Whiteface Auto Road Jan 29
Hi All,
As promised, details of my attempt. I picked Thursday because there was fresh snow on Tuesday/Wednesday and weather reports predicted a brief break in the weather. That part never happened. Winds were howling in the AM with temps around +5.
The winds blew the fresh snow into powder drifts and left other places scoured with either ice or the white crud (the stuff that's white but with all the consistency and skiability of ice... sort of like Hunter Mountain on a holiday weekend). I was the only one on the autoroad mountain all day so I was breaking trail. I have medium skinny backcountry skis and pretty much sank to mid shin with each step.
I was carrying a full winter pack but didn't bring sunglasses because I had goggles. They froze up about an hour in, and after a few attempts to clear them the best I could see with them was like looking through a kaleidoscope.
I've never hiked above timberline in the dead of winter. I knew there would be strong wind, but it was ferocious that day. Worse than anything I'd seen on Mt Washington. It didn't come in gusts. It just blew and blew.
I made it to the 2nd hairpin turn and left my skis. I tried to advance against the wind (it was so strong between the 2 hairpin turns that it was blowing me uphill on my skis... nice, sort of) but I could barely walk into it. The killer was the snow blowing into my eyes. My goggles were useless. 3 times I waited for the wind to drop to try to make it to the end of the autoroad, but each time I'd get a few steps and get sand blasted. My guess is at that point it was -5 and winds were 70 mph. (does the weather station up there auto-report in winter?). After one of my eyes froze shut the little voice in my head (the good one, not the other one... too cold for that one I guess) said it's time to turn back.
Returning, all my tracks had been blown away, so I was breaking trail again. I did one beauty of a face plant downhill of the 1st hairpin. The road there was the white crud. Even with edged skis I didn't have much control on it. I hit the first powder drift and kaboom. After that it alternated between crud and deep powder.
All in all it took 4 hours from the toll gate to about 200 yards uphill from the 2nd hairpin, and 2 hours returning. I'd prefer to do this one in the future with a party to switch off trail breaking duties. And hopefully on a slightly warmer and less windy day.
Like I said on the Q/A forum, my respect for you winter hikers/climbers has increased dramatically.
A couple of pics...
Hi All,
As promised, details of my attempt. I picked Thursday because there was fresh snow on Tuesday/Wednesday and weather reports predicted a brief break in the weather. That part never happened. Winds were howling in the AM with temps around +5.
The winds blew the fresh snow into powder drifts and left other places scoured with either ice or the white crud (the stuff that's white but with all the consistency and skiability of ice... sort of like Hunter Mountain on a holiday weekend). I was the only one on the autoroad mountain all day so I was breaking trail. I have medium skinny backcountry skis and pretty much sank to mid shin with each step.
I was carrying a full winter pack but didn't bring sunglasses because I had goggles. They froze up about an hour in, and after a few attempts to clear them the best I could see with them was like looking through a kaleidoscope.
I've never hiked above timberline in the dead of winter. I knew there would be strong wind, but it was ferocious that day. Worse than anything I'd seen on Mt Washington. It didn't come in gusts. It just blew and blew.
I made it to the 2nd hairpin turn and left my skis. I tried to advance against the wind (it was so strong between the 2 hairpin turns that it was blowing me uphill on my skis... nice, sort of) but I could barely walk into it. The killer was the snow blowing into my eyes. My goggles were useless. 3 times I waited for the wind to drop to try to make it to the end of the autoroad, but each time I'd get a few steps and get sand blasted. My guess is at that point it was -5 and winds were 70 mph. (does the weather station up there auto-report in winter?). After one of my eyes froze shut the little voice in my head (the good one, not the other one... too cold for that one I guess) said it's time to turn back.
Returning, all my tracks had been blown away, so I was breaking trail again. I did one beauty of a face plant downhill of the 1st hairpin. The road there was the white crud. Even with edged skis I didn't have much control on it. I hit the first powder drift and kaboom. After that it alternated between crud and deep powder.
All in all it took 4 hours from the toll gate to about 200 yards uphill from the 2nd hairpin, and 2 hours returning. I'd prefer to do this one in the future with a party to switch off trail breaking duties. And hopefully on a slightly warmer and less windy day.
Like I said on the Q/A forum, my respect for you winter hikers/climbers has increased dramatically.
A couple of pics...
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