Iroquois to Marshall
Hello, Paradox,
I've done this route twice, in early fall and winter. The section going up from the high point of the Iroquois Pass trail (connecting Indian Pass trail and Lake Colden) to Marshall has a well-defined herdpath, easy to follow in summer. In winter, we picked the best looking line and broke trail all the way.
The section going down from Iroquois to the top of the pass is a challenge. There is something of a herdpath to Shepherd's Tooth, which is definitely worth a visit.
Here is an account of one of the trips, in September 1999, which appeared in Adirondac magazine. We started down the steep, mostly bare rock southwest flank of Iroquois, guided by a few cairns. Below timberline, a well-defined path led us to the bare rock knob called Shepherd's Tooth. A cairn on top of the knob led us to believe that the trail went over it. From this cairn, a path led down to the left, but dead-ended at a ten-foot headwall dropping into dense spruce. Scouting the slope from the top of the knob, I saw a line going downhill on the right that looked like a break in the vegetation. We could see the line of the herdpath on Marshall, and knew that they should meet at the top of Iroquois Pass. We climbed down off Shepherd's Tooth the way we had ascended, cast about a little bit, and picked up the herdpath descending on the right of Shepherd's Tooth, and leading down into Iroquois Pass, between Marshall and Iroquois.
For the most part we were able to stay with the lightly used path below Shepherd's Tooth, which follows the drainage. At times, the trail was easy to lose and hard to follow. There were several scrambles on steep rock ledges requiring judicious use of handholds, footholds, and what some climbers of my acquaintance call "buttholds", the latter being the technique of last resort where cold water is running over the rock. The facing side of Marshall grew closer as we neared the top of the pass. Taking the streambed for the path, I suddenly was at the top of a forty-foot waterfall overlooking the pass. It did not appear that it could be descended in reasonable safety without a rope, anchors and technical climbing skills. We looked for a way around, and found a diagonal cleft in the wall to the right. Most of it could be descended like a narrow staircase. At the bottom of this was a "lemon squeezer". In order to pass through, I had to remove my pack, slither through, and find secure handholds to grip while searching with my feet for good footing on the small landing below, which sloped towards a fifteen-foot drop. Once established on the landing, I took packs handed down by the next expedition member waiting to descend, and all followed suit.
A few steps down the sloping landing led to another downclimb where two sets of handholds and footholds put us on the deck at the top of the Pass about fifty yards northwest of the bottom of the waterfall. We went a lesser distance through the woods, and hit the Iroquois Pass Trail about fifteen feet southeast of the cairn marking the start of the Marshall herdpath. The last two pitches approached the level of difficulty of the rock ledges on the west face of Saddleback and the crux of the Trap Dike, both of which require the same kinds of moves, but more of them. It had taken us two and a half hours to cover a straight-line distance of about a half mile.
I apparently took a slightly different route in March 2004 trying to follow the drainage. I found myself at the top of a cliff, probably not the same one as the 40 foot waterfall from 1999. On the 1999 trip, we went down to the right (facing downhill) of the waterfall. Descending in 2004, we were near the bottom, could see some of Marshall across the pass, and could hear a waterfall on the right. We found our cleft and route down toward the left-hand side of the drainage, next to higher vertical and overhanging rock walls farther left. My conclusion is that the waterfall I found in September 1999 is not the same one we heard in March 2004. Aside from seasonal changes, it should be noted that the 1999 trip was two days after Hurricane Floyd dumped a few inches of rain, and water was likely running and falling in more places than usual. So the trick is, follow the drainage down from the right side (facing downhill) of Shepherd’s Tooth, bear left towards the bottom, but not so far left that one climbs the high rock wall defining the left side of the drainage, look for the chimney-like cleft, and descend it like a narrow staircase. Do not try to down-climb any 40 foot cliffs or waterfalls, There is a way around. The snow pack made the ledges at the bottom easier to descend than when they were bare. It had taken us two and a half hours to go the last 3/4 mile.
Good luck. Let me know how you make out.
(if you didn't catch on, that was a joke)
