No, I did not climb Lincoln’s Throat Slide in winter!

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HuiYeng

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But I climbed Osceola Slide on Monday (9/8/08).

When NH_Mtn_Hiker invites you to a hike, you don’t suggest a trip like Mt Tecumseh via the ski trail. It didn't take me too long to come up with Osceola Slide, given that this man knows the slide like the back of his hand.

We hiked in from East Pond trail and started bushwhacking just before the trail crosses the first river crossing. We saw a couple of campsites along the bushwhack before it gets thick. After about half an hour of pushing through the thick spruce and dodging caterpillars on the branches later, we made it out of the bushwhack and started following the brook up to the slide. The beginning of the brook walk was mainly hopping on rocks, and then the terrain turns into slabs of boulder, avalanche field and then back to dry rocks hopping before we arrived at the bottom of the slide.

From a distance the slide looks very slippery, when we get up close, the slide looks more like a series of cascades, oh wait, it is a serious of cascades. Bob commented that the slide has changed its condition quite a bit throughout the years. According to him it was much drier back when he first climbed it, and the lower section of the slide was more overgrown by vegetation than it used to be. I guess that kinda feed into each other.

So off we went, I can’t remember exactly how many waterfalls (big or small) we climbed. Most of them have solid surface along the side where we can carefully pick a dry spot to walk on it or at the steep section we can easily find good solid hand holds to guide us up. But toward the top of the slide before the terrain turns into scree slope, the slabs become drier and flakier. The surface either has cracks on it that make me think twice before stepping on it or it’s already loose and scattered with scree. Some very careful maneuvering, carefully shifting my body weight and lightly holding on the tiniest piece of moss with the tip of my fingers to help balancing, I made my way slowly up.

After we survived climbing the waterfalls, the slide made a left turn and the terrain turns into loose rocks and scree. It reminded me a lot of the North Slide of the North Tripyramid. From there to the top was much easier and we made it up to the top smoothly and rewarded by the views of Franconia Ridge and all the way to Mt Washington.
From the top of the slide we entered the woods and a short but thick bushwhack later we found the trail. We walked up to the summit and hopped over to East Peak and happily descended the mountain via the maintained trail back to the parking lot and back to Lincoln where hot pizzas are calling our names.

Osceola slide definitely is a very beautiful slide with many different challenges along the way. I honestly was pretty nervous at a couple of spots, but with caution, I made it up OK. Thanks Bob, for yet another wonderful adventure!

Here are the rest of the pictures I took. Enjoy!
 
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Wow! Awesome, awesome hike, and great pics, too. That's one I'm definitely putting on my to-do list.

Am I misinterpreting a photo, or does the slide itself actually take a sharp turn?
 
What, no pictures of caterpillars? :)

Nice slide, though doesn't look too steep.

Jay
 
I've been bugging a few people to do this slide with me. Hopefully they'll get into it now before I have to shove my ipod down their throat and wrap the cord around.... be nice be nice be nice be nice. Uh Uh uh uh uhhh uh uh uhhh uh uh uh uh uh uh uhhhhh uh uhhhh uh uh uh uh uh hhhuh huhuh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh uh h uh uh uhhh h uh uh uhhh h uh uh uhhh h uh uh uhhh h uh uh uh uhhhhh uh uhhhh uh uh uh

-Dr. Wu
 
MJ: The slide kinda shape like a boomerang, the bottom section is a series of big and small waterfalls, the top section is loose rocks kinda like Owls Head and North Slide, only the rocks are slightly larger.

I noticed the transition of the quality of the slab changes as we moved up the slide. The bottom section the slab seems stronger and harder (and wetter), as we moved up, the slab seems weaker and many small chunks broken loose from it, further up the slide is all dry loose rocks.

Jason: Lincoln's Throat slide is a very impressive slide, i definitely want to try it someday. I remembered seeing pictures of NHMH climbing the Osceola Slide in winter too, that looks like you'll need basic ice climbing skill to climb. Both sides are on my winter list.

Jay: The truth be told, I'm not great with climbing vertical stuff, although I did not freak out, but I was very nervous but calm climbing those watrefalls. It really isn't that steep, just optical illusion, and it is bone dry up there!
:D
 
Nice TR and great pics...It looks like a lot of fun. I want to hike it now and I bet in winter would be oh so sweet!! My list got a little larger....Thanks Hui Yeng!

Glad to see you're not just hiking in the ADK's now.....I know, I'm almost ready to go over there with you for a weekend of hiking....... ;)
 
Great Whack!!

Wow! What splendid splendor on slippery slopes!!

Great whack! Congratulations to the entire team!
 
Gillian said:
Hardcore Huiyeng and Bob :cool: Don't forget about regular ole trails - I do want to hike with you again!
Once you go slide, you don't go back.

Did you know I climbed the Lincoln's Throat Slide in winter?
 
Hard core? Not me that's for sure. While clinging onto the the side of the waterfalls trying to climb my way up, I was praying like there is no tomorrow. I just like to push myself as far as I can comfortably go. Besides the views are always better from a slide.
 
7summits said:
When NH_Mtn_Hiker invites you to a hike, you don’t suggest a trip like Mt Tecumseh via the ski trail.
Glad to hear he's still with us, don't remember any postings lately and many of his adventures someone could disappear without a trace :)
I can’t remember exactly how many waterfalls (big or small) we climbed.
If this trip seemed too easy and next time you want to climb waterfalls in the dark, it's called caving :)
 
HY, that is a really great progression of images -- you could create a textbook on how to climb this slide! Some of those cascades look very slippery -- and they reminded me of the big flumes along the Gravestone Brook bushwack in the Adirondacks ( except the Lincoln Throat Slide is all out in the open instead of in the woods.) - those flumes were separated by some big steps like the cascades in your pictures -- you should really check out that bushwack in the Daks -- based on your impression of the Lincoln Throat Slide -- I think you'd really like it !

I've hiked the few slides that are necessary to complete the 46 -- but I'm not sure I'm as ambitious as you! Keep up the good work -- your reports are a great read and your pictures make me feel like I was there.

:)
 
That looks mighty challenging to me.
I'm a big chicken when it comes to falling so I'd be moving real slow on that one.
Nice pics and captions !
 
I got talked into this route up Osceola this past October. It was very much worth it - and it was the best hike of all of last year! We had to contend with some ice and it was juuust to the point of needing crampons (looking back I should have used them) but we passed by okay. I was absolutely floored by it but no pictures bring back the sense of being there so I plan to go back this summer! Also a smaller slide goes up the west peak so maybe the new trip will include that as the way out...

On a second note, Lincoln Throat looks really fun but as I do not want to do it in the winter, can it done in the summer ... ethically? Being above treeline I know you need to stay on the trail. Unless an unofficial trail already exists from many others doing the throat in the summer. Does anybody know about that one?
 
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