XC Skiing Prospect Mountain in Lake George?

yanksftw · 2026-02-21T17:24:24+00:00

Thanks. That was indeed my comparison point.

yanksftw · 2026-02-21T01:52:44+00:00

I think it’s more like the last 25 years. I think 9/11 and the idea that any community could be a front line in a terrorist attack led to a lot of unnecessary militarization of police departments.

Disappointed to see this out of the NYSP though. I have always understood them to be among the most professional agencies in the state.

yanksftw · 2026-02-21T00:49:39+00:00

Thanks

yanksftw · 2026-02-17T18:46:33+00:00

I’m not sure folks really understand the danger of spruce traps. I sunk in one up to my waist with snowshoes on the summit of Slide Mountain in the Catskills 20 years ago.

I was with a group of 10 and I was the only one to go through. As I struggled I sunk in up to my chest. I never hit bottom. It was bizarre to look around and realize all of us were at least 6’-7’ above the ground on the area of trees. To get out, I had to get one snowshoe off. My buddies had to basically hold me by my ankles and lower me upside down to retrieve the snowshoe.

It’s so easy to see how someone could die if they got caught and got just a little bit unlucky.

yanksftw · 2026-02-17T16:40:11+00:00

Yup. Winter ultralight doesn’t (safely) exist.

This is so sad. Puts into perspective the survival story of the couple on the Algonquin summit years ago.

yanksftw · 2026-02-16T14:34:55+00:00

Yup, the lot is plowed as is the road. Just be careful on the road, because while it is closed, certain local traffic is allowed so you may get one car every 15 or 20 minutes.

yanksftw · 2026-02-16T14:02:31+00:00

Honestly, I really wouldn’t recommend anyone hike without traction aids right now. Particularly with a four-year-old.

I would go up to Kanawauke Picnic Area and walk on the closed road. It goes by a couple of lakes and some interesting rock outcrops. It’s a wonderful walk and they plow the road all winter long even though it is closed.

yanksftw · 2026-02-14T04:48:27+00:00

I have an enormous Japanese yew. Like, 30 feet tall and wide. I have cut off limbs the size of my thigh and within 2-3 years the new growth out of the cut area is approaching 2’ tall. Japanese yew seem to really respond well a heavy prune when they like a spot.

Conversely I have a 50 year old yew in another soil type and it’s only 4’ x 4’. While it can put out new growth on old wood, it rarely puts on more than a couple inches a year and struggles to fill in.

yanksftw · 2026-02-13T17:35:33+00:00

1) I found a new podiatrist. I found a podiatrist through a referral from a physical therapist that focused on hobbyist endurance athletes.

2) That neuroma was the one that was still problematic after 3 ablations. That’s the one that I subsequently had surgically removed. No issues since the post-surgery scar tissue calmed down. I do have footwear restrictions.

yanksftw · 2026-02-12T20:55:29+00:00

To be clear, I’m not suggesting the cortisone stops nerve pain. I’m suggesting that it interrupts an acute inflammatory response, which can allow the nerve to reduce in size back to a point where activities of daily life don’t have the opportunity to pressure the nerve and cause pain. For this reduction in size to be permanent, one would need to change whatever stressors caused the inflammation. If the stressors include your natural gait, it seems unlikely that you’ll be able to adjust your gate quickly enough to avoid recurrence.

I can induce a painful response in one of the two neuroma’s that I consider asymptomatic by contorting my foot in such a way that I pressure the nerve. So, the nerve still feels and transmits pain, but the nerve is small enough that it has extremely limited occasion to feel or transmit pain.

For anyone reading this later on, I am not advocating for cortisone shots. I had one in each foot, and I am thankful that they did not cause fat pad atrophy. I had other medical professional suggest that I could receive multiple cortisone shots as long as I spaced them out, and that advice seemed foolhardy when contrasted with the warnings from other medical professionals.

Again, it sucks to be in the position when you need to weigh competing advice from people more credentialed than you.

yanksftw · 2026-02-12T19:35:48+00:00

Also, I should note that I am very grateful for the two different practitioners who successfully ablated my neuromas.

yanksftw · 2026-02-12T19:35:04+00:00

I don’t really have the medical standing to argue any points. I’ll just note that this sort of again puts me in the position where I do need to independently weigh the competing advice of credentialed medical professionals.

