Colden Trap Dyke – 9/07/08

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ferrisjrf

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Myself, Courtney, Gillian, Hui Yeng, Jay H, Dave H (and his better half, “the NYC Gillian”), Steve (AKA Dunbar on ADK High Peaks)

This is going to be an abridged version, with the full report to come later, from other part(s) of the group…but I wanted to get the basics down, before I forgot what happened. :p

We had originally planned to do this route on Saturday, but the weather didn’t cooperate, so we did an equally challenging trip up Street and Nye on Saturday, and crossed our fingers that the weather would be better on Sunday. It didn’t look good though, as we sat around late night Saturday, and watched the rain coming down. Then, on our way to the Loj Sunday morning, we seemed to run into some very heavy condensation :confused: forming on my windshield, which made me further question our plan.

Turned out to be a non-issue though, as most of the rain seemed to have missed Av Pass and the immediate area. By the time we got to Av Lake, it was the most gorgeous day you could ask for, and we were all (well, most of us) looking forward to getting some vertical in.

So we approached the Trap Dyke…then we started going up…then we exited stage right onto the slide…then we climbed the slide…then we got to the top. There was some laughing, crying, yelling, and other various emotional outbursts (I think someone called a couple of my moves "stupid"...? :D) that went on in the midst of all this, but I’ll let others fill in any gaps I may have left.

Another horrible…ahhh, never mind. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

Jason
 
The steep rock scramble before topping out on the slabs of the slide was the challenge for me....I think I had been warned about the "tricky" part about two thirds up - definitely not my cup of tea but with some coaching from the Leaf I somehow fumbled my way across. No big deal....just owe my life to her...

Ferris had said that the Trap Dyke was going to be a crappy hike and he was right - it completely sucked :p
 
The Trap Dyke is like 3 different hikes rolled into one. The approach, the dyke and the slab. Not to mention the none-too-shabby summit.

You had blues skies too. Very nice hike, definitely worth waiting a day for.
 
DougPaul said:
Snapfish seems to require registration to view the pics.

Doug
This worked for me.
ferrisjrf said:
you can use this user name and password to view them:

email address: [email protected]
password: 1person


Not the cleanest way to do things, but I like Snapfish more than most other free pic sharing sites, so...

Jason
 
Last edited:
I was wondering if you guys were going to bail on the dike until Sunday because of the weather.Glad you had a perfect day and manged to keep the spirits high.Hi-ooooo
 
Finaly, it was good to have waited on sunday, congratulation guys and girls. It was nice to meet you last weekend. :)
 
very cool trip. :D

thanks for the new avatar huiyeng!

not sure how long it will take for me to get my pictures up. one of these days.
 
Wow!

Awesome pictures of you guys climbing Colden's butt crack, Huiyeng!

This climb makes Huntington Ravine Trail look like a cake--walk!

KDT
 
I have had my eyes on doing this route for a few months since I saw it from the top of Algonquin and Iroquois. Great trip report and pictures from everyone. This will be on my must do list for 2009, once I find a sherpa to haul me up.
 
7summits said:
Here are pictures I took from the hike. Enjoy!
Looks very cool!!

And I'm sorry to other picture takers out there, but no one beats 7summits' pics and commentary. I will possibly have to ignore all others in the future now that I am aware of her supremacy as the picture/caption queen!
 
7summits said:
Thank God it rained on Saturday :p, otherwise I would have missed this cool hike.Thanks all for a fun hike and great company!

Here are pictures I took from the hike. Enjoy!
Unbelievable pictures. Looks like wicked fun.

-Dr. Wu
 
cbcbd said:
Looks very cool!!

And I'm sorry to other picture takers out there, but no one beats 7summits' pics and commentary. I will possibly have to ignore all others in the future now that I am aware of her supremacy as the picture/caption queen!

Hands down!!! She should be charging us all professional photo fees!
 
7summits said:
Thank God it rained on Saturday :p, otherwise I would have missed this cool hike.Thanks all for a fun hike and great company!

Here are pictures I took from the hike. Enjoy!
Nice!

I was part of a group planning to climb the Dyke one day a number of years ago, but it was too wet. (We ended up hiking Colden via the trail.) Looks like we missed a nice route...

Doug
 
Great pics! Thanks.

>I've only been on the Huntington trail once, but I walked down it at a brisk pace with a full pack of climbing gear. The Trap Dike is much more technical.

>I've always thought the summit is the second spot you showed (the roundish rock a few feet E of the trail. Maybe one of the GPS gurus could opine?

>Regarding where to get out of the dike, there was a thread with quite a bit of detail a few years back. The choices range from an exit right after the "second waterfall" (where the chimney feature is) to taking the dike all the way to the ridge. The early exit leads to some fairly scary slab climbing that's better with rock shoes; the late exit involves some bushwhacking. Most people exit somewhere between those, as you did. There is at least one herd path, and maybe more than one.

>The chimney feature is the most technically challenging spot on the route. It's actually much easier to take a step up and then out left onto the face left of the chimney. Large square cut holds make that very easy, though it's a little more exposed. Many people tend to stay in the chimney to avoid the exposure, but the chimney gets difficult and slick after a few moves. It's better on the face.

I'm glad you had a great trip! The Trap Dike is the classic Adirondack scramble.

Tom
 
Awesome photos, HuiYeng. (I already complimented the others over at AdkHighPeaks.com). I agree Colden is photogenic in all light. I liked your Monet brushstroke interpretation. Very impressionistic. And nice pictures of the hikers in the dike and on the slab. You captured the verticality well.

The Trap Dike has been known to rein in many a New England hiker to the Adirondacks. We may captured a few more. :D
 
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