A Ski up "Windyface"

One of the objectives I had at the beginning of the ski season was to get out on my shiny new BC skis that I had picked up last year at an end of year sale. For the most part I had been hoping for a big dump of snow to take them out on their maiden voyage but they had sadly sat mocking me in the front hall for most of the season. As I stared out the window on Sunday into the driving rain I realized I was rapidly running out of time and these untested beauties would remain…well, untested. Without much forethought I decided on Monday to load up the car and head down to the Adirondacks to get them skiing… but was still working out where to go as I drove down. Most of the classic BC routes that I’m eager to ski go across large bodies of water which I’m thinking would probably be a little questionable in terms of ice thickness. They’d probably be okay but with 2m sticks tied to my feet I swim like a stone so who’d want to take that chance. Debated the Sewards but with the summer road recently closed and a lot of rain fallen in the last couple of days there might be a long walk up a slushy/muddy road to get to the skiing. But when you’re looking for snow, when all else fails and you don’t know where to turn - there is always Whiteface. Sure enough as I passed “Norman’s” in Bloomingdale it started to snow and it only got deeper as I drove up to the Toll House.


On the long march up to the clouds
The snow that fell was pretty wet (and probably 8-10”+ deep) but I knew it would get colder and drier as I gained elevation. I opted for klister on the skis to give me grip and stuck a colder wax in my pocket to improve things as the conditions changed. As it worked out I had good grip/glide for the first mile or so and then things started to ice and clump on the bases. The colder wax didn’t improve things and I was stuck at times hauling the snowpack up the mountain on the bottom of my skis. Made for slow going but things weren't too bad as 2 people had already snowshoed up the road and the resulting broken trail made life a little easier. Besides… when you’re going up the Toll road it’s not your typical rolling ski trail. It’s aaaalllll up hill until it’s time to turn around so too much grip on the way up isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Figured I could scrape off the klister at the top before making my way down.


Still winter up there
Finally caught sight of my trailbreaking crew as I approached the “Lake Placid” hairpin and I caught up to them at the “Wilmington” hairpin. Ironically it turns out they too were from Ottawa! Thanked them profusely for their hard labours and offered to do a little trail breaking for them from the Wilmington turn to the Castle… but as we rounded the bend the winds caught grip of us and the snowpack was a pretty solid, icy boilerplate so my turn at trailbreaking was pretty easy graft in comparison to their yeoman efforts in the soft, wet snow below. With the strong wind the temperature dropped significantly. What was maybe +5 C at the bottom of the road dropped well below zero (-10? plus windchill) so things were back to winter conditions. Fingers quickly froze as I took them out of the gloves to adjust straps on my pack or fiddle with the camera. Tucked out of the wind behind the castle (the end of the toll road) I dropped the skis and donned my snowshoes to try the short but extremely steep trail for the summit. Jeff and Lynda (the trailbreaking tandem) arrived shortly behind me and we discussed teaming up for a summit push. Lynda (probably quite wisely) had had enough fun climbing for the day and opted against a summit push as the gale force winds were pretty intimidating. Jeff and I tho’, well..., we both have a ‘Y’ chromosome which contains the genetic material that allows us to say (beyond all rational reason) “How bad could it be?” With two of us the climb seemed somehow safer. I am quite confident that neither of us would have tried for the summit had we been alone. In hindsight, if one of us had been blown off the mountain as we pushed to the top there would have been little the other could do except point the authorities to the most likely spot to find the frozen carcass but as I said… it seemed safer. Anyway, we we're just going to have a look and, if it looked bad, turn back.

Tunnel under the Whiteface Castle
[Mom? You reading this? Might be a good idea to skip ahead to the next paragraph] The trail from the castle to the summit isn’t actually too long – maybe 400m and climbs ~350 vertical feet. In summer it has a staircase cut out of the rock with 2 guard/handrails and takes maybe 5 - 10 minutes to walk up. It does however go across a steep, exposed ridgeline (called an arete) with a particularly dramatic drop off on the west side. In winter we found deep snow, cornices and spindrift greeting us. Heavy winds periodically buffeted us and progress was slow. The handrails in spots were completely buried and in other locations stuck out 4 to 6 inches… more of tripping hazard really. We took turns leading, making slow, methodical progress until we got to the crux of the climb. A steep, side-sloped snow drift, maybe 20-30m long, handrails buried and a gapping avalanche slope dropping away to our right. I wasn’t too concerned with triggering an avalanche as the snow wasn’t the right stuff to be conducive to slide (I think - no obvious slip planes anyway as I stomped deep into the snowpack) but progress across the slope was slow as the winds buffeted us around. Downhill leg was stomping a ledge to balance on while uphill leg was propped tight in the snow on my knee and my “high“ hand futilely clutched at the snow above…. “How ya doing back there Jeff”, “Ummm, Okay….” Shuffle kick, shuffle kick. Quick look down to my right… yep, thousand foot slide still there. “Still good? not far now.” To myself - "How you doin' Kenmore...hmmmm..." Shuffle kick, kick, shuffle. Finally crawled up to a more stable platform with some handrail showing and caught my breath. Final few drifts to clamber up and we tucked in behind the Observatory at the summit and out of the winds. Number 37 for Jeff - Woot!… but I reminded him we still had to get back down for it to actually count. A few photos and then the descent which actually proved pretty reasonable thanks to our already fading but still solid tracks. Interestingly Jeff and I both mentioned, once back down, that, had the other said “This looks a little sketchy, maybe we should turn around” – the other would have quickly agreed. Stupid ‘Y’ chromosome…


Safely back down to the castle I chose to walk the first section of the road to the Wilmington turn with Lynda and Jeff. It's hard, icy finish and a lack of steel edges on my skis would have made me more closely resemble Bambi on Ice so I stuck with the snowshoe crampons. At the Wilmington turn I donned the skis and bid adieu to Jeff and Lynda(many thanks!). As I descended the snowpack changed a lot. From the Wilmington turn to the LP turn I was met with mostly hardpack, windblown crud. Below the LP turn(which was windswept down to asphalt) the snow went from delightful soft powder to a heavier and heavier base finally ending at the Toll house in a mashed potatoes consistency. While initially I was a little unhappy (would have preferred champagne powder all the way!) I realized that in a span of ½ an hour I got to try out the skis in a wide variety of conditions so indeed it proved a fortuitous testing ground. They handled most of it well but are perhaps better conditioned to softer material. They’re a bit Kovalev-like in that they like to float! Perhaps I can find something with some edges to better carve through the heavier (or icier) stuff. Too late to hit the end of year sales at the local ski shops? (and therefore set another ski objective for myself next year). More pictures here


Descending to the Lake Placid Turn
Error on this trip – apart from the questionable sanity described in the summit bid -I forgot my thermos of hot soup in the car. It was tasty (and still hot) as I packed up the car to head home… but would have been amazing at the summit tucked in behind the castle with the frosty winds whipping around. So it goes.