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| Whiteface! Our 14th High Peak! |
Kailee spent last week in Maine on vacation with my parents. One of our conversations on the phone went like this:
Me: You better go grab Katahdin while you're there!
Kailee: I was just saying that... I can get it... I need a few years but I can get it!
I'm pretty sure "I need a few years" meant walking into Baxter State Park and hiking Katahdin solo.
Me: Well, just so you know. If the weather is good... Our next hike will be Whiteface.
Kailee (voice cracking in excitement): YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!
Kailee has asked me about climbing Whiteface on a weekly basis for almost a year. The mountain's popularity & aura (and castle) captured her imagination.
Brothers Bob and George Marshall along with their trusty guide Herb Clark were the first people to climb all 46 of the Adirondack High Peaks. The first High Peak that they climbed together was the 'Face on August 1, 1918.
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| Bob Marshall & Herb Clark. |
For the past few months, I planned on lining up Kailee's dream hike with the 100th anniversary of the Marshall's & Clark's trek.
Preparing for this hike was pretty easy on my part. In April, we "accidentally" hiked Whiteface's sister peak Esther... On that day, we set out to climb the sub-peak Marble Mountain and scope a little bit more of the trail... If possible... The conditions ended up being so nice that we were able to bag Esther in 3' of snow!
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| Esther. 4-22-2018. In a few feet of snow. |
That experience helped immensely in gearing up for Whiteface.
Marble Mountain is an Adirondack "Mean Mile." 900' of elevation gain over 9/10th's of a mile. It's an unforgiving little climb. My plan was to take it slow up Marble with a short break at it's summit. Then, keep the pace easy as we worked our way up Lookout Mountain before picking up our pace on the ridge to Whiteface.
We arrived at the Atmospheric Scientific Research Center at 8 AM and were on the trail 10 minutes later.
Kailee rocked a USA Olympic shirt that I recently picked up & customized by adding the number "14" to it. A fun memento serving as a nod to Whiteface's Olympic history and representing our 14th High Peak!
We stuck to the plan. We took our time walking the old tow-rope ski path on Marble - which is appropriately named... Besides the quick elevation gain over this "mean mile," stepping over-and-on a million loose rocks rocks is like stepping on a bunch of marbles!
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| Old Ski Patrol shed on Lookout. |
I feel that our slow and steady approach to this stretch of the trail was perfectly executed. We arrived at Marble's summit at 9AM. We took a quick break and took in the view. After a snack, we began the trek up Lookout Mountain.
Lookout is much more forgiving than Marble. There's not many views on this stretch of this trail but the going is pretty easy.
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We passed the time by discussing some High Peaks that we could try next year... And, by making goofy jokes.
We arrived at Lookout Mountain's ski trails at 10:57 AM. We took a nice snack break at the ski lift. From this point, we had a nice view outwards. Although, the immediate view of the ski area was kinda ugly in my opinion... I'm sure it's nicer in ski season. Garbage left by skiers in Winter is unappealing in the Summer.
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| A view towards the Great Range from the ski trail on Lookout. |
The ski lift area offered a nice view of our target.
Whiteface was in reach.
We resumed our venture...
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| It's right there! |
After a few hundred feet back on the trail and I realized something was missing... Trekking poles... I jogged back to the ski lift and retrieved them while Kailee sat & waited next to my backpack.
With all of my gear in tow, we were ready to proceed.
Without saying a word, Kailee led the charge.
She jumped into a mode that I've never seen out of her.
This was the first time that I had to work to keep up with "Pokey Moonshine."
(I dubbed her with this trail name a few weeks back).
"I can climb that! I know how to climb that!" Kailee shouted when we hit the large retaining wall separating the Whiteface Highway from the hiking trail.
"We're not doing that," I replied.
The hiking trail parallels the road for a stretch that I've deemed "Dynamite Alley."
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| Kailee leading the charge above the highway. |
After some jagged rock maneuvering, we hit an intersection with the Highway.
"Do you wanna take the road or the trail?" I asked.
"The trail," Kailee replied.
Good call Kailee!
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| Pokey Moonshine leading the charge! |
This was the most fun part of the trail. The trees grew shorter as we continued along the open rock pathway. Views were offered in every direction... Including our goal.
