Hmmm, I haven't been to the Catskills in a while but I used to spend a fair amount to time in them, as I remember, at night the temps can still fall below 15. My favorite hike up there is probably the Devil's Path, something like 21 miles end to end with lots of up and down (I'll be doing it around Mar 7th). The Escarpment Trail is another good one, but is also end to end. Not too much in the way of loops, there is one that requires a small bit of road walking (name now escapes me) but has Slide Mtn as part of it. Seems like you're pretty spot on with ice, snow, etc. There have been a couple times where snowshoes were needed but this is more typical of earlier on. 20 miles a day in the Catskills in Mar would be overly optimistic, don't think I ever did 20 MPD in the Catskills even in the summer.

hey, did I ever tell ya just how much I hate the ups and down...yep, I really do. Can't wait to get somewhere up on top...and just go...pose I gotta go to Virginia for that. But I didn't say I was to smart either...so you never know.

...will be following this thread.

Sounded like another Kevin has pretty good info on hiking in the Catskills, you might check with him.
On a more somber note,hiking in the Catskills in March can be dangerous, please be careful

rocksNsocks wrote:

hey, did I ever tell ya just how much I hate the ups and down...yep, I really do. Can't wait to get somewhere up on top...and just go...pose I gotta go to Virginia for that. But I didn't say I was to smart either...so you never know.

...will be following this thread.

i actually like ups and downs better than a long steep up or a long steep down. it works different muscle groups and i dont tire as quickly.a 2 hour steep downhill is hell on this ol man's legs, i swear sometimes i pray for a short uphill break during long steep downs, keeps me goin farther.

1st week in March is be "prepared for anything" and there will be last minute calls based on weather. So I'll have snowshoes handy but will hope to leave them behind and just rely on carrying microspikes. And I always carry a bit of rope just in case - there are a couple places that are short but quite steep so a self-belay as a safety measure is something I prepare for, nothing too complicated though just makes me feel safer (yeah, I do a lot, but not all, of this solo). Even with the short daylight hours I expect to make it in 2 strong days but 2 ½ may be more realistic. And there are a couple of bail out spots along the way to keep in mind. A 0 degree bag will be along for the trip.

I've done the Presi traverse in winter in 24 hours but those were the ultimate conditions. Couple days beforehand it had rained and then temps dropped dramatically and froze everything solid: temps stayed 0-10 with only minimal winds leading into Mt Washington. Never took the snowshoes off our packs, just walked in crampons the entire way. That was my 3rd attempt - first 2 resulted in bailouts.

Devils Path is different than a Presi though; lots of ridge line to walk on the Presi, DP is unrelenting up and down; I like the up, not so much the down.

And how dangerous is it? That's leads to a subjective answer: I think it's less dangerous than the Whites in the shoulder seasons (people underestimate the Whites in those seasons and under prepare) but it's still winter hiking so anything can happen.

The Catskills are lovely, and I do enjoy hiking them. And people do hike them year-round.

That said, the high peaks are not reliably free of ice until May. Right now, there's next to no snowpack up there, but that can change at any time. If there is any amount of snowpack, the trails at the higher elevation tend to turn into the 'monorail' - where snowshoes pack the snow, more snow blows in, more packing, until the trail is hard-packed with soft snow on either side. Come the snowmelt, the soft snow melts away leaving a strip of ice right down the trail.

How are you with free-solo mixed-ice-and rock? Devil's Path and Burroughs Range are both pretty scrambly. The Devil's Path, to me, seems comparable in difficulty to the Wildcats in New Hampshire. It doesn't have the above-timberline conditions, but it's got everything else. Infamous bits are the Corkscrew Chimney on the east side of Indian Head:
[IMG:http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/09/25/arts/25devil500.1.jpg]

the shelf on the north side of Twin:
[IMG:http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3767/9764802355_0bc472276d.jpg]
Rock scramble by ke9tv, on Flickr

and similar sections on Sugarloaf, Plateau, and coming up from Stony Clove onto Hunter. From Hunter over Westkill and Saint Anne, by comparison, is a piece of cake!

