Tri-P north slide comparisons

[HikerBob]

OK - so I did the Tripyramid North Slide yesterday on the second attempt and I got to wondering how it compares to other 'tough' trails.

Huntington Ravine obviously springs to mind but I am sure there are others.

Comparisons welcome.

Thanks,
Bob

 

[hikerfast]

i heard tripyramid north slide was the steepest slide trail in the mountains back in 84. i did it right after owls head, which i thought was just as steep. i tore my rotator cuff falling on north slide, and had 11 months of physical therapy and reinjuries..so it was pretty 'tough' for me. i think huntington trail is maybe worse maybe not. gene danielle had an interesting point about huntingtons. he said 'the most difficult place isnt that exposed, and the most exposed place isnt that difficult. i also think a couple spots on madison gulf trail were real steep and difficult. great gulf headwall was high and steep, but it was like a staircase, there was nowhere you could fall. flume slide trail was real nasty because of green slime on the rocks in places.

 

[patrickbrusil]

I don't feel that the north slide was all that difficult. However, falling and breaking anything as in the previous post is awful. I enjoyed hiking it more than the flume slide because I could see a good distance up the trail and say to myself "Ok I am heading for that spot and I will rest again. On the flume slide it kept twisting and turning just enough to never truly see what was ahead and certainly the tree cover hinders sight as well.

I turned back at the fan before doing huntington last year because I thought I was goign to piss my pants and lose it on the headwall. Alas, I can not compare it to the north slide.

 

[Dugan]

I love the North Tri slide. I'd say it's easier than Flume Slide, which usually seems to be wet. It's more scrambly than the scree filled Owl's Head or South Tri slide. The exposure is nice, great views if you keep turning around.

Can't compare it to Huntington Ravine, which I've wanted to hike for many years but not solo - may get a chance soon! Poor Dugan four-legs will have to warm the couch for that one.

Adams Slide is a lost trail that continues to intrigue me. How does that compare in this mix?

 

[MichaelJ]

I haven't done N. Tri, but while on the Mt. Coe slide a few weeks ago I was told that N. Tri was a little harder. Looking at your pictures, it doesn't seem it. Anyone else have a Coe/N. Tri opinion?

Personally, I don't mind the loose scree areas. I had no problem with Owl's Head or with the S. Tripyramid slide. I just don't like open, smooth slab.

 

[hikerfast]

adams slide trail

according to my 1969 guidebook(very cool), the adams slide trail is referred to as 'the steepest path of its length in the white mountains, rising 2308 feet in
1 and 1/4 miles. It looks like it must be insane. From what I understand, you can still find it from the buttress trail, and there are still cairns and paint blazes. I guess it was discontinued because avalanches kept sweeping the cairns away. Another real steep trail is caps ridge

 

[askus3]

I found North Tri to be tougher than either Kings Ravine, Abol Slide, Madison Gulf or Flume Slide. Brother Slide in Baxter on the Marrston Trail before its rerouting I thought was pretty wicked. I have not done Huntington Ravine yet. I also wondered about the Cathedral Trail on Baxter or O-J-I 's North Slide?

 

[hikerfast]

north tripyramid slide is much worse than mt coe. it is all smooth slab with hunks of rock like table tops on it. . at the bottom is a pretty good chimney also that is really steep and slippery. its way steeper than mt coe slide also.

 

[Raymond]

North Tripyramid defeated me the first time I tried it; the rocks were damp and too slick for me. The next time they were dry and, in hindsight, not that bad. I climbed Flume Slide on Friday and didn't care for it. I guess there had been rain overnight, so that didn't help, but there are plenty of herd paths one may take to avoid the rock. Still, as some have said, if you get off the slide itself, what's the point? I headed over to Liberty to go down.

I didn't care for Coe, either, but our first attempt at that was on an October day and the ground was mushy: You could step on a rock and it would sink below your foot. Plus, the trail crosses a stream at the very top, it was icy that day, and my son was only five years old, so we had to turn around. It looked too risky to cross. Susan and I returned a year later and made it, but avoiding it on the descent was the reason we went the other way which led to our ascent South Brother.

South Tripyramid is rubbly, like Macomb in the Adirondacks, but it's probably not nearly as long as Macomb's. It doesn't seem as long, anyway.

My first real hike was an ascent of Mount Washington. We went up Tuckerman Ravine Trail, and went down Huntington. I remember being scared a few places (I had to "crab" down one slab, and there was water running from under it, which made me especially nervous), but I haven't been back since (it will be the 28th anniversary of that hike on October 8th), so it's hard to compare it to anything else, both because of the passage of time and the lack of anything to compare it to (at the time).

Heck, Tuckerman is pretty steep up near the top. I slipped one time and my friend warned me to be careful or I'd fall a long way.

When we got to the bottom of Huntington Ravine, Bob's first comment was, "That was stupid!!" Then as we went down the trail farther, two guys wearing dress shoes with suit jackets slung over their shoulders passed up heading up (?!?).

 

[HikerBob]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. Guess like I suggested in my write up of the North Slide I'll just have to go see for myself

Despite having done both the Castles and Caps Ridge in the rain wet slab still scares the cr#p out of me. However, I have found the type of rock and pant material makes a big difference!

Some rocks, especially those polished from much wear, are slick as you know what when wet, others still offer much grip.

My Windshear pants, and I assume any shiny shell type material, offer no grip at all on wet rock when scuttling down. On the other hand some regular EMS pants are so grippy they actually impede progress

Cheers,
Bob

 

[Bob Kittredge]

Huntington Ravine is generally quite different in character from North Slide. The steep slab just above the Fan is the most comparable. It's a bit steeper than NS but it's no more than 20 yards. The rest of it is steep but with plenty of handholds and footholds. Unless you have issues with dangling your butt out over the abyss, it's actually a fun, secure scramble.