Kailee went into "next level mode." She ripped through this incredibly fun stretch of trail much faster than I.
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| One of Whiteface's impressive slides. |
No, I wasn't slacking on purpose... She had purpose and determination in her eyes and on the mind.
At 12:20 PM, we arrived at the summit sign stating "4867 Ft Above Sea Level - Whiteface."
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| We made it! |
Kailee celebrated by doing a summit back-bend!
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| Summit back-bend! |
We were greeted with astonishing views and by a mob scene of tourists. This place was a zoo! I knew there was a very strong chance that there would be a lot of people there and tried to wrap my head around that before arriving... Nevertheless, it was still very jarring.
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| ASRC Tower and part of the mob. |
The visibility was amazing despite a faint haze to the sky. The High Peaks looked grand. However, looking at many of the smaller peaks that we've climbed over the past year was just as appealing.
A flock of ravens circled the summit and made loud shrilling caws.
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| Lake Placid. |
We walked to the area facing the High Peaks and waved at the Research Tower's webcam so that my parents could watch us from far away on their phones.
Then we went over to the tower to check it out. The ORDA steward informed us that the elevator was being repaired but the building was still open. Inside, there was a display on how the tower "catches clouds" and analyzes the air quality.
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| How to capture a cloud. |
There was also an old fireplace. Next to it was a picture of the Beatles. Evidently, the last time the fireplace was lit was the year that the Beatles broke up... I love me a good Beatles reference!
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| Old Smokey. |
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| The Beatles "making an appearance "on Whiteface!?!?! YES!!! |
We popped out of the tower on the Northern facing side. There was no one there. I figured that it would be a good spot away from the crowds to relax and enjoy the scenery. I enjoyed a Coca-Cola and gazed at our friends Lyon, SLM, Catamount, Esther and even our little buddy Clark!
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| Enjoying a Coke while looking at our friends to the North. |
After a nice amount of time hanging around the summit, we went to the stairway to walk down to the castle. We both agreed that this was the worst part of our experience. It took forever to cover what should have been a quick stroll... Complete traffic jam... Tourists panicking because of fears of heights.
Very annoying.
The castle itself is pretty neat looking. I was hoping that there might be a hot dog cart or something where we could get a quick, cheap bite.
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| The Castle. |
How naive of me. This is a tourist trap. Everything at the gift shop and cafe was outrageously priced!
So, we opted to fill our camelbacks in the sinks and grabbed a picnic table outside where I made some tuna sandwiches.
All in all, we spent 2.5 hours at the top of Whiteface. By far, the most amount of time that we've spent atop a High Peak.
There was no point in going back up the stairs to get back on the trail with all of the tourist traffic.
We walked the highway towards the junction with the trail. I spotted wild strawberries growing alongside the road and we stopped to fill up a bag of them and snack! Tart & delicious!
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| Wild Strawberries! |
Once back on the trail, we had an enjoyable and easy descent.
"I made a little friend at the summit," Kailee said.
"Oh yeah?" I replied.
"Yeah, she said she hiked up to the top," Kailee continued, "But she and her mom didn't have any backpacks... They were tourists."
"That's alright," I assured her as we made our way through Dynamite Alley.
We got down to Marble Mountain and once again enjoyed it's view during a brief break before making it's steep descent.
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| A bright pink rock spotted on our descent. |
With only around 100' to go before hitting flat land... I stepped on one of Marble's loose marbles and fell. I hurt my elbow and scratched up my right arm pretty good in the crash.
Finally, we arrived back at the car and exchanged a bunch of high fives. Kailee was very happy. This was her hike and she did an excellent job.
As a reward, we drove to McDonald's in Lake Placid and munched on Happy Meals while looking out the window at Whiteface. A nice way to end a big day.
Things have surely changed at Whiteface since the Marshall's & Clark first climbed it. I like to think that they would be proud of this little girl that set out to re-create their historic climb 100 years (almost) to the day. Kailee worked hard and made her dream of climbing Whiteface come true!
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| "Hello? Anybody there?" (Inside the ASRC Tower at the Summit of Whiteface). |
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