Gothics

Gothics is the tenth highest of the High Peaks Region of the Adirondack Park.
Much of the mountain is covered in bare rock slides, which give the mountain its name due to their resemblance to Gothic architecture.
The summit has near 360 degree views, which combined with its location in the High Peaks Region gives splendid views of the Adirondacks.

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"Hiked a Armstrong, Gothics, Pyramid, Sawteeth loop from the Ausable Club. I ascended up from Beaver Meadow falls and then over to Armstrong. The clouds at this point were dancing in and out and when I reached Gothics the summit was completely socked in. I sat there and enjoyed some companionship with a few newly made friends and just when we about to leave the clouds lifted, as if someone had hit a lightswitch, leaving us with an amazing view. I continued down over Pyramid and up to Sawteeth before dropping down the Weld Trail and on a side trip to Rainbow Falls. " — Right-On • Oct 10, 2018

"Started from St. Hubert's parking area again and made my way to the AMR gate. Today I stopped and spoke to the ranger for a little while. I headed up towards Gothics today as my first objective since I stopped yesterday after making it to Armstrong. The summit of Gothics was gorgeous with great views of the rest of the great range. I headed over to Pyramid and then down into the col. I sat there for a little bit deciding weather or not to head up to Sawteeth to get one more peak in. Unfortunately, I decided to head down even though I was only about a half mile from the summit. I'll have to hike that boring Lake Road another time to get Sawteeth. " — Kim-Stilson • Sep 20, 2018

"Began hike from JBL. Not a day you would typically choose to hike with such bad rain but it wasn’t cold so didn’t present too much of a problem. Prevented us getting a view from the summit though so will return at some stage to see this as it’s supposed to be one of the better views. On the latter stages of the ascent there is a lot of open rock. One part has a long ladder, one part has cables and other parts are just open rock. It’s a tricky ascent and even trickier coming down. Spectacular hike though and one I will do again. " — rhinteractive • Jul 26, 2018

"Easily my favourite peak to date. The views from here are breathtaking, and the trail up via pyramid is awesome. My second time here, with a friend to help him get to 3/46 in the ADK 46er Challenge." — UK-Ranger • Jul 18, 2018

"Very long hike. Sawteeth was easy. Getting to Pyramid was steep and difficult. Going to Gothics was easy - and the view was really worth. Going to Armstrong was long. Getting back to the car was never ending." — hiking-Brigitte • Jun 29, 2018

"Fin de semaine camping et rando en solo. Je peux finalement décoller en vitesse vendredi vers 18h30. Je me dépêche et j'oublie de quoi mais je n'arrive pas à savoir quoi... Traverse les frontière, attrape l'orage au USA et voilà que la mémoire me revient.. J'AI OUBLIÉ MES BOTTES DE RANDO!!!! Il est vraiment trop tard pour faire demi-tour. Je vais faire ma fds en running. Mud season ou pas?!?! En fait ce n'était pas si pire que ça. Là où il y a de la bouette et de l'eau, il y a aussi des roches sur lesquels je peux sauter! J'entame mon premier sommet des 6 prévus à l'horaire. En revenant sur mes pas de Saddleback je brise atrocement mes nouveaux bâtons de marche. Ça y est, je braille ma vie!!! Bon ok, go mon Frank, tu as toujours randonné sans bâtons jusqu'à l'an passé... Tu peux le faire... Finalement, j'ai tout de même réussi à toutes les faires. 28 beaux KM dans les montagnes... J'ai atteint ma limite personnelle! Demain, j'avais prévu de faire mon démon à moi: Big Slide. Cette montagne me hante depuis l'automne passé. Elle aura ENCORE eu raison de moi! Les souliers détrempé de bouette, rien pour les faire sécher, 1 bâton en moins et une cheville qui semblait vouloir un peu d..." — fsoucy76 • Jun 2, 2018

"Gnarly day gettin pitted with the bros given her a full send on lower and upper wolfjaw, armstrong, pyramid, gothics, and sawteeth. Not many views due to the clouds but all in all a righteous day. " — LGH-Topple • Oct 14, 2017

"Successful Lower Great Range loop, with a couple wild and crazy guys! Rocks were a little wet from rain the night before, and the cloud cover stole some summit views, but when we could see the foliage was on point! Being an aspiring 46er is hard when I live in CO, but I’m hoping to knock a few off a year until I get it done!" — LGH-Dan • Oct 14, 2017

"Unbelievable. Ended up leaving the trail in the dark, but this was probably the best place for soul-searching. Only saw 3 other people on the entire trail. Coupled with Armstrong and would have done the Wolfjaws if I hadn't already run out of daylight. Next time! So incredible it's my profile picture for my account for this site. " — ionahraqs • Oct 12, 2017

"Wow, this is by far my favourite peak in the Adirondacks by far !! The views are stunning. The trail we took was interesting and challenging in some spots. A tough day all round, but these views more than made up for that. 10/10 for views on this beauty !!" — UK-Ranger • Aug 26, 2017

