king tut
New member
The sun came blazing down, right into my eyes, making it’s first appearance of the day. I tried to look directly above me, up the slide, but I could see nothing but bright light. It was at this point that I realized that either the slide was going to injure me, or my girlfriend was going to kill me once the slide injured me. She would finish off the job that the slide started once I returned home. So there I clung onto rocks, about 2/3 of the way up the north slide ascending North Tripyramid. My muscles ached, my eyes were squinting, and I was asking myself why I didn’t take the easy route…Well, this predicament sure didn’t look promising, but it sure beat the rest of the morning so far.
I awoke this morning around 6 a.m., wrapped in my winter sleeping bag like a sardine, with two layers of blankets on top of my sleeping bag, with hat and gloves on. I realized early on in the night, that it was going to be a cold one. I had pulled into the Osceola Vista tenting area and found a site to pitch my tent for the night, after hiking the Hancocks earlier in the day. I awoke a few times throughout the night, shivering pretty badly, as my body does not do well with cold weather. So, around 6 in the morning, I packed up my tent, scraped the ICE off my windshield and headed to the Livermore road trailhead. The temps must have been in the 20’s, as my tent, car, and the grass had a thick layer of frost on them. I was pretty excited to start hiking a little after 7 in order to warm up my frozen body.
I decided to take the Livermore trail up to the North slide of North Tripyramid. The trail is a pretty gentle 3 and a half miles or so, before you hit the base of the slide. My hiking book stated not to do the climb if the rocks are wet, but it didn’t mention anything about the slide being difficult or potentially scary. So, I headed up the bottom part of the slide, and I thought, “man this is pretty easy, I hope it gets a little more difficult”. About 1/3 of the way up, the pitch becomes steeper, the rocks become slicker, and there are fewer and fewer climbable routes. I really had to think about where to wedge my hands and feet, and use my entire body to balance, shift weight, go straight up a crack route or slide horizontally across a set of rocks in order to get to a new path up. I had my larger pack on, and it really was getting awkward with my weight transfers, having a big pack pulling my weight down the hill. Arghhhh!
About 2/3 of the way up, I ran into a fellow who was heading down the slide. I had a good chat with him, and he was remarking that the slide was a bit challenging. I had just completed the middle section, which I had found to be the hardest. I wished him well, and I was thankful that it was him heading down this section and not me. It had taken me a while to make my way up that section, I could not fathom descending that section… It seemed that this section was the hardest because of the steepness and the lack of true paths to climb up. Lots of crack climbing, swearing, and generally confused looks on my face on this middle section.
It was right after this middle section that I looked behind me. I was in awe. This had to have been the best view in all of the Whites that I have ever seen. I could count probably close to 20 of the 48’ers that were in plain sight. It was a stunning 180 degree view of Tecumseh, the Osceolas, the Pemi region, and looking north all the way to a crystal clear Mount Washington. I went to take some pics, but it was at this point that I got the bad news that my girlfriend’s camera that I was using had a dead battery, killed off by the previous night’s frost. I had been a good guy and let her take my nice camera to Ireland on her trip, so I was stuck with the best technology from about a decade ago. Oh well.
I continued the climb up, and that is when the sun descended directly into my eyes, blocking my view of the route above me. I slowly made my way up, hoping that I was not climbing into any points of no return. I made my way up, and finished the slide a good solid hour or so from the time I had begun the bottom portion. I was happy to be alive and well, and found the slide to be an exhilarating climb, probably as tough or tougher than any other climb I have done before, including The Precipice trail in Acadia, and the Knife Edge, Cathedral, and Abol Slide trails in Katahdin.
The views from the top of North, Middle and South Tripyramids were very limited. I took the south slide down off of South Tripyramid, and I found it to be night and day from the North slide. It was the hot sister, in relation to the ugly brother of a slide that the north slide was. I arrived back down at my car around 1 in the afternoon, making the hike a nice 6 hour, 11 mile walk. This was my first trip to NH in over a year, but I knocked off a few more peaks and am now down to the elite 8, before I am finished the 48 and the 67. These two peaks were definitely earned.
