Hi -

I was looking through Mellor's guidebook for the Adirondacks and was struck by some of the climbs in the Remote Climbs section. Has anyone tried climbing at either Big Slide (there's a Weissner 5.5 there, a 5.7 and 2 5.9's) or at the northern face of Gothics (Seems like runout slab - at least 1 5.7 w/ 10 pitches and an 5.8 with about 10 pitches)?

I was thinking about trying to get to Big Slide this coming season and making the northern face of the Gothics a possible goal for the next.

Deirdre

I have also been intersted in these climbs but have wondered more about climbing this winter. Anyone ever climb the trap dike on mount colden? Im looking for some mellow ice snow routes to do this winter.

the routes on big slide are great, the combination of great climbing and incredible views makes for an amazing experience. i would recommend that you focus on freudian slip and slide rules while you are there, they are the best routes at big slide. for gothics, if your looking for anything decent go right, to where the climbing is easy 5th class, clean and fun. i soloed this route last summer and had a good time, with maybe one or two interesting moves.

mark

Trap Dike is a great climb, either in the summer or the winter. Not technically difficult, but not to be considered "casual" either. Weather can turn a pleasant day into a life threatening experience up there.

RangerRob

The above post does not reflect the opinions or policies of any state or federal agency, or any representative thereof.

If you visit www.tradgirl.com, you will find a trip report written by Mike Rawdon that talks about two routes on Big Slide. Freudian Slip and Slide Rules. Slide Rules is a 5.7 and Freudian Slip is a 5.8. Note that Don's red book gives FSlip as a 5.9 and it is an error.

Also, since the last printing of the book, Ed Palen, has gone back and retro-bolted Freudian Slip. My memory fails me now, but the first pitch (130 feet) has 8 bolts on it.

Mike and I went in there on a dreary October day and we did Freudian Slip and the first pitch of Slide Rules. It is an absolutely superb outing.

Freudian Slip is a fantastic route. Very very different from most gunks climbs and really great. While there are now many more bolts than when Ed did the FA and the climb is safe, methinks that the consequences of a fall between the bolts would leave one with alot of road rash.

Also, Noonmark offers interesting one pitch climbs.

Both of these outings make for a really unique 'multi-media' excursions (with credits to RAF for coining that phrase) with a blend of interesting and beautiful hikes with great rock climbs in awesome settings.

Not in any guidebooks, yet, Ed Palen, has also recently put up some routes on the summit cliff of Snowy Mountain in Indian Lake and he says they are really great moders (5.7ish)

The Trap Dike was fun... it was mostly a snow climb with a short section of steeper ice (50' maybe???) that could you could sneak past on the right side.... (it looked like an annoying snow wallow/grovel in some trees so we took the "hero" route straight up....)

We snowshoed into Avalanche Pass, and the walked off down Colden to Hart's(sp?) Lake. There is a descent route or you could rap the route (I guess) back to the base. If you go that way, it's a moderately easy ski both in and out...

When we were there, the avalanche danger was fairly high. There was a lot of wind blown snow in the dike. Near the top of the dike, I stepped out onto the wind slab and it dropped about a foot, with a loud boom... After my heart started beating again, we bailed right onto the slide.... which was bullet -proof ice.

It was a great trip, just be carefull....

ed e

ps. the snow gullys on Mt Webster in Crawford Notch, NH are also a lot of fun....

If you're feeling lazy some weekend and don't want to hump a rack all the way into the backcountry, but you still want to climb something, try one of the slides on the SE side of Dix. My partner and I climbed the middle slide this last summer (there are three), and it was a pretty amazing climb: steep 4th class, punctuated by a few short sections of 5.0ish slab climbing, with amazing views all the way. You could do the approach and climb in one day if you get an early start, or you could camp at the Bouquet River lean-to and take all day. Once you top the slide, you could downclimb I suppose, but if you rock hop the outcrops to your right, you will come upon a cairn at the top of the rightmost slide, which marks a very sad excuse for a herd path. The path fades in and out as it climbs the ridge, but if you follow the height of land (and the scraps of some poor bugger's ensolite pad), you'll eventually join with the trail to the summit.

It's a fun climb with lots of great friction climbing.