"Fourth peak of a LONG day of hiking. Our 10th 46er. This peak certainly has the best views out of the whole range, with views of layers upon layers of massive mountains as far as the eye can see from all sides." — RangersApprentice • Aug 26, 2017

"We broke the trail from about a miles past JBL. snow really wet and was knee deep and then waist deep after the slide. The snow was balling under our snowshoes. Our dog was literally swimming in the snow. We were planning on doing gothics and sawteeth, with the speed that we were progressing we had to bail out close to gothics peak (at the start of the cable). The slide going up gothic was full of snow, some skiers had made a descent. I enjoyed running in the middle all the way down!" — MountainDrew • Feb 18, 2017

"This day Deb and I were out to do Gothics and Armstrong, then figured we traversed across to do Upper Wolfjaw and head out. I had done Lower Wolfjaw back in the 90's with a friend and we both tired so she figured she would do it with me another time." — hbotc • May 28, 2016

"We started at the Garden ~7:45am and enjoyed a nice, easy walk in to the IO. From here we made our way to the Ore Bed slide and ascended Gothics via the chains. Beautiful conditions with areas of snow in the shade over 4000'. Continued from Gothics to Armstrong and onto UWJ. Lots of ice in the col between UWJ and Armstrong as well as from UWJ to the junction before LWJ. As we were starting the decent of UWJ a storm came in very quickly - temps dropped at least 15 degrees in less than 5 minutes, winds picked up and a heavy, icy rain fell - thankfully we had the gear for it. Made our way down safely and the storm passed within 30 minutes. Back to the car by 6:15 including 1 hour and 45 minutes of summit time. Roughly 15.5 miles and 3800' of gain." — deb-and-rob • May 21, 2016

"I wasn't even sure I would be summiting today. It looked like the cloud cover was higher than the mountains. Decided to give it a go. I kept going until I reached the summit. Some white canvas bags around the summit. Guessing they were part of a helicopter drop. This peak is #46 of my ADK 46r. Views are pretty good. Fun times coming up the cable trail. " — newenglandwarrior • May 14, 2016

"we enjoyed a challenging hike of the Lower Great Range from Gothics to LWJ via the Ore Bed Trail to the Gothics chains. Last January we enjoyed this trail but a storm came in and so we didn't get to climb LWJ. This time we completed the range but the conditions tried their hardest not to allow it - slippery snow up the slide, high wind gusts on the icy chains and what seemed like endless 2' - 3' deep snow to break trail through led to a challenging but very fun day to reach 46W #32!" — deb-and-rob • Jan 16, 2016

"Last summit of a lower great range traverse. Arrived from Armstrong in the dark. Trying to find the cable route trail down to the Saddleback col with fresh snow and no discernible path in the dark was difficult." — LGH-Tom • Jan 9, 2016

"The fourth peak of the day with Tommy. And the crescendo of the hardest hiking day I've done. I was experiencing severe muscle soreness at this point in the evening but was determined to push on. The hoarfrost in the low light as we ascended made me feel like we were in some kind of science fiction movie. And forget about the summit in the dark! Talk about spooky. We hit summit at approx 17:15. We snapped a couple of photos and headed out. Had some difficulty finding the trail to take off of the summit because it hadn't been used since the snow fell.. For obvious reasons, we saw. Taking the cable route as a descent on on an unbroken trail and on snowshoes isn't something I would recommend in the pitch black using only headlamps while it's snowing.. Had a couple of slippery "Holy sh*t!" moments, But we made it! Had a long trek back to camp due to trail breaking- exhaustion meant we slept fairly soundly. " — kellieirene • Jan 9, 2016

"The Real Marcy’s Playground: A One Day Great Range Traverse From the inception of my days as a hiker, I’ve strived to get better—both in terms of my mental and physical well-being. For some reason, the former has been appeased by abusing the latter to the point of misery. What exactly do I mean by that? Insanity fuels my happiness. More specifically, hiking 25 miles with roughly 9400 feet of elevation gain in one day is my cup of tea. I had been eyeing a one day Great Range Traverse for a long time. I talked it up and talked it up to the point where it seemed as if it had already been done. But had I known then what I know now, it would have been apparent that I had my work cut out for me, regardless of how good of shape I was in. The opportunity sprung up after Lauren and I discussed a great way to start off our second year of dating with a 25 mile death march through the Dacks. *** A Great Range Traverse commences at either the Garden or the Roostercomb trailhead, and often ends with a 2+ mile hike to the other lot. Fortunately, we hitched a ride back to the latter trail from the Garden late at night—but that’s a story for later. At a minimum, the hike ascends Hedgeho..." — justinraphaelson • Sep 5, 2015

"Sun was in my face all the way up the cable route. Couldn't see a thing for the glare. Cables unnecessary except as a relief from fatigue of careful foot placement and balance. More strenuous than challenging." — rschainbaum • Sep 4, 2015