I did a quick google search this morning to look for pics of the slide, and found a pretty cool one at the link down below here, i think they might be a member on this site, the name looks familiar. Anyhow, the slide is the one on the right, it's a really cool photo of the slide.
http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=357682&context_id=150538
I awoke this morning around 6 a.m., wrapped in my winter sleeping bag like a sardine, with two layers of blankets on top of my sleeping bag, with hat and gloves on. I realized early on in the night, that it was going to be a cold one. I had pulled into the Osceola Vista tenting area and found a site to pitch my tent for the night, after hiking the Hancocks earlier in the day. I awoke a few times throughout the night, shivering pretty badly, as my body does not do well with cold weather. So, around 6 in the morning, I packed up my tent, scraped the ICE off my windshield and headed to the Livermore road trailhead. The temps must have been in the 20’s, as my tent, car, and the grass had a thick layer of frost on them. I was pretty excited to start hiking a little after 7 in order to warm up my frozen body.
I decided to take the Livermore trail up to the North slide of North Tripyramid. The trail is a pretty gentle 3 and a half miles or so, before you hit the base of the slide. My hiking book stated not to do the climb if the rocks are wet, but it didn’t mention anything about the slide being difficult or potentially scary. So, I headed up the bottom part of the slide, and I thought, “man this is pretty easy, I hope it gets a little more difficult”. About 1/3 of the way up, the pitch becomes steeper, the rocks become slicker, and there are fewer and fewer climbable routes. I really had to think about where to wedge my hands and feet, and use my entire body to balance, shift weight, go straight up a crack route or slide horizontally across a set of rocks in order to get to a new path up. I had my larger pack on, and it really was getting awkward with my weight transfers, having a big pack pulling my weight down the hill. Arghhhh!
About 2/3 of the way up, I ran into a fellow who was heading down the slide. I had a good chat with him, and he was remarking that the slide was a bit challenging. I had just completed the middle section, which I had found to be the hardest. I wished him well, and I was thankful that it was him heading down this section and not me. It had taken me a while to make my way up that section, I could not fathom descending that section… It seemed that this section was the hardest because of the steepness and the lack of true paths to climb up. Lots of crack climbing, swearing, and generally confused looks on my face on this middle section.
It was right after this middle section that I looked behind me. I was in awe. This had to have been the best view in all of the Whites that I have ever seen. I could count probably close to 20 of the 48’ers that were in plain sight. It was a stunning 180 degree view of Tecumseh, the Osceolas, the Pemi region, and looking north all the way to a crystal clear Mount Washington. I went to take some pics, but it was at this point that I got the bad news that my girlfriend’s camera that I was using had a dead battery, killed off by the previous night’s frost. I had been a good guy and let her take my nice camera to Ireland on her trip, so I was stuck with the best technology from about a decade ago. Oh well.
I continued the climb up, and that is when the sun descended directly into my eyes, blocking my view of the route above me. I slowly made my way up, hoping that I was not climbing into any points of no return. I made my way up, and finished the slide a good solid hour or so from the time I had begun the bottom portion. I was happy to be alive and well, and found the slide to be an exhilarating climb, probably as tough or tougher than any other climb I have done before, including The Precipice trail in Acadia, and the Knife Edge, Cathedral, and Abol Slide trails in Katahdin.
The views from the top of North, Middle and South Tripyramids were very limited. I took the south slide down off of South Tripyramid, and I found it to be night and day from the North slide. It was the hot sister, in relation to the ugly brother of a slide that the north slide was. I arrived back down at my car around 1 in the afternoon, making the hike a nice 6 hour, 11 mile walk. This was my first trip to NH in over a year, but I knocked off a few more peaks and am now down to the elite 8, before I am finished the 48 and the 67. These two peaks were definitely earned.
I did a quick google search this morning to look for pics of the slide, and found a pretty cool one at the link down below here, i think they might be a member on this site, the name looks familiar. Anyhow, the slide is the one on the right, it's a really cool photo of the slide.
http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.php?object_id=357682&context_id=150538
