True North Slide on Gothics

[Barry]

Last fall there was a thread regarding the True North slide on Gothics. The general discussion about accessing the slide seemed to talk in terms of following the normal stream bed route from Orebed brook up to the bottom of the main face and then hanging a left till you intersected TN.
From having a look at the slide from the air this weekend and also looking at the aerial photo data on the microsoft terraserver site it appears that True North eventually runs down to the normal stream bed route fairly close (maybe 300-400 yrds) to Ore bed brook. The lower portion looks like it might grade into more brook bed than true slide.
This link gives a pretty good shot of the lay of the land:
Gothics North Face
As you can see the slide splits with what I'd call a spur angling off toward the right towards the bottom of the main face. I think that this is what most folks who followed the earlier thread discussion picked up.
Question is does anyone have experience picking up True North all the down towards Orebed? Is it a total thrash in the lower sections? Entry somewhat easy to pick up? Any other thoughts, ideas, suggestions? It actually might be more fun than the standard access up the stream bed.

 

[Meo]

3 of my friends, including Leduc, climbed it last year. Here's a link with their pictures:

http://community.webshots.com/album/67503351oXYClO

Charles also wrote a nice (but incomplete yet) document with infos about access from Orebed, maps, etc. That's a Word document, I can't post it here, so email me and I'll send it to you by replying.

Meo

 

[oldfogie]

I've done this slide about 4 times but not in winter (yet). If you go in from the bottom of the open face of Gothics and then cut left where you see a slide opening, you miss a lot of the bottom views from the slide.

Go in at the stream crossing. As you work your way up the stream keep looking to your right. In winter you should be able to see the pile of sand, logs and rubble that are piled up at the base of the slide. But -- this is important -- the slide does not directly empty into the stream. As I recall the bottom of the slide was just above a 6' tall cliffy rock that lines the right side of the brook for a bit. There may be some attempts at scratched markings on that little cliffy area. Once you're at the base of the slide you'll know it! It's just 30' from the stream.

If you miss this slide, you will end up following the stream which turns into another slide. You may think you're on the one you want but you're not. At the top of this slide it is sheer hell. The cripplebush is awful and you will end up much further north and lower that the upper reaches of the true slide which connects almost to the ridge trail at the Alpine Zone sign.

This slide is much easier than it looks. I had absolutely no problems with it except at the very top where you've got to shimmy past a very steep drop off. But if your nerves are shaky, you can take the wooded route.