Mt. Lowell Slides

[dr_wu002]

Has anyone ever hiked to the slides/gashes on Mt. Lowell and well, just walked around?

Spending a little time in some local slide/ravine areas recently, one gets a feeling of awe & respect for the destructive power and even the history of these things. It's quite a feeling, unlike even coming above treeline for me.

I have some interest in Lowell's peak but the slides are where all the romance is. I'm not talking about the slides as a route to the summit... this is purely exploration. I'm not even looking for people to tell me a route to the slides... I'm sure I can figure that out on my own (PM me if you want to give me details). It's other's experiences that I'm interested in hearing. Experience & possible conditions.

-Dr. Wu

 

[audrey]

I had considered trying a climb, but they're too steep for me. Looking down from near Lowell's summit cured me of the notion.

Some of the lower slides (more southerly) might be worth a try, along their edges...

 

[Doc McPeak]

Audrey, what are the preferred routes up Lowell, aside from the Wu Slide Adventure Route? Good conditions for a traverse over from Anderson?

 

[spongebob]

Doc,

hehehe.....Those mountains were definitely an adventure for me. Of course it is all in the way you take and time of year, so for all I know they could be fairly easy. I always wanted to climb the cliffy area of Anderson that you can see from Norcross pond (Nancy area), and that is the way I hiked Anderson. I did a straight shot (ok a bit to the left) to Lowell and had a hard time, but yet again you never know. I really wanted to visit Duck pond, so I went that way back towards the Nancy two ponds area. And there were even ducks in Duck pond.

Some pretty good views if you look around.

http://community.webshots.com/user/adrianhikes

 

[Bob Kittredge]

I was on Signal Ridge with Bill Bowden and Larry Veal once, and they described the time they attempted that slide. Apparently the rock is kind of rotten. While Larry was in the chute, a piano-size chunk came loose above him. He scrambled left for all he was worth and luckily the chunk went right. They called it a day.

 

[bill bowden]

Lowell Slides

Are very loose, especially early in the hiking year. We had frightening experiences with large rocks coming down at us. the only time I've ever had real problems with rockfall in hiking in New England.
A very bad route to Lowell IMO.

Another bad route to Lowell:
From between Nancy and Norcross Ponds was very thick and sprucy followed by a hike up the Anderson ridge (open spruce) to the summit of Anderson and into the Lowell-anderson col (again open spruce) up onto Lowell very thick and scrubby, slight view from summit and off into the puckerbrush again; found Duck Pond (unintentionally) an dreturned to Nancy Pond Trail by the last light of the setting sun setting up a memorably nasty retreat to the trailhead by fading headlamps.

A somewhat better route to Lowell:
From Signal Ridge trail take the disused logging road into the Lowell-Anderson col, fight the scrub upLowell the descend along the ridge paralleling Carrigain Notch (mostly open) for several hundred yards before descending precipitously (and steeply as well) back down to find the logging road again.

A recommended route to Lowell (I didn't do this one)
Cross the granite dam at the end of Norcross Pond, find a logging road running up the side of Anderson, then into the col and across.

Bill

 

[dr_wu002]

A very bad route to Lowell IMO.

Rotten, crumbly rock?? You guys are making me more and more curious to go! I'm not interested in using these gashes as a route to Lowell, just for exploration in and of itself.

Thanks for the responses! Anyone have any pictures taken from in or really close to the slides?

-Dr. Wu