BlackSpruce
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- Sep 8, 2003
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Friday saw Gary, Alex The Gazelle and I finally heading for Gothics from St. Huberts. Sure enough the Lower Range, via the Beaver Meadows Falls trail, decided to give us a tough time again. As always I broke, with great difficulty I must say, a ladder by-pass route to the left while Alex and Gary tackled the icy structure. I have rarely been able to descend the darn thing in winter without fainting… At first we found only an handful of inches of new snow over a hard base but upon reaching the 3800’ altitude it had deepen so much that the previous week tracks were nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless the trail was relatively easy to follow. Mind you The Gazelle long strides appeared more like a post holing job to the two vultures of the day who could barely keep up having to break trail again instead of cruising along! Once in the col and up to the summit the new snow was probably near 2 feet, we lost the trail a few times and only made it to the summit of Gothics because we knew the route very well as the visibility was extremely poor the last few hundred yards and the wind was erasing our tracks. It wasn’t cold but plenty damp in that spooky fog. The last five minutes I even took the precaution to strategically place some flagging (which I removed of course) to make sure we would head into the right direction upon returning from the summit. The cornice is now building up but still in a roller coaster shape (+/-10’) so we opted to slab its left side.
On Saturday morning, while The Gazelle feeling the pain of Gothics decided to stay in bed and Gary headed to LWJ, I went to Esther with four of our friends. To say that it was cold is an under-statement, while the thermometer never went below –8F, it felt frigid because of the particularly strong wind. At least on that day the sun warmed our hearts if nothing else. We first met two climbers who had smartly gave up on Whiteface and then another three who had done the same but headed for Esther afterwards. Actually because of the wind direction, the sun and the fact that the herdapth was a gorgeous white tunnel the temperature wasn’t as unforgiving trekking to Esther summit. Still as we enjoyed our lunches it was obvious that it was a totally different story on Whiteface itself which was in a total white-out and likely an impossible goal.
After Esther, we took again to the Wilmington Trail till it crosses the new Whiteface Mountain ski trail. Instead of crossing over we took a right and there it was, now being used by the downhill ski patrol, still standing pretty the 1950’s Porcupine Lodge. Inside one will find in one end a small room with a propane stove and a welcoming crew when in attendance. Even though it’s certainly locked when unoccupied it’s still nice to know there is a winter emergency shelter open when the new trails on Lookout Mountain are open to the skiers.
Then we ran down the mountain to the warmth of our vehicles.
On Saturday morning, while The Gazelle feeling the pain of Gothics decided to stay in bed and Gary headed to LWJ, I went to Esther with four of our friends. To say that it was cold is an under-statement, while the thermometer never went below –8F, it felt frigid because of the particularly strong wind. At least on that day the sun warmed our hearts if nothing else. We first met two climbers who had smartly gave up on Whiteface and then another three who had done the same but headed for Esther afterwards. Actually because of the wind direction, the sun and the fact that the herdapth was a gorgeous white tunnel the temperature wasn’t as unforgiving trekking to Esther summit. Still as we enjoyed our lunches it was obvious that it was a totally different story on Whiteface itself which was in a total white-out and likely an impossible goal.
After Esther, we took again to the Wilmington Trail till it crosses the new Whiteface Mountain ski trail. Instead of crossing over we took a right and there it was, now being used by the downhill ski patrol, still standing pretty the 1950’s Porcupine Lodge. Inside one will find in one end a small room with a propane stove and a welcoming crew when in attendance. Even though it’s certainly locked when unoccupied it’s still nice to know there is a winter emergency shelter open when the new trails on Lookout Mountain are open to the skiers.
Then we ran down the mountain to the warmth of our vehicles.
