News photos — Chris Gaige Spectacular summit views are seen on Monday, April 7. From left, Gothics, Saddleback, Basin, Tabletop, Phelps, Marcy, Gray, Redfield, Colden, Wright, Algonquin and Santanoni are among the High Peaks that are visible on a clear day from Mount Van Hoevenberg.

LAKE PLACID — Snow and ice are usually good things at Mount Van Hoevenberg.

The mountain does, after all, boast a combined bobsled, luge and skeleton sliding track, as well as trails for Nordic skiing and biathlon events. The site has played host to two Olympic Games and numerous world cup events.

An understandably lesser-known facet of the Van Hoevenberg is its hiking trails. Unfortunately, ice and snow — at this time of the year — could make for a treacherous trek up the trail if one is not adequately prepared.

Mid-April is rife with deception when it comes to hiking trails that gain in elevation. The trailheads are typically devoid of snow and ice. While there may be some mud, things can otherwise seem quite pleasant. It may be sunny, birds could be chirping and the temperature could feel downright toasty.

Feel is, of course, the key word there. I’m well aware that anyone who’s spent more time in warmer regions would probably laugh out loud at the notion of the upper 40s or lower 50s constituting shorts or t-shirt apparel choices. But, for many of those who’ve soldiered the last few months in the northern Adirondacks freezer, the logic rings true.

The Mount Van Hoevenberg East trail almost brushes up against the Cliffside Coaster, left. The coaster is slated to open for the season on May 16.

While one may be tempted to get out on a local mountain or hill and make the most of the pleasant conditions, they ought to be prepared for a trail that will quickly turn back the clock on the seasons, and send hikers back to a full-fledged winter scene as they climb higher and higher.

Local experts, well aware of this quagmire, caution hikers to stick to flatter, lowland trails this time of year. For those heading up high, the advice is to pack and prepare as if it’s the middle of winter. This, in my opinion, is often more apparent and frequently heeded when folks are preparing to ascend the area’s High Peaks, most of which tower above 4,000 feet, and there is an inherent expectation that conditions up high will be wintry well past when spring blooms down below.

Mount Van Hoevenberg, on the other hand, has a summit elevation of 2,939 feet.

Its two hiking trails, although still of moderate difficulty, are considered to be much easier than many High Peaks and other smaller mountains in the Lake Placid area. Despite this, the above cautionary note on conditions holds true, at least for this time of year until sustained warmer weather pushes the snow and ice line beyond the reaches of Mount Van Hoevenberg’s slopes.

For those who have the appropriate traction on their footwear, such as microspikes that bite into the snow and ice with each step, providing for more stable movement, a 1.7-mile jaunt (3.4 miles round trip) richly rewards hikers with spectacular 180-degree plus views of numerous High Peaks and the surrounding landscape. During an otherwise sluggish time of the year for tourism attractions locally, a hike up the Mount Van Hoevenberg East trail made for a soothing and tranquil Visiting Lake Placid feature.

News photo — Chris Gaige Mount Van Hoevenberg’s summit is seen on Monday, April 7.

There are two different trailheads, to Van Hoevenberg’s summit. The East trail, this column’s focus, begins at the Mountain Pass Lodge. From Lake Placid, head east along state Route 73. Be sure to drive past and not turn on to Adirondack Loj Road, which is where the other trailhead begins. Make a right turn onto Van Hoevenberg Way, about 6 miles from state Route 73’s intersection with state Route 86 in Lake Placid. Continue on Van Hoevenberg Way to Parking Lot B, about three-quarters of a mile. The parking is free and is just below the Mountain Pass Lodge, which provides water fountains, restrooms during its regular hours — always a bonus and never a given at Adirondack trailheads.

My only gripe in writing this column is that hiking trailhead signage around the lodge is somewhat scant, making it confusing to find the path for those who haven’t yet hiked the East trail. Walking up from the parking lot, you’ll want to stay to the right side of the lodge to access the trail. You’ll find a paved ramp leading toward the track’s base.

I hope this doesn’t come as too much of a letdown, but the paved trail does not last long — about 150 feet from the lodge. At that point, a coarse gravel path intersects from the left. When I hiked on Monday, April 7, a sign for the trailhead pointed to the right and toward the paved path’s continuation. This is incorrect. Turn left onto the gravel and proceed uphill. Shortly thereafter, there is a sign-in register for hikers. From there, it’s hard to lose the trail.

Though I joked above about the trail not being paved for long, the Mount Van Hoevenberg East trail is one of the most well-built trails in the Adirondacks. Its construction wrapped up in 2021, capping off a three-year intensive effort to produce a trail that, unlike so many others in the Adirondacks, will hold up well into the future against erosion and widening while supporting frequent foot traffic. The trail is lined with hundreds of stone staircases, making for an easier ascent, especially after the ice and snow melt.

Drainage pathways are incorporated along the sides of the trail in many spots, preventing mud and standing water from accumulating. While there were a handful of muddy patches, they were few and far between. Spring is notorious for producing such conditions as the hefty snowpack slowly melts away and, not to sound like a broken record, but the Mount Van Hoevenberg East trail is substantially less muddy than almost every other hiking trail in the Adirondacks this time of the year.

The trail was also built with numerous switchbacks, which make for a gentler incline that tends to parallel a line of elevation rather than run perpendicular to it. In other words, the trail does not barrel directly up the mountain’s slope, which would be considerably steeper and cause the trail to erode quickly.

The elevation gain from the trailhead to the summit is about 970 feet. As I made my way up the mountain, the bare forest slowly, but surely, began to showcase more and more snow. What were just spotty white dots and patches here and there at lower parts of the mountain became more consistent until, as noted at the beginning of the article, conditions were fully back to winter.

Trail conditions from here on out would be especially dangerous for those without proper traction devices. In addition to a solid snowpack in many stretches of trail, ongoing freeze-thaw-freeze cycles as of late resulted in some sizable pools of smooth, and to be sure, very slippery, pools of ice along the trail.

It’s very important to remember here that if one is able to scale the snow and ice on the way up, and remain unscathed, it’s an even more precarious feat to manage on the way back down. Gravity is then working to accentuate the lack of traction from the ice and snow, rather than mitigate it, as is often the case on the way uphill — something that is easy to fail to take into account until it’s too late.

Carefully making my way through the ice and snow, I soon summited. As promised, the view was marvelous. While overcast, the cloud deck was high enough to leave the snow-capped High Peaks visible. I had the summit to myself, hardly surprising for the middle of a Monday in early April.

I inched my way toward, but not too close, to the edge of the summit’s rocky outcropping. Even as I remained a safe distance from it, it was more than enough to fill my stomach with butterflies. The ledge appeared to drop perhaps 100 or so feet down to a forest below. Perhaps a closer approach would have yielded a more accurate height assessment, but it sure it wasn’t going to be me getting close to the edge and I sure as heck don’t recommend it be you, reader, either.

After getting my photos and taking a short rest to admire the beauty, I began the trek down, careful not to rush it, given the trail conditions. As I returned to the lower elevations and bare ground returned, I was able to pick things up. Before I knew it, I was back to my car. In all, the hike took me just under 2 hours, which seems to be an average time of what others have reported for those curious about roughly how much time to budget for the activity.

The Mount Van Hoevenberg East trail makes for a relatively mellow and very picturesque way to spend part of a day. That takeaway comes with the caveat — for the next couple of weeks, at least — that hikers are prepared and have the right gear to provide traction in the ice and snow. If not, the views will still be there when the weather warms and the trail fully thaws out. For more information on the trail, visit mtvanhoevenberg.com/todo/hiking.