Hiking In A Frozen Wonderland

Liberty Mountain employee, Peter Swift shares his experience of hiking in a frozen wonderland...a winter-time hike along the Falls Trail in Ricketts Glen State Park.

Photo by Peter Swift.

Ricketts Glen State Park, and particularly, the Falls Trail, is a popular destination for PA employees. Westley Shaffer, a Liberty Mountain employee, hiked it a year ago,  the PA staff held a summer picnic there, and there is even an album on Liberty Mountain’s Facebook page with some pictures of a hike I took there several years ago.

Photo by Peter Swift.

This year we had a fantastic combination that doesn’t happen often: lots of water and lots of cold. After a couple straight weeks of nights in the single digits and days under 20 degrees, the ice started to come in.   Pennsylvania isn’t necessarily a destination for ice climbing, but that is only because of how sporadically we get consistent cold weather in the winter.  It isn’t for lack of water or locations! The Falls Trail at Ricketts Glen State Park features 21 different named waterfalls – up to 94 feet! In addition to all the waterfalls, the steep sides of the gorge also drip with water, creating impressive amounts of ice and plenty of opportunities for climbing.  The trail is closed from November through April, but climbers and hikers with appropriate gear and experience (defined by the park rangers as crampons, rope and an ice axe) are permitted to use the trail as long as they register with the park office in advance.

 

Photos by Peter Swift.

Because the opportunity to see so many iced over waterfalls is so rare, I quickly planned a trip with my friends Thad and Seth, and we all took a day off from our respective jobs to hike the trail.  None of us are experienced ice climbers, so we planned to just hike the trail and leave the climbing to the experts.  We got on the 7.5 mile trail around 9am, and after a brisk walk along the frozen stream, we entered the gorge and took in waterfall after waterfall!  It was spectacular – one amazing sight after another.  This is a trail that spoils any hiker with killer views, and we were especially spoiled since we had the trail entirely to ourselves most of the time.  The first sign of other people was some footprints in the snow above one of the highest falls – where someone noticed how icy the trail was and promptly bailed.    We eventually ran into a pair of climbers that started the hike from the top of the gorge, and they were beyond stoked to catch this window of opportunity for climbing.  It was also great to see them equipped with Grivel Rambo crampons and Grivel tools – always great to see our gear in use!

Photos by Peter Swift.

Photo by Peter Swift.

The warnings from the park office to be properly equipped were legitimate.  It didn’t take too long before we strapped on our crampons – without them, we definitely would not have made it particularly far.  Once strapped in, the confidence we had in each step was incredible. Grivel’s New-Classic binding system is simple, and keeps a vise-grip on our boots, so there was never any doubt of slipping.  In fact, I felt more sure of my footing than I have hiking it in the summer on wet stones! We were wearing the G1 and the G10 crampons respectively, and they all performed phenomenally.   In fact, during the entire hike, no one fell a single time until Seth took a stumble on flat ground about 100 feet from the parking lot at the end – something Thad and I will be sure to remind him of on future hikes.

We made it out of the gorge before 3pm – the hike definitely takes longer in the winter, though I don’t think it was because we were any slower hiking, I think it was because it was hard not to linger and look at every single waterfall!  This will definitely go down as one of my most memorable hikes, and the only complaint I have is that seeing the falls with ice makes the summer version look pretty lame in comparison.

Photo by Peter Swift.

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