The Bottle Slide OOOP's

[Barry]

Looks like I slid into the wrong forum (general Backlot) when should have been here!
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While there's always lot's of discussion on the Eagle, I've seen virtually nothing on the Bottle slide on VFTT. Only a little bit in the Trip Reports section a few months back. My general impression is that it's not quite as steep/challenging as the Eagle, getting to the base could be a bit tough. Anyone out there got some experience/tips on route finding the way in? Or otherwise? With all the dry weather we're having ought to be fun to take a run up.

 

[Peakbagr]

I've done the Bottle at least a couple of times. You get a superb look at it from the Ausable Club.
Great, grippy rock. Steep, but with a few nice picnic benches on the way up it.
There were spots on it where its steep enough to be standing straight up in your stance, and able to touch the rock directly in front of you. When topping out, you run directly into a high cliff band. You herd path across to your right a little bit, until a fissure opens up thru the cliff and you head on up it and arrive almost on the summit.
One of my favorite slides. Your question reminded me that I want to go back again.

 

[Mike Hartigan]

left at the fork

I also have been up Bottle few times, once in summer twice in winter. Great slide fills in nice on climbers right with good snowfall. The problem is that it is very easy to miss the entrance. If you follow Roaring bk look for a small flat area about 3/4 mile from where you left the trail at the stream crossing. At this point the drainage diverges into two channels. Take the left fork and this leads directly to the Bottle. This flat is also come upon if you leave the trail where there use to be a cairn, not sure if it is still there, just below a large blowdown directly across the trail. This point is approx 3/4 -1 mile from the stream crossing. Once again go left at the cairn.

 

[Barry]

From a few trips up Roaring Brook to the Eagle I can bet it's real easy to miss the drainage that leds up to the Bottle. I didn't realize that you left the Eagle drainage so close (3/4 mile) after the trail crossing the stream. Taking a look at aerials on Terraserver though you can see that the Bottle and Eagle drainages meet up a long way downstream. It's interesting though that they also seem to parallel each other fairly closely for a good distance "upstream" of the confluence. It would appear that even if you missed the confluence and went too far upstream hanging a left and climbing over the divide between the two drainages would get you to the Bottle drainage fairly quickly.

Mike, on the alternative of staying on the trail after the stream crossing, I don't recall for sure if there is a cairn at the point where you then hang a left to get back to roaring brook. It's not too hard to find that point though since the trail is pretty darn close to the brook where you hang the left and drop into the brook. If this spot puts you into the brook pretty much at the flat area you're referring too that might be the best way to land fairly close to the confluence of the two drainages.

Gonna try it sometime this fall after things dry a tad. As an old rock climber, no concerns really about the slide itself. Mostly was looking for a little guidance on finding the entrance to the sucker. If anyone else is interested in heading up glad to have you along.

 

[Barry]

Just a couple more bits of info for those in the future who do a search looking for info on the Bottle. This is after exploring the drainage from the Bottle and Eagle yesterday afternoon .
First there is no cairn on the trail after the roaring Brook crossing marking where you can drop back down into the brook drainage. Simple to spot though. About 10 minutes of walking after the crossing the brook, as the trail is immediately adjacent to and above the brook, there's an obvious short herd path down to the brook. This is in a grove of smaller hemlocks. Trail to brook is probably 30 feet. It drops you into the brook immediately above the lengthy open slabs of the brook sometimes referred to as the Geologist's section from the corings taken out of the slabs by geologists years ago.
The brook was fun yesterday with piles of water and high humidity making everything wet, sometimes deep, and in a lot of cases darn slippery. A lot different and slower than in a normal dry summer.
The junction of the Bottle drainage into the main Eagle drainage is very subtle. No obvious markings to distinguish it. It's about 5-10 minutes up the brook from the Geologists slabs. What was interesting is that it was almost dry compared to the torrent coming down the main stem. The saving grace on finding it is that it does run parallel and very close to the main stem for a long distance(at least a half a mile). If you go much more than 15-20 minutes upstream without finding it simply hang a left and up and over the divide between the two drainages. At times they are probably as close as 50 feet.
An alternative to the above is to stay on the trail well past the herd path to the brook until the trail starts to swing away from the brook. Bushwack left back to the brook, down into it, up and over the divide between the main brook and the Bottle drainage and you're all set. The trail follows fairly close to the brook for a good distance and this approach will probably get you upstream faster and further than using the herd path.
Have fun!!