Neil
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Tabletop, Marcy, Gray and Colden's 1990 slide. 09-04
The main purpose of this trip was for Dominic to do Tabletop and the two of us to do Gray, our 45th. After numerous cancelled trips we finally got ourselves on the trail at 5:30 am Sunday 09-05. At the Loj trailhead nobody has signed out yet which was a first for us. The day we had planned was a biggie: Table top (for Dominic) Marcy, Gray and Colden’s 1990 slide. So, we were full of adrenalin and a sense of mission which got us to Marcy dam in 35 minutes.
Already, there was a problem. Carefully scrutiny of the forecast indicated that this was to be a fair weather day and we were hiking in drizzle. The head lamps did a great job of showing it.
We kept moving and I left Dom at the Ttop junction at 7:05 precisely and continued very slowly towards the junction 1.2 miles from Marcy where I waited. By this time my neck was sore from examining the sky for signs of the great weather that we were supposed to be enjoying. I arrived at the junction at 8:00 having thoroughly enjoyed slowly and stealthily hiking in the mist. The forest was beautiful nonetheless. Dom showed up after a ridiculously short wait and we were on Marcy in short order. The weather sucked. Our plan was to go to directly to Gray but the idea of getting soaked from the bushwhack was a negative so we decided to wait for at least an hour and watch the weather. It tuned out Dom hadn’t packed enough clothes and before long he was shivering in the 47 degree damp wind so we decided to do Gray from Lake Tear. The weather started breaking up and we got some nice views until the summit of Gray from where we only saw grey. (Ha ha!). 3 minutes into the descent we met a guy with a hu-MUNG-ous pack and poles up to his ears. He asked us in an exasperated tone which way it was to the LOJ. Go figure.
Hiking down the Feldspar trail we had great views of the Colden’s 1990 Slide. It was candystriped wet and dry but the sun was on it so we figured we’d have dry rock for our climb.
Before long we were at the slide base (you can see it from the trail) and we were very careful to start a new tracklog, take a WP etc. before doing the 3 minute bushwack to the slide’s base. I even started my gps’s stopwatch before we started . The lower reaches of the slide are more of an open creek bed. You are on bare rock, however, so I guess it’s the slide. In my mind the true slide starts further up the mountain and I did take a WP at that higher point. This is a really wonderful slide. 60 feet wide with very clean, grippy rock and dynamite views. Indeed, as we climbed we got ever expanding vistas of Cliff, Redfield, Skylight, Gray, Marcy, the Range and many of the slides on Giant. Note that the pitch gets steep (close to 45 degrees) for 2 50 foot sections. The rest of the climb is pretty tame. All too soon we arrived at the top of the slide and followed the 5 minute herd trail to the official trail to the summit. (Our moving time from official trail to official trail was 90 minutes. Someone in a hurry could easily do it in an hour.)
All we had left now was the very long anticlimactic hike back to the Loj after this very long and varied day. We signed out at 6:35 just as our ride pulled into the parking lot. After that I ate a huge steak, knocked back 3 beers then slept for 12 hours.
Pictures are right here
The main purpose of this trip was for Dominic to do Tabletop and the two of us to do Gray, our 45th. After numerous cancelled trips we finally got ourselves on the trail at 5:30 am Sunday 09-05. At the Loj trailhead nobody has signed out yet which was a first for us. The day we had planned was a biggie: Table top (for Dominic) Marcy, Gray and Colden’s 1990 slide. So, we were full of adrenalin and a sense of mission which got us to Marcy dam in 35 minutes.
Already, there was a problem. Carefully scrutiny of the forecast indicated that this was to be a fair weather day and we were hiking in drizzle. The head lamps did a great job of showing it.
We kept moving and I left Dom at the Ttop junction at 7:05 precisely and continued very slowly towards the junction 1.2 miles from Marcy where I waited. By this time my neck was sore from examining the sky for signs of the great weather that we were supposed to be enjoying. I arrived at the junction at 8:00 having thoroughly enjoyed slowly and stealthily hiking in the mist. The forest was beautiful nonetheless. Dom showed up after a ridiculously short wait and we were on Marcy in short order. The weather sucked. Our plan was to go to directly to Gray but the idea of getting soaked from the bushwhack was a negative so we decided to wait for at least an hour and watch the weather. It tuned out Dom hadn’t packed enough clothes and before long he was shivering in the 47 degree damp wind so we decided to do Gray from Lake Tear. The weather started breaking up and we got some nice views until the summit of Gray from where we only saw grey. (Ha ha!). 3 minutes into the descent we met a guy with a hu-MUNG-ous pack and poles up to his ears. He asked us in an exasperated tone which way it was to the LOJ. Go figure.
Hiking down the Feldspar trail we had great views of the Colden’s 1990 Slide. It was candystriped wet and dry but the sun was on it so we figured we’d have dry rock for our climb.
Before long we were at the slide base (you can see it from the trail) and we were very careful to start a new tracklog, take a WP etc. before doing the 3 minute bushwack to the slide’s base. I even started my gps’s stopwatch before we started . The lower reaches of the slide are more of an open creek bed. You are on bare rock, however, so I guess it’s the slide. In my mind the true slide starts further up the mountain and I did take a WP at that higher point. This is a really wonderful slide. 60 feet wide with very clean, grippy rock and dynamite views. Indeed, as we climbed we got ever expanding vistas of Cliff, Redfield, Skylight, Gray, Marcy, the Range and many of the slides on Giant. Note that the pitch gets steep (close to 45 degrees) for 2 50 foot sections. The rest of the climb is pretty tame. All too soon we arrived at the top of the slide and followed the 5 minute herd trail to the official trail to the summit. (Our moving time from official trail to official trail was 90 minutes. Someone in a hurry could easily do it in an hour.)
All we had left now was the very long anticlimactic hike back to the Loj after this very long and varied day. We signed out at 6:35 just as our ride pulled into the parking lot. After that I ate a huge steak, knocked back 3 beers then slept for 12 hours.
Pictures are right here
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