Arrow slide

Hello, I'm wondering if the arrow slide is hikeable during non-winter periods. If so, can anyone compare it to the North slide on Tripyramid which I love to hike.

Thanks.

Did it many years ago. Primarily rock slab. Easy friction climbing. Much smoother "walking" surface than North Slide.

If you are comforatable on North Slide, you should be ok on Arrow Slide.

Doug

The Arrow Slide is much wider than the North Tripyramid slide, as it gets higher, it really opens up, the left side provides a less steep route. We tried to follow the "old" route up to the summit via the left branch, where the large cairn is located, but the scrub is very thick all the way to the top. On subsequent trips we bushwacked off the top of the slide over to the to the North Hancock trail, and this worked out much better. If it's at all wet it can be very dangerous.

Is Arrow Slide the one on the southern slope of North Hancock?

Yes, the arrow slide is the one on N. Hancock. Thanks for the replies and advice. I hadn't heard of it before reading about it on this site several months ago. Any reason why it doesn't get the attention that Tripyramid north slide or flume slide seem to get?

The amc wmg indicates that the official trail up N. Hancock runs fairly close to the slide. How tough is it to bushwack off the top of the slide and find the trail?

Thanks again.

The Arrow Slide doesn't get a lot of hikers because it's not on the North Hancock trail, you have to find the base of the slide and then bushwack off the top to get back to the trail. It's a short, but dense bushwack basically due east off the top of the slide. It's a much bigger slide than the Flume or Tripyramid slides.

When the loop trail splits and you head for North Hancock, you dip down to a stream before starting up North Hancock. I read that you could find the wash-out of the slide by following the stream a few hundred feet. When I hiked the Hancocks two weeks ago, this area with the stream was heavilly flooded. It looked like beavers may have been at work. So I didn't try and bushwack down the stream (now a pond). I did try to bushwhack to the slide half way up the mountain, but gave that up because there was a lot of brush, and I wasn't prepared for a bushwhacking trip. I'd like to go back and have another try at it, I love the steep and exposed stuff!

Flume Slide

I don't know how many people climb the Flume slide off trail. I've never read of anyone else doing it.

We did, one hot June day long ago, and it was quite a trip! We lost the trail some distance after the crossing of the main brook, followed a few pink ribbons, staying near the bank of a tributary which turned out to be the drainage for the slide proper. We thought we were still on the trail, and when the slabs opened up, we headed for the left side, which turned out to be treacherous slippery mossy ledge. Sidling to the right, we found a way up on dry ground but which was like walking on marbles - like the Owls Head slide on steroids. Two steps forward and one slip back, and we finally got to the top of the slide, which was just a few steps from the summit. We still thought we'd done the trail and were pretty unhappy that we'd had such a hard time on a trail that was called no more than "challenging!" It never dawned on us that there were no blazes and that trail builders don't build trails like that. Between the black flies, the heat, humidity, and the slog over to Liberty (no way were we going back down that danged trail), it was about the hardest day I have ever done. It only dawned on me days later that we might have been "lost."

If you've got a sense of adventure, try it! The trail is pretty wimpy compared to the real slide.

We've done the Arrow Slide 3 times. Heed the warning about the danger when wet. We unwittingly dislodged a couple of large rocks that looked secure but weren't.

You climbed THIS really? THIS ? Are you all crazy?

Looked pretty loose and scary to me, but then I'm a wimp

Bob

HikerBob said:

You climbed THIS really? THIS ? Are you all crazy?

Click to expand...

Q1) Yes
Q2) You will have to decide for yourself.

Not as steep as it looks in your pictures.

(This is a common illusion called foreshortening--a slope frequently looks steeper when viewed fairly straight on.)

Besides, I did it 25-30 yrs ago. I remember fun, but no fear. Selective memory can be a good thing...

Doug

Wonderful pictures Bob! It really is an exhilirating day out. One other suggestion, don't try to take it down!

That has got to be steeper than flume or the north slide.

And I agree those pictures are great.

I remember getting worried when I looked up and saw that slide, but the trail didn't come close enough to the slide for me to even see it once I was ascending the mountain (the trail up which is itself relentlessly steep).

From Osceola, North Tripyramid slide looks impossibly steep, too.

audrey said:

I don't know how many people climb the Flume slide off trail. I've never read of anyone else doing it.

Click to expand...

I went to do it, but went up the wrong slide! which led into Liberty-Flume col. Will have to try the real one sometime.

One difference with the Arrow Slide is there is no marked route, when it gets wide you have to guess where to go and I found it harder than I expected. Maybe there's a better way and maybe others like more excitement than I do

Thanks for all the great comments. Bob it was those very pictures that got me interested in the first place Absolutely looks fun to me. Not having experience bushwhacking is my biggest issue, not so much the slide itself. The lack of bushwhacking exp. is something I don't take lightly so most likely I would take a 'dry' run up the official trail with some side trips to asses slide position and access points. Any additional 'talk' would be most welcome!

BLE said:

Thanks for all the great comments. Bob it was those very pictures that got me interested in the first place. F Ya it looks fun to me. Not having experience bushwhacking is my biggest issue, not so much the slide itself. The lack of bushwhacking exp. is something I don't take lightly so most likely I would take a 'dry' run up the official trail with some side trips to asses slide position and access points. Any additional 'talk' would be most welcome!

Click to expand...

The bushwack is relatively short and the navigation is trivial--just go up and perhaps to the right. All you have to do is recognize the trail when you step onto it.

Doug

Doug,

I may have misunderstood you, but the North Loop trail is to the right of the slide - there's no trail to the left, so you're not surrounded. However, it would still be very hard to get lost.

Ummmm - Doug, I thought the trail was off to the right of the slide so the loop does not encircle it.

Any way, it's a very steep trail so orienting across the slope is not an issue and the trail is heavily eroded and unmistakable.

I would think a bigger issue would be instability on the slide and at the margins, particularly this early in the year. I've seen a few rock falls on the side of I91 and a large rock fall on the side of a local road, all as a result of weakening by water and freeze-thawing.

Play it safe and have fun BLE - and take pictures

Bob

Bob, you are correct, as your pictures clearly show, as you get near the top of the slide, you go from solid ledge climbing to loose gravel conditions, I actually went up towards the edge of the vegetation so that I could have something to hold on to. And the trail is no more than a 15 minute bushwack away.

Navigationally, this is a trivial bushwhack:
* At the bottom of the gully on the N Hancock Loop, go downstream until you get to the bottom of the slide. If you don't find it or don't like it, return upstream to where you left the trail.
* If you decide the slide is too difficult partway up and too dangerous to descend, go R through the woods to the trail. This assumes you can get to the R edge of the slide. Once you take the L branch, you are pretty well committed.
* At the top, go uphill or R to the trail.

dms said:

And the trail is no more than a 15 minute bushwack away.

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It is less than .1 miles to the trail from the top of the slide depending on how you go, but there is some thick stuff and it might take 15 minutes I made the mistake of aiming L for voices at the summit viewpoint when the trail is much closer to the R. The map may not be exact but it's reasonable.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=44.08361&lon=-71.49417