By Vincent Schaefer 
Compiled and Edited by Don Rittner

Published 2013

Pages 258-259

Shortly after we formed the Hiking Club, we began to hear that the Winter Olympic Games were to be located at Lake Placid in 1932. The Lake Placid Club was deeply involved in the politics of these arrangements. As the plans began to develop in the next year or two, a number of us decided that it would be fun to attend the games. However, none of us could afford to stay in Lake Placid, or to pay the admissions fees to the competitions.

However- we decided it would be fun to be in the region so we might see and possibly meet some of the athletes. Accordingly, Bill Gluesing and I went to Lake Placid in 1931 and approached Harry Hicks, who we knew was very prominent in the Lake Placid Club, to find out if the Club would permit us to stay in the open face Adirondack log lean-tos clustered along the shore of Lake Clear of Heart, at the Adirondack Loj.* This was the trailhead of Marcy and others of the High Peaks of the mountains.

We obtained permission and soon began to construct down and balloon cloth sleeping bags of the type designed and tested by John Apperson and Irving Langmuir. Within a short time we had obtained (through the help of the General Electric Purchasing Department) large bolts of balloon cloth and, from a local furniture maker who was a member of the hiking club, nearly a hundred pounds of goose down. We were advised to put three pounds of down in each of the bags and before long, had between 20 and 30 beautiful sleeping bags constructed. Many of these are still in use after nearly sixty years!

As the period of the games approached, everyone was anxiously watching the weather.

As sometimes happens in our region, a warm spell of weather is likely to occur during the latter part of January or early February.

On Saturday, February 6, a group of sixteen members of the club left Schenectady early in the morning, loaded their three cars, and headed for Lake Clear of Heart, southeast of Lake Placid. Arriving at the junction of the road, we found it to be plowed and, as a result, headed south to see how far in we could go. With the small amount of snow (which had everyone concerned with the Olympic Games worried), we had no trouble driving all the way to Adirondack Loj. There we found a substantial amount of snow in the woods and the log lean-tos ready for occupancy. In short order we had our camping gear installed, a large amount of dry wood accumulated, and a cooking fire burning. 

The group camped in lean-tos for eight nights and had temperatures ranging from -28F To +51F. Although the Olympic  ski jumping, cross country and other ski events had to depend on snow hauled in by railroad and truck, the snow at the winter camp was deep and powdery until the last several days of our stay. Climbs of Mounts Marcy and MacIntyre , and to Indian Pas, were made in deep snow with glare ice on the summits. 

Several trips were made to Lake Placid to see the skiers and skaters and to go ski joring on Mirror Lake, pulled by Bill Gluesing's Ford touring car. We met the Swedish Cross Country skiers, who had discovered our excellent snow, and had an interesting talk with them. We also visited the German Bob Sled team, who were hospitalized when their sled leaped out of the course and smashed into a clump of trees. Since several of our club members were from Germany, our communication with them was quite satisfactory.

During the week, our group was augmented by nine other club members, so that we had a total of twenty-five campers before the trip ended. We had such a good time at Heart Lake that our anticipated attendance at the Winter Games turned out to be a lesser attraction than we had expected.