Each year, over the Martin Luther King (MLK) holiday weekend in January, the club offers a weekend of ice climbing, back-country skiing, and snowshoeing in the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York.. Down hill skiing is also possible at Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid.
For the last few years, we have booked accommodation at the Rock and River lodge located near Keene, New York. The lodge is at the start of the famous Jack Rabbit Ski Trail and is close to the ice climbing areas of the Keene Valley/Chapel Pond, Cascade Pass and the North Face of Pitchoff.
You’ll need to come with climbing or skiing partners or be prepared to utilize guiding/instruction services. Shared transport etc will be arranged closer to the event.
Registration Process
Beds are first come-first serve and registration opens roughly eight months before the MLK weekend.
The booking covers Friday evening – Monday morning of the MLK weekend.
In order to maximize the number of people that can come on the trip and to keep the price down, the club rents out queen beds by the half, in addition to a number of single beds. If you’d like your own queen bed, you can rent both halves. If you don’t want to share a bed with someone you don’t know, you may want to coordinate renting the same bed with a friend when reservations open.
If you rent a spot and need to cancel, you will need to find someone to transfer your spot to.
There will be a waitlist once all the spots are taken. If you cancel, your spot will be offered to the first person on the waitlist. If they accept, you will need to arrange reimbursement from your replacement – we can tell you whom that is. If there’s no one left on the waitlist – and you can’t find a replacement – you will still be responsible for the cost – unfortunately we cannot offer refunds for this event.
The price of accommodation is typically around $200 for the three nights and you will be sent an invoice for this once registration is complete.
Rock and River Details
Check out the Rock and River website for more information about the venue. In addition to a variety of rooms to choose from, there are two kitchens for those who have sufficient post-climbing or post-skiing energy to cook. Or you can utilize a variety of restaurants, mostly in Lake Placid a few miles away.
Photos and testimonials from previous club trips:
“Rock and River was a fantastic place to stay and the club should book both lodges for MLK next year again. It turned out the ice climbing was great and people also enjoyed the skiing and hiking, and of course both the guide’s house and the climber’s lodge are perfect bases for a winter ADK weekend.”
