Esther 4-22-2018

Hanging at the Summit of Marble Mountain.

Hiking Giant in late August of last year,  Kailee met a bunch of kids on the trail that told her they were working on becoming 46ers. I can confirm that they all listed the same four mountains to their credit (Cascade, Porter, Big Slide & Giant).

Kailee proudly replied that "This (Giant) is my first one."

Kails checked off  Porter & Cascade soon enough.

Around this time, PBS ran a big ad campaign for the 46ers Film... Kailee decided, quite quickly, that she too wanted to be a 46er.

My job is to get her on a good start.

Kailee leading the charge!

The top thing on her list for 8 months has been Whiteface & Esther... There's a CASTLE on Whiteface & she wants to go inside.

It's possibly the most popular Mountain in NY & we've seen it from almost every summit & angle that we've come across.

The Mean Mile up Marble.

I decided that it could be fun to climb to Marble Mountain -a minor summit on the Whiteface massif- and hike a little more of the trail upwards towards the 'Face to scout things out for a potential climb later this year.

We parked the car at the Scientific Atmospheric Research Center and strapped on our gear under beautiful blue skies.

There was no register. Just a bench with a little sign that indicated "Trail." The trail leads you around to the back of the Research Center to the base of the mountain. There's a snowmobile trail or two that runs through this area but it's easy to spot the hiking trail to Marble. It's the one that goes straight up.

An old Ski Patrol supply shelter on Marble.

The path up Marble follows an old ski resort tow-rope route & it has an unforgiving incline. The main highlights of this stretch of trail was passing an old Ski Patrol supply shelter and getting a few views through the leafless trees when we turned around.

That being said, Marble's lookout near it's Summit was the perfect place for lunch.

A view from Marble.

After lunch, we headed up the trail towards Lookout Mountain to check things out. It didn't take very long for things to ease up... A welcomed relief!

Lookout Mountain is a 4000' peak that lacks the prominence required to be considered a true peak. Because of this, it is not regarded as one of New York's High Peaks.  Like Marble, Lookout is just a small bump on the massif.

I took a short video.

"We're heading up Lookout Mountain now. We're gonna see how far we go. We're not on a big, big summit day. We're just checking out the trails a little. Then we'll turn around."

I underestimated things.

"Hey, we're now higher than I was on Ampersand," I said after checking the GPS.

"Woah," Kailee replied.

A little further more, I checked the GPS.

"We're now higher than we were on Noonmark," I declared.

"Woah. Really?" Kails replied.

We were nearing the top of Lookout when we met a Quebecouis woman who was on her descent. She was shocked to see a girl of Kailee's age at such a location.

We simply expressed to her that Kailee is Seven & "She likes to climb the big ones."

Which drew a moment of awe from the woman.

Our pace & the pure luck of perfect "late Winter" of conditions allowed us to get to the Lookout trail-split for Esther.

"We're not too far from Esther," I said,  "I think we can grab it!"

"I don't know... You said that we could go back at any time..." Kailee replied.

"I think we have the Sunlight and it might be easier to go over there now... Rather than in the Summertime," I stated, "We won't have to deal with mud or bugs. If it starts to look too hard or the Sun starts setting too quickly. Then, we'll turn around!"

"OK!" Kailee enthusiastically replied.

Herd Path!

The walk to Esther's Summit ended up being a breeze. Just follow the footsteps in the snow.
At a few points, I lifted Kailee up to expand her view of Whiteface.

Whiteface

"This is awesome!" she shouted looking at her favorite unclimbed peak.

A number of hikers passed us on their way down.

Our excitement grew as we neared the Summit of Esther. The fact that we were on an "Unmarked, un-maintained trail" with amazing views of the 'Face added to Kailee's emotions.

I let her lead to Esther's Summit.

"Good job!" yelled Kailee.

"Good job Kailee!" I replied.

"Fourth Forter-Sixer!" Kailee shouted as she made a four signal with her hand.

"This is her fourth 46-er!" I exclaimed.

It was amazing. We slapped a high five at 4240' above sea-level and explored Esther's Summit.

I've read that Esther isn't known for it's views. I'm no giant. I'm 6' and standing on 2-3' of snow looking over the stunted pines offered me a fine view of the Green Mountains, Lake Champlain and the Great Range.

Who says Esther doesn't have a view!?!

After some water and exploration, we began our hike out.

One of the humorous moments during our descent was on Lookout when I realized that one of the tiny peaks a few miles away from us was our friend Clark!

It was quicker & easier to descend Marble Mountain. But, yet again, it was the most wearing part of the hike.

We were back at the car 90 minutes after leaving the Summit with plenty sunlight to spare. We slapped another high five and quickly changed out of our boots and socks.

We hadn't planned on hiking that far or high. The exhilaration upon summiting Esther followed both of us in the ensuing days... I'm still feeling the reverberations from it.

"Wow, I can't believe we did that!"