Catskill slides

[Explorer Editor]

Are there slides that can be climbed in the Catskills similar to those in the Adirondacks? Or any kind of rock scrambles?

 

[snowshoe]

There are a few. Two I can think of off hand is the slide on Slide mt and the slide on Friday.

 

[Rob S]

Snowshoe beat me to it. I believe the slide on Friday is still very climbable. The slide on Slide is completely, or nearly completely, grown in.

Lots of fun, though short, rock scrambles on the eastern end of the Devil's Path and also on the Wittenburg-Cornell-Slide trail, to name a couple.

 

[Mark Schaefer]

The horizontal Catskill rock strata explains why there are so few slides. The soil cannot slide off as easily as it does on the slanted bedrock of the Adirondacks. The few Catskill slides are loose rock slides on very steep slopes. These can be more painful to climb compared to those smooth slanted sidewalks in the Adirondacks. The Friday Mt slide (May 29, 1968) is probably the most fun with nice views. The older Slide Mt slide (July, 1819) is now overgrown, and reportedly a painful walk on loose rock. John Burroughs' description of his descent of the slide (June 10, 1885) can be found at this link to his essay "The Heart of the Southern Catskills". The essay covers his ascent of Wittenberg on the way to Slide. The slide descent is about 3/4 of the way through the essay. Look for the paragraph that begins: "We were now not long in squaring an account with Slide, and making ready to leave."

Other Catskill slides:

• NE of the Friday/Cornell col (June 7-9, 1930)
• NE of Dink, the 3655' false summit south of Cornell, (June 19-20, 2006)
• west side of Wittenberg (late 1950s or early 1960s, already revegetated)
• Samuel's Point (1901, caused by lightning)
• west side Devil's Path approach to Plateau crosses a small slide area not far below Orchard Point (a.k.a. Orchid Point)
• west side of Twin
• east side of South Mt (near Boulder Rock)
• several in the Kaaterskill Clove
• above West Saugerties, eastern escarpment north of Huckleberry Point and south of Donka Clove, (the small embryonic clove between Platte and Kaaterskill Cloves, and above Faugustine Road).
• Minister's face on the east side of Overlook, described in Woodstock, A History of an American Town, by Alf Evers; an account of the October 26, 1831 rock fall (thanks to Amazon for the online page).

Few of these slides are much fun to climb, some like the Minister's Face are considered dangerous due to the fragile rock.

 

[Explorer Editor]

Thanks for the information. If anybody knows of others, please post them. I may hit you up for more details when I get ready to hike some of these routes. I won't be doing them right away.

 

[funkyfreddy]

good thread!

Please PM or e-mail me before you go to the slide on Friday, I would love to come along if you want company. I love this part of the Catskills and the slide on Friday has been on my to-do list for years.

 

[MattC]

Please PM or e-mail me before you go to the slide on Friday, I would love to come along if you want company. I love this part of the Catskills and the slide on Friday has been on my to-do list for years.

What he said.

As always, kudos to Mark for the useful info. I look forward to reading that Burroughs essay when I get time.

Matt

 

[Rob S]

.... the slide on Friday has been on my to-do list for years.

Yeah, I've had a hankering to check it out for awhile as well. I have yet to climb Friday so I was considering adding Balsam Cap and exploring the slide to make a full day.

 

[Explorer Editor]

Thanks, again. Especially to Mark for the detailed response and those links. I may climb the Friday slide sometime next spring or summer. I'll check in then to see if anybody's game to join me.

 

[funkyfreddy]

Yeah, I've had a hankering to check it out for awhile as well. I have yet to climb Friday so I was considering adding Balsam Cap and exploring the slide to make a full day.

That would probably make for a full day. I would be interested in looking for the plane crash between Friday and Balsam Cap as well, so maybe an overnight might be in order.

 

[Miss Margaret]

Friday Slide

The Friday slide can be very cool in winter. There is a stream or runoff running down the center of it, and by last December it had frozen into steps of ice up most of the slide. The ice was tinted pink by the purple-red soil, sort of looked like pink lemonade.

Margaret