Climbing the new slide on Wright

We climbed the new slide on Wright yesterday. It's a cinch to get to from Marcy Dam and offers a mile of climbing, mostly on clean rubble or bedrock. There is some mud and debris. We were disappointed to find a broken cup and a water bottle on the upper slab. Litter? Already?

Click here to read my account and see photos.

The new slide sounds like it was really fun to explore. Aside from the disappointment of trash, the slope you describe is textbook avalanche angle between 30 and 45 degrees. You should at least include a disclaimer and mention the need for avalanche equipment if attempting a winter ascent. Too many dummies will be out on it without a clue what to carry in case of emergency.

Thanks for making that point, Eddie.

So I took advantage of a fantastic late summer day and followed Phil's as well as a few other footsteps up the new slide on Wright. Just an awesome slide and a great experience to get on a new Adirondack slide barely two weeks after its creation.

I hope to post more later, but I just wanted to take a minute to post a point about accessing this slide. For the ascent, I took the suggestion from the Adirondack Explorer article and bushwhacked from the Hudowalski lean-to. I took a really crappy line and wound up having to skirt back around before finding the slide at least a couple hundred yards up from its base. For my descent, I decided to downclimb the whole thing to the mass of jumbled trees at the very bottom of the slide. I skirted around to the left of the debris and then back right and cast my eyes on a glistening stream. Decided to follow it figuring it would meet up with Marcy Brook and sure enough it did only about 1/10 of a mile below (south of) Marcy Dam. Took Marcy Brook the rest of the way in.

The upshot of this of course for BC skiers is that they can ski from the top of the slide all the way into Marcy Dam. FWIW, the brook that leads to the slide shows up on my National Geographic map but NOT on my ADK map. If you're coming from Marcy Dam, follow Marcy Brook 1/10 of a mile south and you will come to a fork. The left fork is Marcy Brook; the fork immediately to the right is the brook that leads to the new slide. Follow it for a few tenths of a mile (took me maybe 10-15 minutes) and it will lead you directly to the debris field. I promise.