Hiking Whiteface To Photograph Sunrise
Hiking Whiteface Mountain
There's something special about watching the world wake up from the top of the fifth tallest mountain in New York. It's quiet. It's chilly. It's exhausting. Yet somehow, you're wide awake and every step in the dark becomes worth it. Recently, I decided to take on one of my favorite adventures yet—hiking Whiteface Mountain in the middle of the night to catch the sunrise by 5:36am in late July.
The Research
Before I fully committed, I needed to do a little bit of research on what it was I was getting in to. How far is it? Do I need to be an experienced hiker? How long do I need? There wasn't a question about the trip that didn't cross my mind. Here are some things I learned.
For the average hiker, you can expect the hike to be around 3-4 hours.
The ASRC Whiteface Mountain Trail is about 3.6 miles long one way, with an elevation gain of ~3,4000 feet.
The Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway is only open around 8:30am and closes around 5:30pm, so hiking is the only option for sunrise or sunset.
Thankfully, a couple of friends had hiked the trail for sunrise before and sent me a couple of tips.
It's going to get cold at sunrise even in the summer, so bring a puffy jacket for the top.
Take your time on the first mile, if you can overcome that, you can handle the rest.
There's a "scramble" section, but you can do it!
Enjoy the view!
The 1:30 AM Start
I knew if I was going to get any sleep, my car or tent wouldn't suffice. I ended up booking a room at The Devlin in Lake Placid in hopes to get a couple hours of rest. While most people were asleep, my alarm was going off at 12:45am. Yes, it was tough to move with little to no sleep. By 1:30 AM, my headlamp was on, my camera gear was on my back, and I was standing at the ASRC Whiteface Mountain trailhead surrounded by complete darkness of the Adirondacks. There were no people, minimal bugs, and barely any sound besides the wind moving through the trees. It's a strange feeling hiking with only a small beam of light in front of you. Every root, rock, and turn in the trail demands your attention. Your eyes adjust, your senses heighten, and before long, you settle into the rhythm of climbing.
What I Packed
With only a week of planning, I knew I was in for an adventure - good or bad. I didn't know what night hiking really consisted of. "Do I need a spot light?" "What about bear spray?" "Should I get wool socks?" "I'm not going to miss the shot, I need ALL of my camera gear." Eventually, I landed on the following as an over-packer....
Hiking Gear:
Water
Some Protein and energizing snacks
Puffy Jacket for Summit
Dri-Fit Hoodie
Merrill hiking shoes
Head Lamp
Flashlight
Extra Batteries
Knife
Camera Gear:
2 Canon R6 Bodies
24-105mm f4L for the Timelapse
100-400mm f4-5.6L for Mountain Shots
28mm Vivitar vintage lens for B-Roll
Go-Pro Max 2 for 360 Images
Go-Pro 9Black for backup timelapse
Carbon Fiber lightweight Tripod with ball-head
Small external Power Bank
Extra Camera Batteries
What I Wore:
Flexible Hiking Pants
Dry-Fit Long Sleeve T-Shirt
Dry-Fit warm socks
Looking back now - you can tell I might've overdone it with the camera gear. It was HEAVY. I mean, 40+ lbs heavy. I knew I would likely only do this once and I wasn't going to miss the shots. My original plan was to solely focus on a "Holy Grail" timelapse. This is when the environment transitions from dark to light (or light to dark) in the scene and you try to properly expose the images manually in hopes for a timelapse with seamless transition and minimal exposure flicker. However, if you couldn't tell I "overthought" my approach and needed more, so here's what I did:
Set up Canon R6 on the tripod ASAP to get the timelapse started.
Once the timelapse started, I set up the Hero9 for a backup timelapse.
Once both timelapses were going, I got out my second R6 and started snapping around.
NOTE: Yes, every couple minutes I needed to go back to my R6 and Manually adjust exposure
Whiteface Mountain Sunrise timelapse
Whiteface Mountain has incredible views any time of day, but experiencing sunrise after hiking through the night is something I'll never forget.
If you've ever considered doing a sunrise hike, I highly recommend adding it to your bucket list. Prepare well, bring the right gear, hike safely, and take a moment to simply enjoy where you are.
Sometimes the best view isn't just the sunrise itself—it's knowing what it took to get there.
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