Hiking ADK: 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!