The Burroughs Range loop has the Cornell Crack:
IbaFE2Hat8E
(start at 1:00 for examples of how not to do it, and that guy at the end of the video is damned lucky because there's a 50-foot drop below him!)

and the east side of Slide Mountain below the ladders, where a few more sections of ladder would really come in handy:
[IMG:http://darntoughvt.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/2.jpg?w=320&h=426]

[IMG:http://static.flickr.com/3091/3183604309_8e41d5a8fd_d.jpg]
Yes. That's the trail. Notice that the hiker's boots are at treetop height.

March is when you can get anything. You could have a balmy spring day, or deep snow, or (more likely, and more dangerous) heavy ice that is perhaps getting ready to part company with the rock. I did a day trip on Balsam and Haynes mountains (northwest of the Burroughs) in March two years ago, and wound up turning back from a planned climb of Eagle because of unsound ice. That was the first time, I think, that I ever hiked in T-shirt, shorts, ice axe and crampons. It must have got up to nearly 80 degrees that day, but of course the ice takes a while to melt.

Given your speed, I think that a safer trip for you would be a figure 8 around the Escarpment. Start from Schutt Road - there is trailhead parking just before the gates of the North-South Lake campground. That's where the Escarpment Trail now begins. Follow the blue blazes around the south escarpment (don't miss the short side trip to the top of Kaaterskill Falls!), past the Catskill Mountain House site, over Artist Rock, check out the half-mile side trip to Bear's Den/Sunset Rock, then continue up over Newman's Ledge, North Point, North Mountain, Stoppel Point with its plane crash, down through Dutcher's Notch, over Arizona Mountain and up Blackhead.

If Blackhead is icy, don't attempt the north side without ice axe and crampons. You can go down to the west fairly safely on microspikes, descend from the col to the Batavia Kill, and rejoin the Escarpment Trail by the spur trail that serves the Batavia Kill shelter. Whichever way you're able to go, finish the trail over Windham High Peak, but come out to the south in Big Hollow rather than going all the way to Route 23.

From there it's a couple of miles of roadwalk to the trailhead for the Black Dome Range Trail. You can take that back up to Blackhead, and turn back on the Escarpment as far as North Point. Below North Point, turn off on either the Rock Shelter or Mary's Glen trail and take one of those out to the road in North/South Lake and out the gate to where you left your car.

This loop is about 35-40 miles, visits four of the high peaks (one of them twice) and takes in one jaw-dropping view after another. And it's fairly easy as Catskill hikes go. There's some scrambling on Blackhead and Black Dome, but nothing that can't be done on microspikes most winters.

Needless to say, mountain weather is capricious. For a rough guess, assume that it will be 15-20 degrees colder and 30 mph higher winds than whatever they're forecasting for Catskill or Saugerties, and plan accordingly.

I'm envious, and I think this would be a great trip if I could keep up with you. But I know I can't, particularly in winter, and I wouldn't be safe trying.

By the way, what's "hard core" for the Catskill hikers is the Nine Peak Loop. Starting from Route 47, it does Table, Peekamoose, Lone, Rocky, Balsam Cap, Friday, Wittenberg, Cornell and Slide. The four peaks from Lone to Friday are all bushwhacks through very dense vegetation (red spruce - think Christmas trees planted two feet apart with their branches interwoven). When I did Giant Ledge and the Burroughs in October, I was passed by about eight hikers doing the big loop - and I knew at once that's what they were doing, by their scratched-up skin and torn clothing. I've never attempted such a feat, and likely never will. I'm much more likely to do Balsam Cap and Friday from Moon Haw Road and Rocky and Lone from a base camp near the Neversink. When I get around to doing them and line up suitable companions. Doing that sort of trip solo would be way beyond my risk tolerance.

There is lots of good hike information over on catskillmountaineer.com.

How bout that AK, he is on top of it...I think we should nominate him for Field Trip Chairman, Activities Director, and probably some other stuff too. Nice report Kevin.

And sometime the Mountain really does come to Mohamed.

You got me laughing with your original post Lazarus, you're gonna die.

I've just done a little day hiking along the escarpment in the summer time, and the views were beautiful. Why, it looked like it could have been a Thomas Cole painting I definitely would not want to be slipping on the ice near the escarpment in the Winter time, it is a long way down.

Enjoy!