Whiteface Traverse

November 7, 2015

My eighth annual ACC November hike. Fifteen people joined for this trip, with two groups of seven traversing Whiteface and Esther mountains between Connery Pond and the ASRC, and Lee spending the day hiking Rooster Comb with her camera in tow. Pat led the southbound group with Paul, Jean, Kim, Ray, Connie, and Andre, while I led the northbound group with Katharina, Wendy, Birte, Cori, Rob, and Dave. We drove down a small dirt road towards the trailhead and came across a vehicle parked and a trail marked Connery Pond. There was space to park two vehicles so we did and then followed this trail to the indicated location of Connery Pond. Unfortunately the trail ended here and we stumbled en-masse out of the woods and disturbed a lone photographer trying to catch the first rays of sunshine over the mountain. Whiteface lay directly in front of us with a sole cloud hanging over its summit. We walked back to the cars, left them there and then a little further down the road came to the actual trailhead, and were finally on track for our hike. The walk into Whiteface Landing went quickly as it was a flat roadbed and we took a break on a bench that looked out onto a choppy and not so placid, Lake Placid. Leaving here we were happy to find a sign that indicated it was only five kilometers to the summit, but over one kilometer of vertical ascent. This trail was very pretty as it ascended gently through the woods along a stream with a few cascades and pools here and there. The path underfoot was soft, unlike the usual rocky, rooty, and eroded ADK ways. We pushed higer and at about 1000m elevation, the scrambling began. The rest of the climb all the way to the summit consisted of fun boulder and slab scrambling. We also met the first other hikers of the day, a group of five which we continuously leap-frogged past each other during the ascent. It began to get windy and colder as we came out of the woods onto the exposed slopes, but just prior to the summit, we found a nice sunny and sheltered ledge where it was decided to stop and have lunch. Once our bellies were recharged, the summit was quickly obtained where we met several other groups of hikers. After a few photos and some exploration of the upper castle, we descended the north ridge and met Pat's team at the Wilmington switchback. Fairly gentle trail brought us to the Esther junction, and after a short break we began the mud wallow over to this somewhat less than impressive peak. On the summit we sat by the plaque and finished the last of our bagels and savoured a few nips from David's flask of Islay. The way down was another two hours of relentless pounding down a rocky trail. At marble mountain we descended what seemed to be an old ski lift track, and at the bottom we came to the realization that we had no idea where the parking lot was, as none of us had been to this trailhead before. We hiked down a roadway and passed a couple of side trails, and after a short climb found a parking lot full of trucks. Now a little nervous as our vehicles were not parked here, we fortunately found them a little further down the road. A successful end to a nine hour hike. Pat's group finished about 30 minutes after us, and then we all enjoyed lots of food and drink back at the hostel.

A placid view of Connery Pond.