Mountains: Mt. Whiteface
Date: Saturday, February 18, 2017
Trails: Whiteface Trail

Nancy and I meet once again at Ackerly's Grill for breakfast then up the Whiteface Trail. It starts out as a snowmobile trail, then see the tracks of a barebooter with a dog, then virgin trail. It is overcast for the first hour and the temps keep rising. I wear a Techwick 3 and a 1, sweating and breathing hard. When we reach the junction for Piper/ Whiteface the trail remains unbroken until we come out into a large meadow. There snowmobiles once again pick up the track and lead us to the summit of Whiteface. Beautiful 360 views. The sun is out, wind gentle. I can't believe we have already arrived at the top and try to find the trail, but there is no trail. We are actually on the summit.

We start back on snow that is warming in the sun and sticking to the bottom of our snowshoes. We are constantly whacking large globs of snow off the snowshoes. We reach the intersection of the Piper Trail and talk about breaking trail to Piper's north summit to add some workout and mileage to the hike.

The trail is unbroken and we struggle through some areas of deep drifts. We reach an open area and discuss whether we are on the summit or not, but decide we are not and press on for a bit. I'm glad we did because maybe 100 yards later we reach the north Piper summit cairn. One set of snowshoes and a barebooter's tracks lead to the summit from the north side. Nancy changes out of wet clothes and the hike down is much easier than the hike up. We both feel tired and good having added the extra mileage to our day.

A lot of driving and effort for a small summit. But Whiteface counts!