Warren County High Point Trip Report

Date: September 10, 2000
Author: Dave Galvin

Warren County's high point can be pretty easy for a 3600' (3563+ in Andy's book) Adirondack peak. The secret is to take the ski lift. This will get you within about a half mile and only six hundred feet below the summit. Even if you choose to walk from the base lodge of the ski center, there are full color glossy maps provided free of charge to help you find your way. The hard part of climbing this mountain is avoiding the mountain bikers or, in winter, skiers, hurtling down at you at breakneck speed.

We took the Northwoods Gondola up, which appears to have been installed quite recently and lies between the two ski lift routes shown on the USGS topo. The scene below the gondola is of recently turned earth, tree stumps and bulldozer tracks. This lift terminates on the easternmost false summit, at 975 meters. From there we followed trail #21 up to its well marked intersection with the summit service road, and hiked that to the summit.

The summit is cluttered with a fire tower, a warming lodge, a radio transmission tower, and assorted buildings and detritus from the mining, skiing, and electric communications operations that exploit the mountain. The topo shows a benchmark placed slightly NNW of the fire tower, but I was unable to locate it. It may have been buried by recent construction activity. The natural high point is a short walk of about 200' NNE through the dense boreal woods surrounding the fire tower clearing. There appears to be an area on the service road that has been filled in higher than this in order to cover some large pipes.

The weather offered only a hazy view of the surrounding mountains. There are plenty of vistas from the road and from various ski trails, so the fire tower climb is strictly gratuitous.

There's no point in my giving directions. Check Gore's web site. It has the trail map, rates and directions. For now, parking is free. Gondola tickets cost $8.00, or you can climb from the lodge for free along one of the ski trails. Watch out for those bikes, though. As the gondola only runs on weekends, you will probably have the mountain to yourself during the week. The summer season on Gore ends after Columbus Day. After that skiing takes over and the rules and rates change, I imagine.