I expect to be doing it again on Aug. 21. I'll post something in Trips & Events.

 

[SherpaKroto]

Can't comment on North Tri (yet), but shizzmac and I were on Madison Gulf on Saturday and it lived up to its reputation. There are a few exposed slab areas, but generally it is just a very steep hump up the headwall.

Cathedral is quite steep and exposed. Definitely a lot easier going up than down. Lots of rock, exposure, and length!

I've only been down Huntington's - and it was a long time ago, but I don't remember it being that bad (but I was ~20 years old at the time, so YMMV).

North Tri has been on my radar screen for a long time, just seems that my radar is on the fritz I'll get there! (sounds like a good foliage hike

 

[Rugger]

Only problem my wife and I had on North Tri was a sheet of rock about 3 foot square, 1 inch thick peeled off when my wife stepped on it. I was 20 feet below and had to jump out of the way as it slid by. It went another 10 feet or so and smashed on a boulder. From then on, we stayed off line from each other.

 

[Periwinkle]

Despite having done both the Castles and Caps Ridge in the rain wet slab still scares the cr#p out of me. However, I have found the type of rock and pant material makes a big difference!

Me too! Having slipped on a slab and broken my tail bone on a relatively easy trail (Osceola), I developed an overactive respect for slick slabs. My experience on N. Tri confirmed that (slipped while already on my fanny & almost literally scared the **** outta myself).

I don't think anything I've been on really compares to the North Slide. Some of the previously mentioned trail sections aren't fun when slick (Owl's Head Path, Caps Ridge, etc). Plus, Blueberry Ledge and the Ammo have a few beauts! But, the Fishin' Jimmy still rates as my least favorite trail, mostly because of the short slick sections and all of those wooden pin steps. If I'm putting mileage on the seat of my shorts, it's not my kind of stuff!

 

[dms]

I've mentioned Arrow Slide on N. Hancock in prior posts, but for exposure, length of climb and a pure adrenaline rush, it is better than all the others imo.

 

[TroutBumNH]

Has anyone ever tackled the old Adams Slide route? Here's a link to a map that shows it (on the UNH USGS map archive... a nice resource):

http://docs.unh.edu/NH/mtws38se.jpg

just chumming the thread...

Mike

 

[Bob Kittredge]

Only problem my wife and I had on North Tri was a sheet of rock about 3 foot square, 1 inch thick peeled off when my wife stepped on it. I was 20 feet below and had to jump out of the way as it slid by. It went another 10 feet or so and smashed on a boulder. From then on, we stayed off line from each other.

I didn't like the look of those flakes toward the bottom of the slide when I did it last year. A flake is one thing, but when there's a bunch of fragments resting on the slope below it, I look for another route.

My first time down South Slide, on the other hand, was made particularly memorable by the foot-and-a-half diameter rock dislodged by my friend 20 feet up the slope from me. I heard the thump and turned around. We both stood there staring at it as it slowly gathered momentum and thinking it would surely come to a stop any moment now. I finally stepped behind a boulder as it rolled over the spot I been standing on and continued into the woods.

 

[Mike P.]

Just back from Vacation in TN & some peakbagging there.

A lot has to do with weather & conditioning. I loved doing North Tri, some scrambling but not bad, if you really tried you probably could go without hands although using themw as fun on a sunny dry September Day.

Macomb has more debris in the slide than either Owl's Head or South Tri. I find Flume Slide harder probably because it's usually wet & maybe I just had better luck my day on North Tri picking out hand & footholds while I have had to think harder on Flume.

I've been done the Coe Slide & have no real interest in descending NT, however I did slip & fall on Coe on some old slime, I slid about 20 feet on my rear end & then dropped a foot or so off the one slab onto some grassy vegetation on the slab below landing on my hips, butt & back, all well cushioned so nothing was hurt but my pride. (heard all those Shouldn't hile solo voices while I was in motion.... )

Need to get into KR, Castle Ravine & 6H but I'd say Huntington was harder. If I was methodically preparing for a first trip up Huntington though, knowing what I know now, Flume & North Tri would be two warm up hikes I would do.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I did the Adams Slide Trail back in the 1960's and don't remember it as terribly daunting, though I would never want to be near in when it was wet. It was definitely tougher than North Tripyramid, though.

It wasn't until 3 years ago that I did Huntington for the first time. Maybe my age has something to do with it now, but I'd say it really is the worst/best of the bunch, including King Ravine and the Great Gulf headwall as well. And maybe I wouldn't think it was so tough if I hadn't done it after a long night of thunderstorms. I hope to go back in September and do Huntington again in dry weather. Maybe then I won't be quivering quite so much as I did in the fun places the last time.

 

[JohnL]

I’ve been on North/South Tri-P, Flume, Owl’s Head, Coe, King Ravine, Huntington and Marston Trails/Slides. My recollection of the Marston Slide is that it felt dangerous the whole time I was on it and that’s probably why the trail up North Brother was re-routed. Coe Slide consisted of a lot of open slabs of varying steepness and I was glad I was ascending and not descending. King Ravine was a boulder scrambling exercise and I don’t remember any spots where I felt that I was hanging out there. Flume is slimy and therefore tricky even on dry days. Huntington’s is at the top of the list, IMHO, mainly because of the psychological issues associated with the exposure. North Tri-P is in the middle of the pack considering its openness and length.