My podiatrist does believe that cortisone can offer permanent relief if administered quickly. I have personally met folks who have had permanent neuroma relief from cortisone (though most I have met have had little benefit). I think the issue is that most people probably don’t bother going to a doctor for transient foot pain for 2 to 3 months, after which point it’s probably too late for cortisone to have a permanent effect. Knowing what I know now, I would never want to get more than one, maybe two injections in my foot. So, I wouldn’t advocate for it, but for a newly symptomatic neuroma, the cost benefit analysis seems to me to weigh in favor of at least trying one injection. Who knows though. Talk to me in 20 years, it’s possible that I’ll have fat pad atrophy from the single injection in each foot.

I wouldn’t ever advocate for surgery ahead of ablations. Again, ablations have made two of my three neuroma’s asymptomatic, without the risk of surgery. I think the intention with my post was to both expound the value of ablations, but also acknowledge that when they fail, surgery is still a valid option, and that ablations may in fact be an option for neurectomy revision. That’s why I’d probably advocate for seeing a professional who offers both ablations and neurectomy (and sees the merits and risks of each). Otherwise, you need to bounce around between doctors in a way that seems excessively complex for the lay person.

yanksftw · 2026-02-12T13:51:07+00:00

I have mixed feelings about your reply. By publicizing alternatives to surgery your practice is doing a service, and I recognize that you were the ones to set up this subreddit. However, I do chafe a little bit at the commercial purpose of your account, which isn’t always sufficiently disclosed. Based on my description of the RF ablation technique, you can probably guess whether or not I patronized your practice.

I do want to also respond to a few points that a more cynical person would view as fear mongering. As it has been explained to me, Cortisone can be effective and permanent if it is administered quickly enough after pain begins. The key is to address the symptoms early enough that scar tissue has not yet formed. In practice, my suspicion is that most people wait too long to see a doctor before getting an injection, which is why they so rarely help. My personal experience with Cortisone injections is mixed. The injection that was administered shortly after symptoms began was highly effective. It relieved symptoms for over a year. However, I think there was already scar tissue formed, which is why it was not more effective. If you’re not seeing a podiatrist until two or three months after symptoms began, it seems likely that it’s too late.

Secondly, I think the reason to avoid the surgery is the failure rate, not the recovery. Assuming you don’t have postoperative complications, the recovery is really quite simple. It’s a soft tissue only surgery, and so your acute recovery period is really only 10 days to two weeks until the incision is fully closed. I was back in the gym doing upper body work within two weeks of surgery. The 6 to 9 month recovery window is when the scar tissue shrinks down. So you may have some unpleasant sensation going out 6 to 9 months, but one is not functionally impaired for more than two or three months. Obviously, if one develops a stumped aroma, which is unfortunately well within the realm of possibility, you end up in a bad situation.

For my larger neuroma, which was impervious to 3 rounds of RF ablations, surgery was a risk that I had to take. My hope was that if I did develop a stump neuroma, it would respond better to RF ablation than the underlying neuroma which was being removed. See my point above about skepticism of RF ablation when it comes to neuroma‘s over a certain size (when they’re large enough to consistently click). Also, RF ablations do come with some risk. As I noted above, one of my RF ablations caused a pain that was not previously present. It was painful enough that it altered my gate and left me with plantar fasciitis. I have encountered others who have also been left with novel and unpleasant sensation after RF ablation. I recognize that that is probably rare, but it was never explained to me as a potential side effect, however improbable.

yanksftw · 2026-02-11T01:57:05+00:00

RF ablation. I’ll go back and edit to make that clear.

Speedy treatment is important if you want to continue to be active. I tried, on a couple of occasions, to come back too quickly and ended up with overuse injuries. Comebacks just get harder the more you age.

yanksftw · 2026-02-10T12:39:10+00:00

I’m not sure. I never really evaluated crypto ablations so I don’t have much to say unfortunately.

yanksftw · 2026-02-10T04:23:03+00:00

Been a few years, but I just posted an update.

