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so this past weekends gothics trip turned into quite the little epic, a dropped ice tool, almost being blown off gothics eastern summit, a bushwack off the mountain at night!

mike and i picked up jeff at the early hour of 630am friday morning and started heading east on the I-90. we meet up with john at a stewards shop in poland, ny which is our usual meeting locale. from here split into 2's for the remainder of the drive but kept in touch with some radios that john brought. after a quick stop for lunch and a to go order of that evening dinner we arrived at the gardner parking lot around 1pm. the hike from the garden to the lean-to was uneventful other then the few people that we passed, though it snowed most of the way back.

saturday morning we started moving later then we would have liked, but this is par for the course since we really never get an "early" start. the hike from the lean-to too the stream leading to the base of gothics was about 1.5 miles. the trail was snowed over with about 6 inches of powder but was otherwise an easy walk. the steam leading to the base of gothics hadn't been traveled on so we broke trail all the way back. when the slope came into view it dawned on us immediately that there was a lack of ice and snow on the majority of the face. but there was one good looking line near the left/east side so after a little lunch we opted for it.

near the base of the face there's a 20ft vertical section that we had to bypass by skirting to the left and then traverse back across the face for about 150ft to get onto our line of ascent. the traverse is mostly verglas and consolidated powder snow, because i was leading i stayed to the snow as much as possible as it offers much better traction then verglas. about 100ft or so up the face there's a small cluster a shrubs which i'm making a b-line for, it's the first section before some yellow ice and the only area that's not all verglas. so i get here and i wait a few minutes for mike who's behind me to arrive, once he get next to me he sinks his axes into the ice and one pops out and slides down the face and over the cliff. it's a good thing this isn't a technical climb! so about 150 feet above us is the tree line that we want to follow and it's all yellow ice to it. given the current state of the ice i decide to tie in and lead up to the tree line. this will allow mike, john, and jeff to use the rope as a handrail for this section. so i sling a half inch sappling and head off, using only one ice tool. about half way there i sling a 2 inch shrub and continue onto the trees. here i tied into a few 6 inch trees and called for the guys to follow on up. once mike and john reached me i had them continue on while i waited for jeff. once jeff arrived we pulled up the rope, stowed it in my pack, jeff moved on and i broke down the anchors.

by the time i got out of this cluster of trees the rest of the group was well ahead of me but i was feeling stong and was gaining ground quickly. about 2/3's the way up there was a split in the paths being taken. mike and jeff veered off to the right while john kept on straight up, i decieded to follow john which was a mistake. this section was thigh to waist deep snow and it sucked the strength out of me. once i got thru it i was spent, super tired and super hungry. i should have stopped but that wasn't really an option so i continued on at a crawl. a little before 4pm i finally exited the face in the col between the main and east summits. i was met by jeff and we walked over too where mike and john where sitting. they where ready to go, i don't blame them it was fucking cold and super windy in the col. but before they left i off loaded about 25 pounds of climbing gear, quite the relief.

i sat down for about 15 minutes for a rest when they left, drank the remainder of my first liter of water and 2 GU packs. nothing is more a of life saver then power GU, it saved the day. this col was not a nice place to be hanging around in. it's only like 12ft wide and the south side was all cornice. the winds where ripping up the north face and blasting a 20ft stream of spindrift to the south. i snapped a few pictures and shouldered up, i needed to catch up the the guys.

the traverse over the summit was easy and i was feeling better as time went on. the terrain was snow covered and it was only knee deep when i broke thru the crust. i caught up in like 10 minutes. at this point we where on the path to the cable trail but this didn't last long because we lost it quickly. having never been on gothics i was following mike and john. we where on the western summit when we came across the yellow arrow painted on the rock. by this time we had swithced back to snowshoes. we where getting hammered by wind gusts in excess of 60 mph i'd say. when we came around the backside of the western summit john and mike where crouched down as to not get blown off the mount. jeff and i where a bit further back and not getting hammered by the full brunt of the wind. all of a sudden i see john on his side and the only think keeping him anchored to the face is a SINGLE ICE TOOL!!! this is really bad and the wind is NOT letting up! i'm screaming at mike who's with 10 feet of me and he can't here me. when he finally does i'm franticly waving them both back off this ridge. we later figure out this is the descent path to the cables but its way to dangerous, john later comments that he's never been more afraid for his like! by know its nearly dark, around 5 and we decide on bushwacking for the northwest side of the mountain.

the winds are still ripping but we're in the tree line so it's protected. within 30 minutes it dark and we're navigating by headlamp. johns leading the way and we're on a downward traverse heading slightly east. we continue this way until we hit a 30 foot cliff. we head back up the way we came for a few minutes then descend in a northwestern direction. i'm breaking trail when i hit a think mass of trees that isn't really passable. we reverse our tracks about 30 feet and head down what looked like a steep slope, which is actually turns out to the a slide, the orebed slide! this is good we drop elevation quickly and take a break when i levels out. we pool our food and water which is a half bagel each with 4 slices a peperroni and 1/3 liter of slush water per person. it's does wonders for our strength.

10 minutes after out break we hit a trail, this kicks our moral up conciderabely! at 9:30 we finally stumble into camp and we melt water, it doesn't matter that it's full of pine needles and stuff it's much needed. by the time dinner's ready it's 11pm but it's the best navy been soup i've ever had. by now all i can think about it sleep!

enough of this dam rant!