Neil
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- Apr 26, 2004
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I needed a ride to the Dacks and did some virtual hitch-hiking on Fousderando, the french language hiking forum. I offered up my humble slide climbing and bushwhackery skills as payment for said ride and Patrice sent me a message saying he had yet to do Dix and that he wanted to do it in a unique way.
Said I, "Patrice my boy, I'm your man."
We're getting ready to go when who should pull into the Round Pond parking lot but Mastergrasshopper and his wife Cherri who were doing Dix for their 29th anniversary. We sign in together and hike for a bit but the happy couple would be doing a "smell the roses" type of hike so Patrice and I went on ahead. We would not see them again all day but would talk to Glen from 2 unique locations.
Patrice had done the Trap Dike and the Grace slide I have hiked with him on previous occasions so I knew he could take and enjoy whatever I put on his plate. Nevertheless, after leaving the blue trail and hiking up the "wrist" of the Dix North slide group when we stood at the base of the Ring slide he was pretty awestruck and feeling the adrenalin due to the sheer immensity and steepness of the Ring group of (three) slides. Heck, I was feeling just as much adrenalin myself and I've already been up and down those slides.
We each had sticky shoes and it never ceases to amaze me the way they adhere so well.
We cruised to the top of the slide, whose headwall is quite steep and I stupidly climbed my way into an impasse and had to gingerly turn around and down-climb a nasty bit but otherwise it was a very smooth ascent. At the top I heard Glen's distinctive voice wafting out from the trail and we called back and forth a few times. We changed into bushwhacking clothing and managed to gain some good elly on some open rocks but then we had about 100 feet of very slow vertical through exceptionally thick coniferous growth. We spent some time advancing on all fours and I was thinking that if it was like for the rest of the way we were in for a long difficult trip to nowhere.
But then we found ourselves upon a huge rock that sits atop the ridge that runs NE off of the summit at 4400 feet elevation. We could see the entire valley to the east of the Carson-Hough-Dix ridgeline and our eyes immediately locked onto the Beckhorn Slide, our next objective.
But first we had to drop a thousand feet into the valley. Here I whipped out my gps and switched it on. I knew there was a lot of open rock/slide paths between our position on the ridge crest and the valley below but of course we couldn't see it. Google Earth, however, can see it quite nicely and I had put 2 key waypoints into my gps. Getting to that open rock was a major chore. We encountered many vertical drops that had to be detoured and the south facing slope promoted very intense growth of vegetation but once on the bare rock we joyfully "friction-descended" into the mixed forest at lower elevation and cross-sloped along a compass bearing of 220 magnetic towards the Beckhorn Slide.
We crossed several dry drainages and then I had a feeling we were at the right one so we followed it along a new bearing of 270, directly towards the Beckhorn, which of course we could not see. Once again, a couple of key waypoints courtesy of Google Earth confirmed we were on the right track. We climbed for about 500 feet in the drainage getting impatient and wondering if we were missing the slide but then we began to catch glimpses of it hulking overhead. Just as we were breaking cover and arriving at the base of exposed rock I heard Glen call out my name and say something. I am guessing he was up on the Beckhorn although it sounded like he was only 100 feet away.
It took us an hour to climb the slide. One thing that was particularly interesting was examining our route down off of the ridge and figuring out exactly where we had passed. The slide gets steeper and steeper as you climb it and the exit is insanely steep and thick. There are several 10-foot vertical steps of rock to contour and I believe I drank a quart of water for the final 50 feet of elevation gain. It is so steep and the trail is so right there on the narrow ridge that if you are unlucky a passing hiker could literally step on your head as you come up to the crest.
We came out directly at the top of the Beckhorn and that was the end of our adventure. The rest of the hike was basically a very nice walk, savouring our memories of the slides and bushwhack. We spent quite some time examining the slides from the steep portion of the blue trail and I have to admit they look impossible to friction climb from that angle and I can easily understand why it took me so long to get acquainted with them on a more personal level.
Said I, "Patrice my boy, I'm your man."
We're getting ready to go when who should pull into the Round Pond parking lot but Mastergrasshopper and his wife Cherri who were doing Dix for their 29th anniversary. We sign in together and hike for a bit but the happy couple would be doing a "smell the roses" type of hike so Patrice and I went on ahead. We would not see them again all day but would talk to Glen from 2 unique locations.
Patrice had done the Trap Dike and the Grace slide I have hiked with him on previous occasions so I knew he could take and enjoy whatever I put on his plate. Nevertheless, after leaving the blue trail and hiking up the "wrist" of the Dix North slide group when we stood at the base of the Ring slide he was pretty awestruck and feeling the adrenalin due to the sheer immensity and steepness of the Ring group of (three) slides. Heck, I was feeling just as much adrenalin myself and I've already been up and down those slides.
We each had sticky shoes and it never ceases to amaze me the way they adhere so well.
We cruised to the top of the slide, whose headwall is quite steep and I stupidly climbed my way into an impasse and had to gingerly turn around and down-climb a nasty bit but otherwise it was a very smooth ascent. At the top I heard Glen's distinctive voice wafting out from the trail and we called back and forth a few times. We changed into bushwhacking clothing and managed to gain some good elly on some open rocks but then we had about 100 feet of very slow vertical through exceptionally thick coniferous growth. We spent some time advancing on all fours and I was thinking that if it was like for the rest of the way we were in for a long difficult trip to nowhere.
But then we found ourselves upon a huge rock that sits atop the ridge that runs NE off of the summit at 4400 feet elevation. We could see the entire valley to the east of the Carson-Hough-Dix ridgeline and our eyes immediately locked onto the Beckhorn Slide, our next objective.
But first we had to drop a thousand feet into the valley. Here I whipped out my gps and switched it on. I knew there was a lot of open rock/slide paths between our position on the ridge crest and the valley below but of course we couldn't see it. Google Earth, however, can see it quite nicely and I had put 2 key waypoints into my gps. Getting to that open rock was a major chore. We encountered many vertical drops that had to be detoured and the south facing slope promoted very intense growth of vegetation but once on the bare rock we joyfully "friction-descended" into the mixed forest at lower elevation and cross-sloped along a compass bearing of 220 magnetic towards the Beckhorn Slide.
We crossed several dry drainages and then I had a feeling we were at the right one so we followed it along a new bearing of 270, directly towards the Beckhorn, which of course we could not see. Once again, a couple of key waypoints courtesy of Google Earth confirmed we were on the right track. We climbed for about 500 feet in the drainage getting impatient and wondering if we were missing the slide but then we began to catch glimpses of it hulking overhead. Just as we were breaking cover and arriving at the base of exposed rock I heard Glen call out my name and say something. I am guessing he was up on the Beckhorn although it sounded like he was only 100 feet away.
It took us an hour to climb the slide. One thing that was particularly interesting was examining our route down off of the ridge and figuring out exactly where we had passed. The slide gets steeper and steeper as you climb it and the exit is insanely steep and thick. There are several 10-foot vertical steps of rock to contour and I believe I drank a quart of water for the final 50 feet of elevation gain. It is so steep and the trail is so right there on the narrow ridge that if you are unlucky a passing hiker could literally step on your head as you come up to the crest.
We came out directly at the top of the Beckhorn and that was the end of our adventure. The rest of the hike was basically a very nice walk, savouring our memories of the slides and bushwhack. We spent quite some time examining the slides from the steep portion of the blue trail and I have to admit they look impossible to friction climb from that angle and I can easily understand why it took me so long to get acquainted with them on a more personal level.
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