Our mountain

Per Wikipedia:

The Adirondack High Peaks is the name given to 46 mountain peaks in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, USA that were originally believed to comprise all of the Adirondack peaks higher than 4,000 feet (1,219 m). However, later surveying showed that four of the peaks in the group are actually under this elevation, and one peak that should have been included was overlooked. Due to tradition, no mountains were removed from or added to the group as a result of the revised elevation estimates.

Our camp was surrounded by 6 much smaller peaks. The tallest of these was Mt Stevens. For such a small peak, it got a lot of traffic because you could climb it directly from camp. As a result, there were three separate trails to take you to the summit. It was not a long climb, probably about a mile with 1000-1500 feet of elevation gain. The unofficial record to climb it was something ridiculous like 15 minutes, set by a cross country runner we had on staff one year.

A lot of the troops that came through camp would climb it as a 1/2 day trip and some would even camp out overnight. Our camp offered a week long course of instruction in "Wilderness Survival", and the final night involved climbing Mt Stevens and constructing a shelter. The interesting aspect of this idea is that the summit of Stevens is bald, just rocks and grass. There is not much wood at all. There is certainly not enough for 20 or so campers to put together any form of shelter. It made for extremely good views, but extremely poor shelter building. Fortunately, all you needed was a sleeping bag. Even without one, you would be cold, but it was not life threatening in any sense.

There was one adult who broke his ankle on the summit and had to be rescued via helicopter. I was not there for that, I only know about it second hand. I was involved in another quasi rescue though. It is a bit of a stretch to call it a rescue. One morning, two junior staff members did not report for breakfast. They had signed out of camp the previous eveving that they were going to climb Stevens. We determined that they were most likely lost. I think there were about 8 of us who split up on the various trails trying to find them. While it was ostensibly a search, we all decided that it was also a race to see who would get to the summit first. Consequently, there was not a lot of searching going on. As luck would have it, when I reached the summit there were our two "lost" staff members. All that had happened was they slept in. When we arrived they were sitting around a fire and having a good time. They were quite surprised to see us. It was a fun start to the day.

I did have my own close call on Stevens. Near the summit, it is pretty important to follow the marked trail because there is a section where the rocks are quite steep. Too steep for me to climb comfortably without a rope. I had set out alone one evening and was rushing to make it up before nightfall. Like most situations that escalate, this could have been prevented with some planning. I could have started earlier and I could have brought a flashlight. I could have turned around as soon as I realized I was off the trail. Instead, I pushed on. At some point I realized that I was stuck. I had gone too far to safely move up or down and it was quickly getting dark. The rock was not vertical, but it was steep enough that I had my body pressed against it.

The transition from day to night is quite gradual. However, the transition from dusk to night is not. This was the first time I had been really scared on this mountain. I knew that I was not going to be able to find my way. I found myself passing from scared to panicked. I began to worry that it would rain even though there were plenty of stars. I realized that I had not signed out, so no one would know where I was. This probably passed in a few moments, but it felt much longer. Once I could think clearly, I managed to get to a section where I felt relatively secure. Then I waited. Waited for morning. In the end, I got lucky. It was not super cold and it didn't rain. Once the sun came up I was able to make my way off the cliffs and back down. I didn't tell anyone about it because it was my own fault. It is not a grand adventure when your own stupidity is to blame.