With all the destruction to the East Coast by Tropical Storm Irene it may be hard for anyone to see a possible positive side to the storm. But, the following photos are a testament to one possible positive side effect... New or improved slides in the High Peaks Region! Jeff 'Sensei' Murray, a close friend and great ski partner, offered to take me up in his plane and survey what the 'damage' to the peaks was.
Yes thats right! A western style chute right here in NY! The Trap Dyke, on Mt Colden, has for years been an East Coast winter mountaineering objective. In recent years it has been getting skied with a rappel over a steep icy section towards the bottom. It looks like now, after Irene, that steep section may be filled in enough to ski without the rappel and the new slide directly from the summit into the chute looks to makes skiing from the true summit that much better!
This is Ottis Gully, on Mt Colden also. It has been getting skied for years as well. The difference is now, post Irene, that the gully got scrapped clean and the runout at the bottom appears to go right to the trail! No more bushwhacking to get to/from it!
The slides on the left are the Angel Slides on Wright Peak. The new slide to the right; as of now is unnamed, as far as I know. Besides an entirely new slide to ski this winter, the big difference here is also the approach. From the lake in the lower right corner to the Angel Slides was about a 1/2 hr. You can see how much closer the new slide comes to the lake. It appears to cut the approach time by at least a 1/3!
There were 3 other new/improved slides of skiing significance but I did not get good photos of them. Check out Drew Haas's site at www.adkbcski.com for photos. The ones to check out are the slide on the North face of the Wolfjaw's, the slide on the South Face of Upper Wolfjaw and the slide on the North East face of Saddleback. These all appear to have easy/improved access and look like a ton of fun to ride!
So I know that winter for most of the boyz usually starts in the next 2 months. Well here in NY we have a little bit longer to wait but this year we have some new terrain to explore when it does finally happen!
-The Dude
