View of Whiteface Castle at the summit

View of Whiteface Castle at the summit, originally uploaded by vskiran.

We were about 2/3rds of our way up when we stopped at lake placid turn along the toll road. Once again the vistas were just gorgeous. Here you could see the whiteface castle in distance.

We were hiking this mountain using snow shoes (the fancy orange ones), which provide strong grip on snow and ice when hiking a rough terrain. We loved these shoes on our hike up the marble mountain the day before (more about it later). Given that the toll road is not very steep, it turned out to be a bad idea. They really slowed us down. However they were definitely better than just using our hiking shoes. We had water proof hiking shoes that were rated to work upto -20F, but they were no match to the cold weather on this day. Even though they stayed relatively dry, our toes felt really painful and frozen at times. Fortunately we had a few chemical warmers, which made a whole world of difference. I put on the warmers under my wollen socks below my toes after hiking for about 2 miles. It had an immediate effect and my toes felt much better. I would definitely recommend carrying a lots of these on every winter hike. Without the warmers our hike would definitely have ended prematurely.

Later on we came to know from the other hikers that cross country ski's are the best way to go up this route. They not only speed up your hike , its a lot of fun coming down the hill with those on. Of course one better be good with their ski's, or else he/she might end up seriously hurting themselves. The valley is definitely not that friendly.

It was really cold and this was one of the very few moments that I took the face mask out for the picture. It was quite icy at this elevation and I took the opportunity to lie down a sec with the castle in the background.