DSettahr
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- Apr 23, 2005
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2 others and myself from the Paul Smith's Outing Club did Gothics from the Ausable Club yesterday on snowshoes. The road into Lower Ausable Lake had about 2 inches of snow on it- it was flat enough that you could get away with using snowshoes though.
After leaving the road and heading up past rainbow falls towards Pyramid and Sawteeth, the snow got deeper quickly. At the junction between the trails for Sawteeth and Gothics, it was probably about a foot or so deep. Also, we ran into another VFTT'er at the junction who was heading up Sawteeth and then over to Gothics and down again.
The trail up over Pyramid and to Gothics was fairly steep in places. Unfortunately, there was very little ice on the rock faces beneath the snow, so we really didnt have anything to dig our crampons into. On the way up we had some nice views of Noonmark and Giant. At the summit there was about 2-3 feet of snow in sheltered areas.
Unfortuantely, clouds set in at the summit before we got there, and there was no view at all. For about 15 seconds, the clouds broke and we had an awesome view of the sunset and the John's Brook Valley. Then the clouds set in again and the view was gone.
As we worked our way down the trail that descends along the ridge sticking out of Armstrong, it got dark. Fortunately the clouds thinned up a bit and the moon was out, aiding the light from our headlamps. There were some slippery spots along the trail down, and the snow wasnt deep enough to prevent roots from occaisionally catching our snowshoes. When we got back to the road, we walked back using only the moon to light our way.
Overall, the trip took us about 11 hours. We were slowed by the fact that no one has climbed Gothics within the past week at least, and we were breaking trail the entire way. Went to the Noonmark Diner afterwords, and had a nice dinner.
After leaving the road and heading up past rainbow falls towards Pyramid and Sawteeth, the snow got deeper quickly. At the junction between the trails for Sawteeth and Gothics, it was probably about a foot or so deep. Also, we ran into another VFTT'er at the junction who was heading up Sawteeth and then over to Gothics and down again.
The trail up over Pyramid and to Gothics was fairly steep in places. Unfortunately, there was very little ice on the rock faces beneath the snow, so we really didnt have anything to dig our crampons into. On the way up we had some nice views of Noonmark and Giant. At the summit there was about 2-3 feet of snow in sheltered areas.
Unfortuantely, clouds set in at the summit before we got there, and there was no view at all. For about 15 seconds, the clouds broke and we had an awesome view of the sunset and the John's Brook Valley. Then the clouds set in again and the view was gone.
As we worked our way down the trail that descends along the ridge sticking out of Armstrong, it got dark. Fortunately the clouds thinned up a bit and the moon was out, aiding the light from our headlamps. There were some slippery spots along the trail down, and the snow wasnt deep enough to prevent roots from occaisionally catching our snowshoes. When we got back to the road, we walked back using only the moon to light our way.
Overall, the trip took us about 11 hours. We were slowed by the fact that no one has climbed Gothics within the past week at least, and we were breaking trail the entire way. Went to the Noonmark Diner afterwords, and had a nice dinner.