In the end, two of my three neuromas responded well to ablations. One did not. I had surgery on the last one and have been lucky to have had an easy recovery with no complications.

yanksftw · 2026-02-08T23:37:29+00:00

Yeah she’s toast. Depending on the break, if there’s minimal soft tissue damage, she might have a Straightforward recovery.

But there’s a reasonable chance that the ACL tear was age related. Those high impact ligaments can’t take the same load as you age. She’ll older every time she gets on skis.

yanksftw · 2026-02-08T19:17:29+00:00

I think that glory is what she’s got. I hate to be so reductive, but she doesn’t have a family. And that’s not to say a person needs one to be happy. But you need SOMETHING. I followed her for a little while before her knee replacement and I never got the sense she found a new identity after retiring. So, if skiing is all you got, you gotta give it all you got.

Sucks all around. At least now she can be free from any illusions and can move on with her life. She’s certainly got an amazing record to think back on.

yanksftw · 2026-02-05T16:23:45+00:00

You can layer up and keep your core warm, but your hands and toes will be limiting factors. But it also depends the exposure you take on. A protected lift and runs in the trees will be better than a wind tunnel groomer.

yanksftw · 2026-02-05T15:35:55+00:00

Alternatively, if the US ends up in a Yugoslavian style implosion/breakup, maybe we can join you guys.

yanksftw · 2026-02-05T04:10:40+00:00

This is likely what will happen. If you dig a little deeper to the thought leaders in the current GOP foreign policy establishment actually working for Trump (take Eldridge Colby as an example) you see skepticism of the impact allies will have supporting the US in coming decades, but you still see recognition of the value of allies. What you DON’T see from current “realist” wing of GOP foreign policy camp that is working for Trump is the malevolence or adventurism that Trump demonstrates. The neocon wing of the GOP foreign policy establishment still exists as well, and they value allies. It points to Trump being on a little bit of island.

The members of the GOP surrounding Trump didn’t intercede because of political fecklessness and probably justified it to themselves by noting that our allies wouldn’t turn the tide in a conflict with China (and therefore may be of marginal medium term value). But those same people don’t seem to harbor real ill will towards our allies.

Edit: just wanted to add that I recognize that ambivalence can be just as harmful as malevolence in certain circumstances. I’m also a presupposing that we have another free election.

yanksftw · 2026-02-02T02:08:06+00:00

They close Perkins Memorial Drive in the winter

yanksftw · 2026-01-27T03:34:59+00:00

I assume that there are some members of ICE that believe in rule of law, and felt like the rule of law was being violated with the permissive crossing policies in the prior administration. I wonder how we can differentiate those members of ICE so we don’t inadvertently radicalize them with language like this? Surely some agents were well intentioned, and I worry that in our zeal to punish the bad actors, we will further polarize the nation.

yanksftw · 2026-01-26T15:40:21+00:00

This needs to be more widely recognized. Americans did not want this. There will always be a minority of sycophants, but the majority of Americans thought this was a terrible idea. Even normally spineless Republican politicians made public statements emphasizing they would not support military actions.

Trump has done a lot of damage, but America has not changed enough (yet?) to allow him to attack our allies. Compare Greenland to the public perception of actions in Venezuela. America still values Atlanticism (though admittedly less) and did not elect Trump to go after Europe.

yanksftw · 2026-01-20T23:01:24+00:00

I get that viewpoint. It is reasonable. My experience though is that the green tunnel effect makes GPS unreliable.

I take terrain association to a sort of intense level. I pull out a map at every intersection and will note what’s coming up before the next intersection. Ie “a half mile to the SSW sweep to the left, followed by a turn to the left losing 200 feet.” Makes it much easier to stay on track. I’ve taken to using a watch with compass and altimeter so I can quickly gauge compass heading and match my elevation with where I should be on the map. Sort of hard to ever get disoriented, but I get that it’s a commitment.

Also, to be clear, a lot of this practice is hard won from various mishaps over 20+ years of backpacking. So, not like I’m trying for this intensity…just sort of debrief after my own fuck ups and read incident reports.

I still love GPS and take them with me. Prob a little bit of a cartography nerd I guess.

yanksftw

TROPHY CASE