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My only Winter High Peak
In Early March 2000, two friends and I decided we would try to climb Gothics. I was the only one to have climbed any of the high peaks, and they were all in non-winter months. We decided to make it as much of a fun trip as possible, so we reserved Grace Camp for Friday and Saturday night. One of the guys was a Pittsburg resident so I picked him up at Albany Airport. I picked up my other friend, drove to the Garden and hiked into Grace Camp on Friday evening, about 3 ½ miles. Of course it was a dark and lonely night when we arrived and had a little trouble finding the cabin. Since it was March, there was lots of snow on the ground and John’s Brook was frozen over. The cabin was heated with a propane stove, had no running water, and the outside privy was about a 50 foot snow covered path away from the cabin. To get water, we had to chop through the ice on the Brook without falling through. Our plan was to hike Gothics on Saturday.
I should note that we were all pretty fit and active in outdoor activities. I should also note that the friend from Pittsburgh had just climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro on Y2K day. We had snowshoes and crampons, and lots of warm clothing, which paid off since the Adirondacks experienced a significant snow storm that night. We had to break trail all the way. When we reached the expected trial up Gothics, it was totally obscure in deep snow, and the trail signs were mostly gone. Only because I had climbed Gothics a couple of time on non-snow seasons, I was able to find the route up. We had to switch back and forth from snowshoes to crampons, which is not easy with gloves on and subfreezing temperatures. We did find the cables but they were mostly buried. It started snowing again and visibility was poor, but we did reach the summit, I think. We didn’t stay long on top, nothing to see, and quickly retraced our steps back to Grace Camp. It actually looked more inviting than the night before, probably because we were all cold and wet.
I provided a bit of Yukon Jack to celebrate our first Winter High Peak. After a few gulps, my Pittsburgh friend told us this hike was about the same difficulty as Kilimanjaro, not as long but equally challenging. Wow!
That was my first and last Winter High Peak.
Joe Clark #3992
