hikingfish
New member
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2005
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Hi!
A friend and I went up Gothics yesterday. After several hours of hiking to get to the summit, we came to within a 100 or so feet from the summit when we encountered a weird snow structure (I think it's a cornice, but honestly I'm not sure...see picture in link below). We met 3 skiiers that decided not to attempt continuing to Gothics' summit by fear that cutting through in skies might cause an avalanche. Since neither of us had any avalanche knowledge, we decided not to continue either (we shall meet again Gothics!), however we're rather intrigued by what we saw and were wondering if it was actually safe to pass.
A ~5 meter long path (15') had been already done, but it didn't continue all the way to the summit. The path was passing on the leeward side of the cornice (we were shielded from the wind by the cornice basically). There was a LOT of fresh snow. I was able to drive my 70cm long ice axe all the way in with ease (I know this is no where near a proper test, but eh! I'm no expert). I'm also fairly certain that the left side of the cornice (we could see Giant from this point very easily and the cornice was blocking our view of what I think was Algonquin) was exposed to the Sun for the better part of the day (we reached this tricky part towards 2-3 pm, we didn't bring a watch).
I hope my description is good enough and that you can orient yourself well by my description. I'm still new to the adk's, so orientation is a bit iffy! Even though we didn't reach the summit, it was an awesome hike nonetheless (Check out the other pictures in my link, the view was incredible! Not a single cloud in the sky).
Thanks!
David
http://community.webshots.com/photo/284792391/284795352bRQLJp
http://community.webshots.com/photo/284792391/284795175HOQkeZ
A friend and I went up Gothics yesterday. After several hours of hiking to get to the summit, we came to within a 100 or so feet from the summit when we encountered a weird snow structure (I think it's a cornice, but honestly I'm not sure...see picture in link below). We met 3 skiiers that decided not to attempt continuing to Gothics' summit by fear that cutting through in skies might cause an avalanche. Since neither of us had any avalanche knowledge, we decided not to continue either (we shall meet again Gothics!), however we're rather intrigued by what we saw and were wondering if it was actually safe to pass.
A ~5 meter long path (15') had been already done, but it didn't continue all the way to the summit. The path was passing on the leeward side of the cornice (we were shielded from the wind by the cornice basically). There was a LOT of fresh snow. I was able to drive my 70cm long ice axe all the way in with ease (I know this is no where near a proper test, but eh! I'm no expert). I'm also fairly certain that the left side of the cornice (we could see Giant from this point very easily and the cornice was blocking our view of what I think was Algonquin) was exposed to the Sun for the better part of the day (we reached this tricky part towards 2-3 pm, we didn't bring a watch).
I hope my description is good enough and that you can orient yourself well by my description. I'm still new to the adk's, so orientation is a bit iffy! Even though we didn't reach the summit, it was an awesome hike nonetheless (Check out the other pictures in my link, the view was incredible! Not a single cloud in the sky).
Thanks!
David
http://community.webshots.com/photo/284792391/284795352bRQLJp
http://community.webshots.com/photo/284792391/284795175HOQkeZ