TR: Gothics North

My snowboarding counterpart and I went to the beautiful Gothics Mountain in the Adirondacks last weekend, and it was pretty damn neat.

We made a 4 mile approach along the John's Brook trail, which was sort of a pain cause the snow is really thin and half the trail was wiped out during Irene. Hangover factor: 7/10. Stoke factor: 6/10

We made a technical ascent of the north face, which was really fucking badass. Its not super steep so I felt pretty secure as an amateur ice ice climber, but I was pretty scared for Paxton who was leading on a simu-climb. At 4 hrs duration, it was a much longer climb than we had anticipated, but it kicked ass and was super rad. we topped out just shy of the summit so we dropped our packs and I bagged a new high peak. Hangover factor: 6/10. Stoke factor: 9/10.

It took us a few minutes to find the slide (True North) but we found a trusty snowshoe trail that brought right to the top. Snow conditions weren't prime, with half the trail covered in wind scoured ice and the other half covered in sketchy wind pillows with a moderate chance of sliding (I accidentally propagated a minor slide when I wasn't paying attention near the top. Nothing deadly, but it sure as hell sharpens you up). We took our time picking through the wind scoured steeper upper section and were able to let go of the leash a bit more on the lower angled bottom portion of the slide. Its a much longer run than I had expected, which was a quality reward for the work we put in earlier. Hangover factor: 3/10. Stoke factor: 10/10.

Here's a goofy video Paxton put together:
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/766175/Gothics-------True-North