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| Esther trail |
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| Top of Esther |
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| Whiteface seen from Esther |
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| Lake Placid |
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| Esther seen from Whiteface |
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| Tunnel under top of Whiteface |
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Esther, Whiteface 9/5/15
A hot day for Sept with temps in the 80's. Started from the old ski resort and headed up Marble mtn to Esther. The Esther trail was pretty dry since there hasn't been much rain in the last month. Esther has a few views of Whiteface on the way up. The top is pretty much in the woods. Not a very exciting climb but combined with Whiteface it made for a nice day. Whiteface is 4 miles RT from the Esther cutoff. Good views down onto the ski area side. There is a long slide there that is on the list for next winter. We decided to check out the tunnel to go down from the top of whiteface. There is an elevator that goes down about 300 feet into a 400 foot tunnel that comes out at the top of the auto road. Nice and cool in the tunnel with temps in the 40's. A nice sunny day although pretty hot for hiking. 12 miles round trip.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Sawteeth, Pyramid, Gothics, Armstrong, Upper Wolf Jaw - 7/3/15
A day of near perfect weather for hiking in the ADK's. We started from the Ausable club and walked the dirt road up to Ausable lake. The day started cool and stayed reasonably cool most of the day even though the winds were light. From Ausable lake we headed up via a pretty direct route to the ridge between Sawteeth and Pyramid. Sawteeth was a quick 1 mile round trip out and back from this point. Nice views of Pyramid and Haystack and Basin. From there it was steep climb up to Pyramid. Pyramid has some great views of the great range and the views continued as we headed down before going up Gothics. Most of the climb is done getting up Pyramid so the climb to Gothics was short. We stopped for lunch close to the top of Gothics. Great views West toward Marcy and the rest of the great range. From Gothics to Armstrong and finally to Upper Wolf Jaw is a rough trail with a lot of steep downhills and rock faces to contend with. Armstrong has views to the North and Upper Wolf Jaw has good views looking East. The trip was about 15 miles and a nice tour of the high peaks. We ended up on the West River trail which follows the river down toward the Ausable club.
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| Ausable Lake |
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| Indian Falls |
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| Top of Indian Falls |
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| Gothics |
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| Marcy in background |
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| Pyramid |
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| Lunch break |
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Whiteface
An amazingly bright clear day. If you forgot your sun glasses you would have to head home. We decided to ski up the road and then hike the last distance to the summit. Then return down the road on the skis. The day was cold and hot at the same time. When the wind picked up it was cold to the point that we had on winter gear. When the wind was calm, which it was a lot, it was warm enough for just a shirt and you could go with no gloves or hat. For some strange reason it was not windy at the summit. The temperature was around 20 but the sun was intense so without the wind it felt warm.
It is 5 miles up the road to the "castle" where we took off our skis and hiked to the summit. The road switches back and forth up the mountain and you have amazing views the whole time in different directions. Great views of Lake Placid, the Adirondack high peaks, lake champlain, and northern NY. Whiteface is one of the higher peaks but it stands on its own away from the high peaks.
The snow was definitely winter. A deep base with 4-5 inches of new snow on top. On the way down it was sticky off of the tracked snow due to the sun. Staying in the track however you could glide right along. Basically great conditions.
There is a chute that goes down about half the mountain. It is north facing and had great snow in it not affected by the sun because of the angle and the direction. The chute is split into two sections by the road. Both sections are hard to get into because of dense trees at the entrance. Once in however there is plenty of room to turn and it made the downhill portion more exciting. The downhill in general was very quick compared to the up hill! Skiing down, the miles zipped by and we were back to the parking lot in no time. Due to this fast downhill it was perhaps the quickest of the ADK trips we have done so far.
Lot's of pictures but it was one of those days!
It is 5 miles up the road to the "castle" where we took off our skis and hiked to the summit. The road switches back and forth up the mountain and you have amazing views the whole time in different directions. Great views of Lake Placid, the Adirondack high peaks, lake champlain, and northern NY. Whiteface is one of the higher peaks but it stands on its own away from the high peaks.
The snow was definitely winter. A deep base with 4-5 inches of new snow on top. On the way down it was sticky off of the tracked snow due to the sun. Staying in the track however you could glide right along. Basically great conditions.
There is a chute that goes down about half the mountain. It is north facing and had great snow in it not affected by the sun because of the angle and the direction. The chute is split into two sections by the road. Both sections are hard to get into because of dense trees at the entrance. Once in however there is plenty of room to turn and it made the downhill portion more exciting. The downhill in general was very quick compared to the up hill! Skiing down, the miles zipped by and we were back to the parking lot in no time. Due to this fast downhill it was perhaps the quickest of the ADK trips we have done so far.
Lot's of pictures but it was one of those days!
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| Lake Placid |
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| Getting closer |
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| Chute area |
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| Castle - skis off for hike to summit |
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| View down to road we came up |
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| High peaks from summit |
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| Looking toward Lake Champlain |
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| Skiing chute |
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| Chute - section 2 |
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