Big Slide via The Brothers 2 (Winter)
Topographic map courtesy of Topozone.com
TRAILHEAD
March 2015
BIG SLIDE SUMMIT
As you may have already read from my first hike of Big Slide, this is probably my favorite of all the 46 peaks. My friends who are aspiring 46ers needed Big Slide, so I suggested that we do it as a winter day hike with snowshoes.
So we got a hotel room in Lake Placid, and got to the Garden parking lot in Keene Valley just after dawn, and started our cold wintery journey climbing the Brothers, (the Brothers is one long ridge line, comprised of 3 “peaks”, or Brothers, as they’re called). There was light snow falling and a steady wind on the exposed sections of the Brothers, so we had to keep moving to stay warm enough.
Then we ascended Big Slide, (27th, at 4240 ft.). The last 0.3 of a mile climbs 700 feet. It was thick packed snow, and at such a steep angle that I really was glad I had my mountaineering snowshoes on. I really needed the extra traction they gave me to get up that slope. I think underneath the snow was that section of log ladders. The light snow eventually cleared, giving us absolutely spectacular views of the Great Range.
Big Slide’s summit, as seen from the third (tallest) Brother.
Jim, Chris and Jonathan start us off on the blue trail to Big Slide, via the Brothers.
Jonathan and I pose for a photo, enjoying a short little break from climbing.
The ascent gets steep as we hit a switchback leading up to the first Brother.
Doug climbs a bit of a tricky off-camber and icy section.
Jim and I tackle the tricky section, which is a bit of a switchback up snow-covered ice, around that rock jutting out.
Chris welcomes Jonathan and Doug to the exposed second Brother’s open rocky lookout.
We follow a delightful section of trail through the woods, sheltered from the wind, and enjoying the sunlight.
Trail split. It’s just 0.29 miles to the right to get to the summit from here. Left goes down into the John’s Brook Valley, incidentally.
Another split, we go to the right, to head up to the summit of Big Slide.
The views are opening up for us now. This is a nice view of Gothics across the Johns Brook valley.
The intrepid climbers reach the summit. Here’s the ChaseDesign crew, from L to R: Jonathan, Carol, Doug, Tanner,
Chris and myself.
Carol and her husband Kevin on the summit.
The view southward: from L to R, you can see part of Saddleback, Basin, Haystack, Marcy, among others.
My cousin Jim and I congratulate each other on summiting.
A view across the Johns Brook valley toward the Great Range. From L to R: Lower Wolfjaw, Upper Wolfjaw, Armstrong, Gothics, Saddleback and Basin. Taken from just below the summit at a lookout.
A zoom in on the slides on Lower Wolfjaw and upper Wolfjaw.
Another shot of the Great range, and Big Slide’s open rock slide covered with snow to the right. You can see the snowshoe’d trail bottom right, leading to the summit.
Back at the third Brother now, looking back, you can see the summit and slide of Big Slide.
Gothics and Saddleback. I wonder if anyone is skiing down those slides on Saddleback today?
Or perhaps this long slide on Lower Wolfjaw would make for better skiing? It sure LOOKS like a ski slope!
Jim pauses to take in the range, and soak up some wonderful sunlight.
The hike back down in the warming sunlight is just magnificent.
The End.
We emerge out of the woods for our first views, even though the lightly falling snow is obscuring them a bit.
We pause at the trail junction, where we met up with our friends Carol and Kevin, (not in this picture).
Shortly after this trail split, I don my snowshoes for the steep climb up to the summit. This section has the log ladders, but they were several feet underneath the snow this day...
Doug and I laugh about our beard-cicles, due to all the huffing and puffing we were doing up the mountain.
