BlackSpruce
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- Sep 8, 2003
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Peak baggers are easily stricken with cabin fever and prone to dumb decisions, so in the early morning Gary called about meeting at Whiteface Toll Gate for 10AM to ski to the summit of Whiteface. Without thinking I said ` great idea`!
Driving there it was obvious that the Keene and Jay area had received half the snow we did in E’Town but Wilmington was sporting high snow banks. Getting ready we were pleased to see that a faint ski track was visible. Well, it did not last for long but dreaming of the descent we plodded on. The higher we got the deeper the new snow, at least two feet with the occasional deeper waves in the open curves. The visibility was limited but not bad, it was snowing lightly but not windy except for the occasional swirling bursts that seem to come from nowhere on that road in winter. Then as we entered the “tunnel” immediately after the Wilmington Turn we found ourselves in a very dense fog and in much deeper and unconsolidated snow which made for great skiing! Not too brave and worrying about falling off the ledges to our right, we attentively hugged the rocky ledges to our left till the Castle, which we reached in no less than 45 minutes of tedious trail breaking. At the Castle we left our skis and headed up the stairs. The visibility was much better on the other side of the structure and we could even see the bottom of the slide but not the summit towers. To our surprise the stairs were snowed in pretty good and required major bare booting experience with snow waist deep at times. It was so hard that when at the odd and so rare places the snow was only 18 inches deep it was a breeze moving forward and up. The snow sculptures were magnificent and in the 50 minutes it took us to finally reach the all white summit castle at 2 PM, we felt not only exhausted but privileged to be able to enjoy such beauty. Needless to say we did not linger on the summit and descending the stairs was much easier. We donned our skis and headed to the other side of the castle, anticipating a wonderful glide down to our car. Again to our surprise, our tracks were completely gone, the visibility seemed even worse than earlier and it was now snowing steadily. Since waiting for spring was not an option and thanks to the two Advils I had to take on the summit I was able to lead since Gary’s glasses were then just about useless. Breaking trail descending on skis is hurtful because every few steps you are knee deep in snow. At one point while through the canyon section I disappeared into some sort of air pocket and thought I would never be able to get my body to an upright position. With our morale sinking by the minute and Gary falling constantly (wearing skins I was doing better), half way between the Wilmington Turn and the Lake Placid Pin we met a group of five skiers on their way up. The news wasn’t as good as we hoped: for them our own tracks were hardly visible and with the snow intensifying they figured we would not be able to enjoy their tracks for very long. Sadly their assessment was on the mark! At times when we could follow faint tracks we were able to zoom down at the neck breaking speed of 3 miles an hour but it did not happen very often. The rest of the descent Gary kept a not too friendly conversation with his skis, as snow constantly accumulated between his boot and his binding. Maybe as a tribute to Tiger, Gary hikes with a golf club (and a ski pole this day) which he was using in an attempt to rid himself of the very annoying problem every couple of minutes. Luckily as we reached the .5-mile sign the tracks reappeared. We figured that till that point 6 to 8 inches of new snow had fallen during the day.
At 4:15PM one snowman and one snowwoman were relieved to reach for their car keys...
Sadly, nearing E’Town the snow changed to heavy rain which had obviously fallen all day in the valley. Leading me to conclude that two idiots enjoyed tough luck, but luck just the same by bagging Whiteface earlier in the day...
Driving there it was obvious that the Keene and Jay area had received half the snow we did in E’Town but Wilmington was sporting high snow banks. Getting ready we were pleased to see that a faint ski track was visible. Well, it did not last for long but dreaming of the descent we plodded on. The higher we got the deeper the new snow, at least two feet with the occasional deeper waves in the open curves. The visibility was limited but not bad, it was snowing lightly but not windy except for the occasional swirling bursts that seem to come from nowhere on that road in winter. Then as we entered the “tunnel” immediately after the Wilmington Turn we found ourselves in a very dense fog and in much deeper and unconsolidated snow which made for great skiing! Not too brave and worrying about falling off the ledges to our right, we attentively hugged the rocky ledges to our left till the Castle, which we reached in no less than 45 minutes of tedious trail breaking. At the Castle we left our skis and headed up the stairs. The visibility was much better on the other side of the structure and we could even see the bottom of the slide but not the summit towers. To our surprise the stairs were snowed in pretty good and required major bare booting experience with snow waist deep at times. It was so hard that when at the odd and so rare places the snow was only 18 inches deep it was a breeze moving forward and up. The snow sculptures were magnificent and in the 50 minutes it took us to finally reach the all white summit castle at 2 PM, we felt not only exhausted but privileged to be able to enjoy such beauty. Needless to say we did not linger on the summit and descending the stairs was much easier. We donned our skis and headed to the other side of the castle, anticipating a wonderful glide down to our car. Again to our surprise, our tracks were completely gone, the visibility seemed even worse than earlier and it was now snowing steadily. Since waiting for spring was not an option and thanks to the two Advils I had to take on the summit I was able to lead since Gary’s glasses were then just about useless. Breaking trail descending on skis is hurtful because every few steps you are knee deep in snow. At one point while through the canyon section I disappeared into some sort of air pocket and thought I would never be able to get my body to an upright position. With our morale sinking by the minute and Gary falling constantly (wearing skins I was doing better), half way between the Wilmington Turn and the Lake Placid Pin we met a group of five skiers on their way up. The news wasn’t as good as we hoped: for them our own tracks were hardly visible and with the snow intensifying they figured we would not be able to enjoy their tracks for very long. Sadly their assessment was on the mark! At times when we could follow faint tracks we were able to zoom down at the neck breaking speed of 3 miles an hour but it did not happen very often. The rest of the descent Gary kept a not too friendly conversation with his skis, as snow constantly accumulated between his boot and his binding. Maybe as a tribute to Tiger, Gary hikes with a golf club (and a ski pole this day) which he was using in an attempt to rid himself of the very annoying problem every couple of minutes. Luckily as we reached the .5-mile sign the tracks reappeared. We figured that till that point 6 to 8 inches of new snow had fallen during the day.
At 4:15PM one snowman and one snowwoman were relieved to reach for their car keys...
Sadly, nearing E’Town the snow changed to heavy rain which had obviously fallen all day in the valley. Leading me to conclude that two idiots enjoyed tough luck, but luck just the same by bagging Whiteface earlier in the day...
