At that point we were all famished but dinner was a nice spread of garden salad, bread, green veggies, and shepherd’s pie. After dinner we hung out and played cards and turned in after 8 PM. Breakfast was served promptly at 7:30 and was scrambled eggs, bacon, canned peaches, biscuits, orange juice, and coffee.

After breakfast we packed up and left JBL at 8:00 AM and hiked back to the Garden and signed out at 9:45.

This was another great experience in he High Peaks and will be remembered for the comfortable JBL stay and the terror of the Saddleback cliffs. In all we hiked 13.1 miles in 9 hours on Sunday and 3.5 miles in 1 ¼ hours on Monday.