BRINGING HOME A 1ST

Cooperstown Son, Dad
Establish Adirondack Record

By JIM KEVLIN • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com

The first three days on the 142-mile Northville-Placid Trail, “we had a nice crust,” said Henry Horvath, 15. “We made good time snowshoeing, and sometimes didn’t even need snowshoes.”

Day Four, “it warmed up. The crust was almost gone. We had two days of post-holing – stepping on snow and going down deep into snow. Even with snow shoes, we’d sink 6-7 inches.”

Until then, Horvath and his father, Tim, 50, had been hiking three miles an hour on roadway, two miles off-road – averaging 17.25 miles a day. That day, “it took five and a half hours to go eight and a half miles,” the son said, about half their best time.

But they soldiered on, the weather cooled, and on March 15, 2021, they completed the “unsupported” trek in 7 days, 9 hours, no minutes and no seconds, the first team to have recorded the accomplishment on FKT.com – for “fastest known times,” an international record-keeping site.

“Unsupported” means the Horvaths carried in lean provisions in 20-pound packs, including just two pairs of socks each – they slept in wet socks overnight, drying them with their body heat.

“They did something really amazing,” said Bethany Garretson, the Cherry Valley native, now a hiking enthusiast, an outdoor writer, a Paul Smiths College professor and a friend of the Horvaths.

Most people hike the NPT in summer. “In winter, it’s 142 miles of what could be breaking trails of very deep snow,” she said. “The High Peaks trails are climbed every weekend; they’re packed down.”

The NPT “doesn’t get packed in the winter. It’s back country. It’s out there,” said Garretson. “I’m glad they set it – and I think it’s going to stand for a while.”

“If people think it’s possible, they’ll want to beat it,” said Henry, who was picked up in Concord on Saturday, March 6, packed the next day, and the two departed on the 50-mile trip to Northville Monday, March 7.

The father-son team left nothing to chance. They’d been running, doing leg-lifts, hiking in the local woods. In February, they did an overnight hike on the NPT, 30 miles, to get an idea of what was in store.

Tim, proprietor of Red Point Builders, Cooperstown, is a notable outdoorsman, climbing Everest in 2014. But Henry’s been going along for a while, hiking through Yellowstone Park’s Tetons when he was 11, and two summers ago joining his father for an 11-day, 200-mile hike on the John Muir Trail in California.

Next year, they hope to climb Denali – former Mount McKinley, the nation’s tallest peak. And this was a test. “I knew he can’t go on bigger mountains until he has the skills – 140 miles in the middle of the Adirondacks in the middle of winter is a good school,” said the father.”

Added Henry, who’s a sophomore at The Middlesex School in Concord, Mass., “The more difficult it is, the more rewarding it is. That especially applied here.” (Mom Elizabeth and brother Oliver, 11, round out the family.)

Warm temperatures – up to 55 – slowed the hikers down. On the other end, they experienced a minus 20 wind chill. “One day your T-shirt is soaking wet,” said Tim. “Another day it’s hard to stay warm hiking the trail with all your gear on.”

It wasn’t all hard work. Witnessing wildlife, for instance, was a pleasure, said Henry.

Day Four, “we saw moose tracks,” he said, “which is really cool. There are 400 moose in the Adirondacks. We didn’t get to see a moose – even just to see the tracks was fun.”

Day 5, a bald eagle flew overhead.

Day Seven, “I saw a fisher cat running across a frozen lake. You can see them bound.” The fierce 10- to 14-pound animal eats mainly porcupine.

As for the scenery, “we were mostly in a tree tunnel. Those frozen lakes were cool to look at. The Blue Mountain is the only real peak; you don’t get all the way to the top, but you get the best view of the trip.

And the towns, Northville, Piseco, Long Lake, Lake Placid, added interest as well. But, with the “unsupported” definition, there was no stopping for pizza.

Seeking to set the toughest record for those who followed to break, walking 590,000 steps a day, then, “when you get to camp, setting up the tent, boiling water, cooking your own food,” said Tim, all for the luxury of sleeping five hours a night.

“You’re kept guessing until the last moment. Even if you’ve done 80 percent of the trail, it doesn’t mean you’re going to make it,” he said.

Cross-country skiers had left tracks on several points in the trail, but “the last day, we just about lost the trail of the skiers,” said the father. ” With small trail flashes sometimes covered with snow, “you can burn up hours looking for the trail.

“Until we got within a couple of miles, we weren’t sure we could make it.”

Happily, they did, said Henry, and friends were waiting at the Lake Placid trail head with a bottle of champagne.