After 4 months away from the Adirondacks, it felt absolutely amazing to be back out here climbing some mountains again! Unfortunately, it will be a little while again until I get after the next, as I rolled my ankle BADLY coming down, hoping for a quick recovery, only 10 peaks left to finish! For this trip, I decided to climb Whiteface and Esther. Originally, my plan was to finish my 46er journey on Whiteface. However, after thinking about it, I was not too fond of the idea of finishing such a great accomplishment on a summit full of people who drove to the top. I felt like it would feel more authentic to plan on finishing on Skylight. This was a great trail to climb, heading in from the ASRC, you climb almost immediately up to Marble Mountain. I decided to take the very short bushwhack up to the Marble Mountain summit, as it was right there. After the trail split for Esther, the trail itself to Esther was really fun, with lots of flat sections and TONS of mud. Esther has a small view of Whiteface and a nice plaque commemorating the first recorded climb by Esther Mc Comb who was a 15-year-old girl who in an attempt to climb Whiteface in 1839 ended up on the summit of Esther, thus the mountain being named after her. Once back to the trail junction, the approach to Whiteface is relatively gradual. Once you get past the roadway wall, the trail starts to become exposed, with beautiful views of the summit ahead and a very steep slide going down the mountain face on the left. The views at the top were incredible, presenting 360° views of the surrounding areas, overlooking Lake Placid, all of the other High Peaks, Lake Champlain, Canada, the Vermont High Peaks, and even into New Hampshire on a clear day.

свернуть