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 Finally the col! The peak up above my head is the top
of west Gothics. That was our destination. We stopped to eat
lunch and layer up some.
I took a similar picture this summer when Mike and I were
here. You can see it here.
From this point, tree line isn't far. Shortly before
it, we hit a snow covered ice sheet that required our
crampons. That was fun digging out a spot in the climb that
was big enough and stable enough to put our crampons on
and continue.
GPS Coordinates: N44 07.589 W73 52.033, 4010
ft. | |
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 Cable time! The trail on the western Gothics peak
(there are two peaks that make up the Gothics summit. The
western is the shorter of the two.) has a cable going up and
down to help hikers. You may remember Mike and me taking it this summer.
I was hoping we'd have a completely iced over face and
really need the cable to get ourselves up, but as you can see
it wasn't too bad.
If you look carefully, you can see the col where we had
lunch down behind Jeff (it's the open white patch in the
trees). | |
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 Somebody in snowshoes had actually been up before us
- not the same day, but recently enough to still see the
tracks. | |
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 Near the top, after the cable stopped, there was a
section of bare rock you had to cross to continue on the
trail. It was tricky because you had to climb up and out of a
waste deep gully we were in, then stand up on the bare rock in
the open wind 4,300ft into the air.
Needless to say this is where Jeff decided he was done. He
hunkered down in the gully and waited for me to make the
top.
The top wasn't far, but there were a few precarious
scrambles on ice and rocks (without the aid of a cable)
to to get there.
From the top of the western Gothics peak this shot was
taken facing west. This was the last half of the route Mike I
did on our epic day this summer. The peaks you see in order of
right to left are Saddleback, Basin, Marcy (I think) and
Haystack. Basin has all the slides facing
me. | |
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 I took a quick self portrait from the summit of the
western peak. Unfortunately my head is blocking the view
of the Ausable lakes.
I only made it to the western peak of Gothics. The main
peak was still another .3 miles away. Leaving Jeff alone
down in the gully, I didn't want to take too much time running
about while he worried where I was. I snapped this shot,
then headed back down.
GPS Coordinates: N44 07.534 W73 51.689,
4593ft. | |
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 Another shot of Saddleback Mt. after I caught back up
with Jeff and we headed back down. | |
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 Headed back down the cables. Again if you look close,
you can see the trail junction in the col at the
bottom. | |
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 We got back to camp a little after dark and began the
whole water boiling procedure again. Jeff had finally given up
on my lack of ability to get water without crap in it and
started retrieving the water himself. Sure it's all boiled,
but there's only so many pine needles you can drink in a
weekend.
The clouds had been moving in since we headed back from the
peak. There was no forecast for any real "weather", so
the clouds only meant it would be warmer tonight then the
previous. Instead of -5°F it only got down to 5°F.
Though it was warmer the second night, I started out way
colder in my bag. I had thrown the clothes I wore that
day down in the bag with me to dry. The little bit of moisture
that was left in them had my teeth chattering in a -20°F bag.
The biggest culprit was the long sleeve base layer wrapped
between my legs. Once I pulled that out from between
my knees and pushed it away from my body, I warmed
up nicely and fell dead asleep.
Overall I had too many clothes on this trip. I had a 100
weight fleece vest, 100 weight 1/4 zip fleece top and a 200
weight 1/4 zip fleece top. Though I wore all of it (I
think) the one night and morning, the 200 weight fleece top
was overkill not worth the
weight. | |
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