Sawteeth – Gothics, March 18

[BlackSpruce]

We had bigger plans but the fast “deteriorating” snow base made us scale back. Descending Sawteeth we realized even though the sun and warm temperature were great the mountain was devouring the path and the one time hard base! Butt sliding got close to water gliding. To Sawteeth the trail had seen a fair amount of traffic and was well packed but no steeping on either side without tanking! To Gothics via Pyramid in spite of the numerous gate log book entries of the previous day traffic had been light and obviously wearing snowshoes we post holed more often than we would have liked. We figured since further down the Lower Range there is usually less snow cover and as it is always warmer the closer one gets t o Keene Valley that descending the Wedge Brook Trail had the potential to be a painful and tedious return route. So we opted for a trail that we knew was nicely packed. It’s the first time we see a cornice right along the summit ridge of Gothics, we assessed to be floating some 12 feet above the summit rock itself! We zoomed down from Pyramid and even some section of the Weld Trail without tearing our pants all the while carefully controlling our speed to avoid tree hugging. In the morning the road was slightly icy and slushy later in the afternoon, the ice on the Lower Lake is thin, grey and appears to be just about ready to tank as the flow of water going over the dam is in spring mode. As it was warm enough the snow was not sticking to the snowshoes but the footing did not feel light since each one our steps carved the slopes.