Adirondacks: Esther Mountain, 3/21/23

 

My goal on our one full day in the Adirondacks was to climb one of the 46 High Peaks that I had not been to yet, and as a bonus have it count as a winter ascent, even though winter had turned to spring at 5:24 on March 20th. By ADK 46er rules, winter ascents may be done from December 21st to March 21st, inclusive. (Not that I will ever attempt to become a winter 46er.)

Esther Mountain (4240 ft.) seemed like a good choice as it is close to Lake Placid and is one of the easier 46er peaks, with the option of adding Whiteface Mountain for a longer trip. The day's forecast was iffy, calling for cloudy skies with snow showers likely. Esther is a wooded peak, so I figured if it was socked in I wouldn't miss out on any spectacular views. My attitude towards Esther was sort of meh. It's near the Whiteface ski area and toll road and once had a ski area on its lower slopes and a ski touring trail to its treed-in summit. Hikers who have done it in summer say it's not much of a mountain. The Marshall brothers and Herb Clark, the first to climb the 46 peaks (in the 1920s), ranked its view a lowly 43rd.

But these mountains can surprise you. After visiting this peak atop the deep snowpack of late March, with excellent views, and passing through its wild fir waves and cripplebrush thickets, I would have to say this was one of my most enjoyable hikes in the ADKs.

As many hikers do, I chose the shorter and higher elevation approach that starts near the Atmospheric Science Research Center (ASRC), on a spur road off the Whiteface Memorial Highway.  The price you pay for this route comes early: after a 100-ft. descent, you climb a relentless pitch up the straight narrow swath of an old lift line used by the abandoned Marble Mountain Ski Area. You gain 900 ft. of elevation in about 0.7 mile.

The trail passes by supports for the 3300-foot long T-bar lift. Marble Mountain Ski Area opened in 1949. Its alpine trails were deigned by skimeisters Hannes Schneider and Otto Schniebs. The upper elevation cross-country trails were laid out by Adirondack legend Herman "Jackrabbit" Smith-Johannsen. Skiers were transported to the upper trails by Sno-Cat and truck using the Whiteface Memorial Highway. A spur ski trail led across to the summit of Esther Mountain. But the slopes turned out to be badly wind-scoured, a terrible location for a ski area. Marble Mountain was a financial fiasco and was closed down in 1960, having been replaced by the more suitably located Whiteface Mountain Ski Area, which opened in 1958. The T-bar lift was dismantled, but the Marble base lodge is still in use today by the ASRC.

Just before the junction with the Wilmington Trail, a short spur leads to open ledges with fine views. The Sentinel Range is to the right, and Giant Mountain is in the distance left of center.

 

At the viewpoint I chatted with a seasoned ADK hiker (5 or 6 rounds of the 46) who came up behind me. He was working on his winter list. Farther up, along the Wilmington Trail, he caught up to me and went ahead.

This 1.3 mile section of the Wilmington Trail is excellent for snowshoeing, with moderate grades mixed with a few steeper sections.

A simple sign marks the junction with the unofficial but well-used path that leads 1.2 miles to the summit of Esther.

Plenty o' snow up here.

The snowshoer had broken through some pretty good drifts. The four barebooters who passed me while I was taking a break at the junction struggled in the deep soft snow. They admittedly came to regret their decision to leave their snowshoes in the car, based on the hard-packed condition of the trail on a hike to the much more popular Phelps Mountain the day before.

I soon discovered that the deep snowpack, combined with the numerous open fir waves, transformed this into a view-rich snowshoe hike.

As the trail passed over a spur known as Lookout Mountain, there were frequent looks back at the imposing pyramid of Whiteface.

 

From a fir wave near the top of Lookout, Esther was in sight, looking fairly far away. The wind was whipping here, and at this point I decided to make a day of it on Esther, enjoying the views, and save the exposed upper ridge and summit of Whiteface for a more comfortable day.

The fir wave is a phenomenon unique to the balsam fir forests of the Northeastern mountains (as well as mountains in Newfoundland and Japan): a band of dead and dying wind and ice-stressed trees that migrates slowly (several feet per year) across a slope in the direction of the prevailing wind. Seen from a distance, fir waves appear as irregular gray stripes on the mountainside. Lookout and Esther Mountains are draped with them.

 

As the path ascended Esther there were views south to the Great Range in the distance, seen beyond the fir waves of Lookout.

Farther along I made a short, careful bushwhack out through the cripplebrush, treading gingerly so as not to plunge into a spruce trap. From this open snow area I was rewarded with an unusual view into the McKenzie Mountain Wilderness, with 3800-footers Moose and McKenzie Mountains off to the left.

A closer look. Some wild, trailless country out there. One of the lower bumps has the intriguing name of "Pigeon Roost."

 

The Adirondack herd paths are a lot clearer than they used to be, though after a big snowstorm parts of the Esther path would be challenging to follow.

A cut through the cripplebrush.  Before the 1940s era cross-country trail was opened, and for a time after it was abandoned, this was reputedly a tough bushwhack. In his 1922 booklet, The High Peaks of the Adirondacks, Bob Marshall wrote, "We cut up this mountain through some very bad slash from the Wilmington Trail up Whiteface. The view in no way compensated us for the trouble." He noted that cutover woods marred the landscape in several directions. "The best part of the view was Whiteface, towering up directly to the southwest."

The small clearing that marks the summit of Esther. Adirondack legend has long held that the mountain was named for Esther McComb, a local girl who in 1839, at the age of fifteen, supposedly set out to climb Whiteface but ended up lost on this peak instead. A memorial tablet bearing her name was first placed here in 1939 by the 46ers. More recent research suggests that this story is apocryphal. Meticulous sleuthing by Adirondack historians revealed no concrete evidence that Esther McComb existed, and the origin of the name remains in doubt. This summit still holds historical significance for the 46ers, as this was the finishing peak in 1937 for Grace Hudowalski, the beloved longtime 46er historian who over the years  corresponded with thousands of "aspiring" peakbaggers. She was the first woman to hike the 46.

I spent an hour here savoring the scene and studying the vistas afforded by the deep snowpack. All told I picked out 28 of the other 45 High Peaks from here. On the horizon to the south in this photo are (left to right) Grace Peak (formerly East Dix, renamed in honor of Grace Hudowalski), Dix, Nippletop, Lower Wolf Jaw, Upper Wolf Jaw, Armstrong, Gothics (snowy!), Big Slide, Saddleback, Basin and Haystack. The Sentinel Range is in the middle distance, and Lookout Mountain is in the foreground.

Dix and its massive north slides, highly zoomed. Grace Peak with its two slides to the left.

 

On very clear days, Mt. Moosilauke and the Presidentials would be visible from here.  The highly zoomed photo below, taken from Moosilauke, shows Whiteface through Appalachian Gap with Lookout and Esther glimpsed through the little notch to the right.

 

 Heading back, a low bridge along the herd path. The snowshoeing was excellent on the descent, thanks to the 46er snowshoer, who smoothed out the holes left by the barebooters.

Moody view of Whiteface.

More fir waves.

Drifts.

Gold medal posthole for the day.

Discovered another viewpoint on the way out, revealing Esther's long NE ridge.

 

A short bushwhack off the Wilmington Trail brought me to this expansive ledge area, with a good look at the Stephenson and Wilmington Ranges to the north.

 

Last look up at Esther, which rises at the head of a glacial cirque formed in the White Brook valley. A surprising mountain, indeed.