[Ben Smith]

Thanks to the warm weather a lot of snow had melted away, so the wife and I had decided to go ahead and tackle Dorr Mountain via the ladder trail. For an extra challenge, the wife lead the entire hike (except for a few technical sections on the way up, and one route correction on the way back down the north ridge). As expected, a good chunk of the ladder trail was iced up, but the views were great and the hike down the north ridge was uneventful and very pleasant.

Melyssa making her way up the ladder trail

Melyssa taking on one of the iced up ladders (one of the few sections I lead)


More "ice climbing" below one of the many ice falls on the ladder trail.


Heading on up below more ice.


Looking over at Champlain, the weather was perfectly clear.


As usual, the summit dome was a skating rink.


Melyssa takes a quick break to enjoy the view.


Looking over at Cadillac...too bad we ran out of time, but there's always next week.


Melyssa on the summit (we were trying for a better summit photo, but the batteries died, so this is all we have ).