Gothics - attempt at True North Slide (AKA Ribbon Slide)

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JeffT

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Nov 22, 2004
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Location
Ottawa, ON
The three of us decided to take the True North Slide
(Ribbon Slide) up the left side of the face of
Gothics. None of us had summited Gothics before, so I
tried to find as much information from VFTT and
adkforum that I could. I found a good aerial shot of
the mountain and some instructions on how to find the
bottom of the slide. We were told that the slide had a
NEI 2 rating, so we decided to go with
crampons and mountaineering axes.

We came in from Garden trailhead, late Friday. After
about a 2 ½ hour bare-boot hike, we arrived at Orebed
lean-to. We had intended to camp, but there was too
little snow for snow anchors, and the group was too
frozen for stakes. We opted for the lean-to. We ate,
and got to bed at around 3:00, waking up around 9:30am
despite our intentions to wake up at dawn.

We were packed out by 11:00am and headed up the Orebed
trail. After ½ a mile we found the brook that we were
to take to the base of the slide. The ice was unstable
for the first 1/4 mile and we broke through in a few
spots but didn’t soakers thank god. We climbed up the
brook for about a mile which was a lot of fun as it
involved a bit of climbing with the aid of the
mountaineering axes.

Mid-way up the brook, a team of three Scottish
climbers caught up to us. They intended to climb the
same slide, but we’re equipped with ice tools instead
of mountaineering axes. We were told that they had
never done this climb either.

The other group went ahead of us, and after a while,
we noticed that their tracks left the brook and went
to the left. We decided to follow them, and they went
to the bottom of a slide. At last, we had found the
bottom of the slide, or so we thought. After climbing
thin ice (where 12 point crampons would have been more
suited for), we became aware that it was not the
Ribbon Slide.

At the top of the short slide, we caught up with the
Scotts and noticed that there was another slide to the
east that looked like the Ribbon Slide as it looked
thinner than the wide open we occupied. A short
bushwhack took us over, and we began to slide the
slide, which was easier than the previous slide.
Because of the lack of snow fall, and because it was
early in the season, climbing was still difficult, but
doable. The Scotts decided that there wasn’t enough
light left in the day, and turned back.

To our confusion, we once again quickly found
ourselves at the top of the slide. I of course
remembered that there was supposed to be an island in
the middle, so I started to suspect we were further
astray. We heard some hikers up from the top of the
ridge between Armstrong and Gothics, so my climbing
partners reasoned that we near the top, and that we
could bushwhack our way up to the ridge. I had my
doubts since the trees were still tall at our
elevation.

It was getting late, as we started to bushwhack
through what quickly because 3 feet of snow. After a
heated argument, I convinced my companions to abandon
the summit, and to return to camp, thinking that we
did not have correct bearings, and that we would be
stuck in 3 foot deep snow when the sun went down

We hiked back down to the slide, which gave us
perspective of how slow were had hiked through the
snow in such a long period of time. Then we had a
blast, sliding down the slide. This also gave us the
perfect opportunity to practice self-arrest, which was
necessary at a few points. We followed the slide to
the bottom where we found the brook we used at the
approach.


At the lean-to we decided to hike out instead of
spending another night. After the long, dark hike to
the Garden, we had dinner at the Ausable Inn,
where we had excellent ribs!

Despite, not finding the Ribbon Slide, we had a most
excellent trip. Climbing up the brook and it’s small
water falls was especially fun. The slides we climbed
had were little ice and snow. We reasoned that it
would be better to climb the area later in the season.
We will perhaps return in early March.

I took a look at the aerial photo when we got home. It
looks like we were supposed to get off of the brook
much early than we had. I have attached the aerial
photo below. The red represent where we should have
gone, and the yellow represents where we actually went
(sorry, I have a shaky mouse hand).



I have also uploaded some pictures in the link below.

http://community.webshots.com/album/264190057jpWdYi

264198234VlYnaM
 
Last edited:
Was wondering how far you guys made it. We snowshoed by the lean-to probably about the time you were waking up. Sorry if we woke you. Or maybe that was a good thing? Saw your tracks go up the stream after we came down from Saddleback.
 
I think I was the only one who heard you guys. Deffinately a good thing. We intended to wake up early. Hearing you guys made me realize it was time to get up and going.
 
Looks like you had a great adventure!

And now you know a lot about the route for the next try!

CB
 
True North slide

Glad to hear you had a good time. According to Don Mellor's guidebook, Climbing in the Adirondacks, the True North slide is the one to the right of the route you marked in red. (The one closest to the face climbs.) It is accessed by taking the stream bed until you are directly underneath the face, then heading left through the trees. This is 3rd class and is a straightforward snow climb in winter.
 
Guidebook directions

If you don't have the Mellor guide, here is the description:

Gothics: True North

This recently created route is well-named, it climbs the actual north ridge of the mountain, left of what is called the North Face (actually the north-west face) of Gothics. True North was made available by the 1990 slides. It currently offers the only non-technical route up this side of the mountain and it comes highly recommended.

Approach as for the North Face. Head up onto the broad expanse on the left-hand side of the face for an exhilarating view, both of the valley below and of the amazing bare face itself. Don't go too high before bushwacking straight left into the woods; in fact, the higher you go before cutting left, the nastier the forest becomes. After a short wooded section, a small vertical slide is reached. This leads upward to join the wider True North Slide which ends at the northern end of the Gothics summit ridge. The route is becoming a popular winter ski descent, especially for North Face climbers.
 
Gothics

Excellent report--and all in all sounds like an excellent trip. Thank you for the info. This is why VFTT is a good site. I will use your info to evaluate my own attempt. Thanks again. Pete O.
 
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