Jay H
New member
Looks like spring is here, I met up with Snickers and Ferrisjrf(Jason) at the KV hostel early saturday morning with some AMC friends but without Bill and Judy at about 6:45am for some kind of pointy mountain in the ADKs.. Rumors of observation towers and ski bunnies abound and we (or should I say me) were determined to see if the rumors were true so off we headed for the North Pole which happens to be next to the ASRC. Finding the trailhead parking sign gone, we parked where the trail was despite evil Santa's attempt at foiling our hike. Little did he know, my fortune cookie in Albany saturday night said "Success is coming your way". So, after most of the gang donned snowshoes, I, the leader, made sure to do something completly different. I put on crampons. Well actually, one of us had MicroSpikes... On we went, making our way up the steep ski slope of Marble Mtn where the path was mostly watery runoff free of snow and full of exposed rocks. Not exactly good butt sliding conditions... But on we went, hitting the trail in Snicker time (which means like forever.. glacial. 
) Well, we get to the trail and it was plainly obvious, that my snowshoes will stay on my pack and the obvious spine of the trail was very interesting. Jason and I would comment on how cool it is to see hardsnow with bare ground next to it!!! Stay on the path, do not stray off the path.. the path is your friend. Stay on the path.
Skipping a bunch of boring hiking anecdotes, we get to the herdpath for Esther and what do we have here.. a sign! I don't recall a sign being there the last time I did Esther in Nov with Guinness... But I recognized the rock and waited for the rest of McHale's army to arrive. Jason and I could still make out the spine to Esther though nobody has been there today... Off we went, making sure we hit the path and only going on a few tangents we eventually make our way to the summit and although there is a cloudcover, we had views of the great range with the summits in the clouds.. Whiteface summit was somewhat clouded over but we could make out some die-hard skiers going down the slopes though most of the steeper slopes were really bare and the gush of the snowmaking could be heard for miles..(damm, they are loud when making snow!). No bunnies could be detected but they were also soooo far away. Strange enough, I don't recall a yellow marker for the summit of Esther, I just kind of had a sixth sense of where the plaque was (buried)..it wasn't til after we got a group shot and started to leave was when Bob I think noticed the yellow marker with "Esther" on it... Gee, I'm glad we whacked to the right peak...
Back at the trail, we make our way to Whiteface while Bob and Ron turn back due to Bob's knee acting up. Getting to the point where the trail meets the road, we are greeted by the sight of a skier walking up the road... Exchanging weird looks between Jason and myself, I'm really interested in watching this guy ski down what is nothing but a complete sheet of ice and snowmobile flatted hardpack snow/ice... Unfortunately, we never saw what happened to the skier nor did we see tracks on the way down... maybe he went over to the ski slopes and skied down that way...
Oh, we ran into WinterWarlock on the way down, putting one foot in front of the other. Happy St Patrick's Day BTW...
The summit was fairly quiet with a few strong gusts but not too bad... Views were OK into the valley, but mostly overcast and lunch was had and temps were like 18deg on the thermometer...
Back down was uneventful, nobody fell off a cliff, packs were carried the whole trip.
We did notice a new construction area on the trail which was marked..Construction Zone
Anybody know if that is going to be a new lift on Whiteface???
On a serious note, we all had a moment of silence on the summit of Esther for Dom. We all wish he could of been there.
Full pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslug/WhitefaceEsther11208
Jay
) Well, we get to the trail and it was plainly obvious, that my snowshoes will stay on my pack and the obvious spine of the trail was very interesting. Jason and I would comment on how cool it is to see hardsnow with bare ground next to it!!! Stay on the path, do not stray off the path.. the path is your friend. Stay on the path. Skipping a bunch of boring hiking anecdotes, we get to the herdpath for Esther and what do we have here.. a sign! I don't recall a sign being there the last time I did Esther in Nov with Guinness... But I recognized the rock and waited for the rest of McHale's army to arrive. Jason and I could still make out the spine to Esther though nobody has been there today... Off we went, making sure we hit the path and only going on a few tangents we eventually make our way to the summit and although there is a cloudcover, we had views of the great range with the summits in the clouds.. Whiteface summit was somewhat clouded over but we could make out some die-hard skiers going down the slopes though most of the steeper slopes were really bare and the gush of the snowmaking could be heard for miles..(damm, they are loud when making snow!). No bunnies could be detected but they were also soooo far away. Strange enough, I don't recall a yellow marker for the summit of Esther, I just kind of had a sixth sense of where the plaque was (buried)..it wasn't til after we got a group shot and started to leave was when Bob I think noticed the yellow marker with "Esther" on it... Gee, I'm glad we whacked to the right peak...
Back at the trail, we make our way to Whiteface while Bob and Ron turn back due to Bob's knee acting up. Getting to the point where the trail meets the road, we are greeted by the sight of a skier walking up the road... Exchanging weird looks between Jason and myself, I'm really interested in watching this guy ski down what is nothing but a complete sheet of ice and snowmobile flatted hardpack snow/ice... Unfortunately, we never saw what happened to the skier nor did we see tracks on the way down... maybe he went over to the ski slopes and skied down that way...
Oh, we ran into WinterWarlock on the way down, putting one foot in front of the other.
Happy St Patrick's Day BTW... The summit was fairly quiet with a few strong gusts but not too bad... Views were OK into the valley, but mostly overcast and lunch was had and temps were like 18deg on the thermometer...
Back down was uneventful, nobody fell off a cliff, packs were carried the whole trip.
We did notice a new construction area on the trail which was marked..Construction Zone
Anybody know if that is going to be a new lift on Whiteface???
On a serious note, we all had a moment of silence on the summit of Esther for Dom. We all wish he could of been there.
Full pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslug/WhitefaceEsther11208
Jay
