 |
| First light and waning crescent moon from Marble Mountain overlook |
Everyone knows the rules for High Peaks hiking. Make sure to pack your "Essential Ten." Leave your planned route and ETA with someone back home. Always maintain three points of contact on ladders. Keep an eye out for black ice on rocks in the shoulder seasons. Today, I came up with a new one. Never watch a musical-turned-motion picture the night before a solo 46er hike. I did just that before a recent hike up Whiteface Mountain and couldn't shake Gee Officer Krupke, America, and other catchy tunes from West Side Story the entire six-hour-long morning on the trail. Particularly embarrassing, on the descent, was when a hiking party rounded a bend to catch my vocalization of the most earworm West Side Story song of all -- I Feel Pretty. Oh well, Muhammad Ali wasn't afraid to say it.
 |
| Approach to Whiteface summit buildings |
Mount Whiteface looms large over the towns of Wilmington and Jay, our go-to base of operations whenever we visit the Adirondacks. You can see Whiteface from the pond loop hike in the cabin subdivision where we often stay. You can see it from our favorite short hikes in the area, the Bluffs at Silver Lake and Cobble Lookout. And it is the prominent landmark in views from Catamount, Clark Mountain, Hamlin Mountain, Jay Mountain and other peak hike destinations in the Wilmington/Jay region. Yet in all these years of hiking in this part of the Adirondacks, I still had never visited its summit... despite having already hiked up to its nearby sister peak, Mount Esther.
 |
| View to the Northeast from Whiteface |
So, on the last day of a recent weeklong stay in Jay, I decided to use the blue bird weather forecast of sunny skies, light wind, and cold, yet still comfortable, autumn temps to finally visit Whiteface. I set off on the Marble Mountain Trail from the ASRC at 6 a.m. sharp, choosing this route because I wanted to get to the mountain's overlook point with plenty of time to watch the sun come up. It only took about 30 minutes to navigate the straight but steep scree-covered route up to the overlook with a headlamp. I then camped out for 45 minutes or so to watch the pitch black of night turn to first light and, eventually, a beautiful sunrise. It was neat.
 |
| Rockwell Kent-ing it on Whiteface summit |
Once on the Wilmington Trail, it is a fairly straightforward climb covering a lot of elevation over a short distance, kind of like Giant Mountain in the ADK and many of the 4,000 footers of the White Mountains. I was glad to do this hike a few days after the tourist highway had closed for the season because I was the first to the top and had the entire summit all to myself to admire the 360 degree panorama. A week earlier and I am sure that the place would have been mobbed. I didn't start encountering other hikers until I was about 1/3 of the way back down the mountain, but all of them were amiable, chatty folks clearly enjoying a beautiful day out so I didn't much mind. I was quite content that I had plenty of alone time on an otherwise ever-busy peak.
Oh, I almost forgot. Mount Whiteface makes it 46/46 ADK High Peaks hiked.
And there was much rejoicing. Yaaaay.
Peak: Whiteface Mountain
Elevation: 4,867 feet (Gain: 3,143 feet)
Distance: 7.2 miles
Route: Out and back, Marble Mountain Trail to Wilmington Trail
Conditions: Sunny, 30 degrees F
