Wright Ski - trail and slide

[bubba]

I didn't want to hijack RDL's thread, but maybe I don't understand one of two things... (or two of two things...)

The ski trail - I thought it was just a x/c trail, but from the posts in the other thread, I'm getting the feel that it is a ski trail that heads up and you can ski down. Assume then, that this is fairly narrow. How much verticle gain?

So then, where's the slide and how do you get into it? Assume the verticle is much greater.

I'm not heading out tomorrow or anything... just trying to get an understanding of where things are. Any other info helpfule - thanks.

 

[blacklab2020]

Disclaimer: Not that it needs to be said, a couple years ago several individuals were caught and killed in an avalanche on wright slide. I hope that anyone venturing out that way this time of year will take the proper precautions.

The slide is on the SW side of wright and can be approached from the stream that leaves the nw side of the lake at Marcy Dam.

 

[Skyclimber]

I didn't want to hijack RDL's thread, but maybe I don't understand one of two things... (or two of two things...)

The ski trail - I thought it was just a x/c trail, but from the posts in the other thread, I'm getting the feel that it is a ski trail that heads up and you can ski down. Assume then, that this is fairly narrow. How much verticle gain?

So then, where's the slide and how do you get into it? Assume the verticle is much greater.

I'm not heading out tomorrow or anything... just trying to get an understanding of where things are. Any other info helpfule - thanks.

Yes the Ski Trail goes up and then down. It can be found on the main trail to Wright Peak. The ski trail is very wide almost like a road bringing you to about fifty feet below the true summit of Wright Peak. I'm not sure of the vertical gain but it is fairly steep.

The start of the usual bushwhack to the Slide is near Avalanche Camps. It's a thick bushwhack to get to the bottom of the slide. It then ranges from moderately to down right steep near the top.

Not to confuse you but there is also two slides on Wright. The one Blacklab2020 refers to is the Angel Slide. The one I refer to is the one seen from Algonquin.

 

[teleskier]

The vertical gain on the ski trail is substantial, as it breaks off from the hiking trail at about the 3,000' level and reaches the summit if you perserve. While it's quite wide at the bottom where it hits the hiking trail, it's not nearly that wide higher up, although most of the steeper turns widen out a bit. It's a great ski but a challenging one, certainly.

There are really two pairs of slides on Wright, actually. The ones that reach the summit are approached from Avalanche camp, as described, and the Angel slides from Whale's Tale notch. I've hiked the summit slides in summer and it's a nice hike, pretty open woods leading up to the slides. Haven't skied them, though. The Angel slides had ski tracks on them Weds. It would be a long trek through thick spruce to get to the summit from them, though.

The Angel slides are where a skier was killed and some seriously injured in an avalanche a few years ago, just something to keep in mind.

 

[bubba]

...although most of the steeper turns widen out a bit. It's a great ski but a challenging one, certainly.

I might be considered a challenged skier/boarder, so maybe there's a good match

Thanks for the info. It cleared up a bunch and probably served some public service. All these years and I didn't realize that the ski trail was more than an old x/c or abandoned trail. Sounds like a good run.

So the slides are typical... approach then, go up and come down. I had thought that maybe there was an approach from the summit where you came down to them. I remember the day when the skier (I thought there were two of them - experienced) lost life. A few days later I was over at Whiteface on a totally clear day and remember looking over and thinking 'wow' -- mixed vibes from the mtns.

 

[teleskier]

Yes, for the Angel slides, it definitely seems best to approach, skin up, ski down. The other slides can be accessed from the summit, but all the times I've looked at them from other mtns, they don't seem to hold snow too well. Could be the exposure to the sun, wind, etc. Of course, the advantage of those is that if you get to the top and don't like what you see, you can always take the ski trail down. It's wooded with a northwest exposure, so it keeps its snow nicely.

The ski trail has an interesting history. I guess the original route was cut by the CCC back in the thirties, like the Thundebolt on Greylock and the Tear Drop on Mansfield. I think it went all the way down to the Whale's Tale trail. It fell into disuse with the advent of lifts, and later someone got permission to re-clear it to its present route. I remember working on a trail clearing party the ASTC put on about 15 years ago or so, but it was already re-established by then, we were just doing maintenance. Anyway, it's really a fun trail to ski, hard parts, easy parts, all kinds of fun stuff. And it's nice because it "ends" about 50' below the summit, so if there's all kinds of nasty wind on Wright (which is hardly unusual) you don't have to summit, but if it's a nice day and you want to, it's not hard to do by sidestepping up that final chute.

 

[Doc McPeak]

Here's a short excerpt about the Wright Ski Trail from the new 46er book being assembled:

"If skiing began in earnest on the range in the twenties, it exploded in the thirties. Downhill skiing was growing in popularity and ski enthusiast Hal Burton began the hard preliminary work of designing a ski trail up to the summit of Wright Peak. Burton went on to author the 1971 book Ski Troops, about the 10th Mountain Division. Ultimately designed by Otto Schniebs and Robert St. Louis, the trail was cut in 1938. Otto was one of the ski pioneers in the day, having emigrated to America in 1928 after serving as a former mountain trooper in Germany's WWI army. Schniebs became the ski instructor for the influential Appalachian Mountain Club. From 1930 to 1936, he headed the ski program at Dartmouth College, making him a key figure in propagating stem turns on these shores. The first certification course for amateur instructors was held in 1933 by the U.S. Eastern Amateur Ski Association at Dartmouth College under Otto Schniebs. Nineteen candidates showed up, and only 11 passed. In 1936 he took over at the Lake Placid Club, and made famous his mantra: “Skiing is not a sport, it is a way of life.”

To call the Wright Peak ski trail a success would be a great understatement, for in its very first season of use more than 2,000 individual trips were recorded by the ski instructor of the Adirondack Loj. The trail topped out some fifty feet of vertical below the summit, but surely some of the skiers, such as Hal or Otto, who also owned and ran two ski schools in the vicinity, would have climbed the last few feet to the summit. Any confirmation of a summit ascent though has long since disappeared. In fact, in his book Ski Troops, Burton laments that the 1940's and the mechanized means of ascending mountains in order to ski down them had diminished "… The thrill of accomplishment in having climbed a mountain, accompanied by a long rest on the summit to savor the scenery, disappeared forever from skiing."

Teleskier, have you climbed to the summit with your skis on? That last shoot is hard enough with snowshoes on!

 

[teleskier]

Doc - Thanks so much for sharing that excerpt! I always love learning more about the human element of the history of these mountains. Yes, I've scratched my way up that last 30' on skis more than once and it's never easy! Usually I'm relieved if I see it's cloudy and windy on the summit because it gives me a reason to skip it. But, on a nice day, the views make it worth the effort, as I'm sure you've found too.

 

[skiguy]

Teleskier, have you climbed to the summit with your skis on? That last shoot is hard enough with snowshoes on!

I'll admit to taking off my skis and boot packing that last shot to the summit....it saves the snow for making turns on the way down.

 

[teleskier]

I've tried it that way, too, but usually find myself up to my waist in snow!

 

[bubba]

Thanks, Doc. I figured I'd hear from you on the thread... nice info about the trail. Sounds pretty sweet. Now, where's the time??

 

[Doc McPeak]

But, on a nice day, the views make it worth the effort, as I'm sure you've found too.

Views? Wright has views in winter?

Actually both times we've climbed it (I haven't gotten into the tele thing yet, but someday soon) we went up the ski trail partly because it was the only way due to high winds. Also it is such a beautiful trail.

Below are some pics from our last trip.
Note the difference between the calm and serene of the trail ...
... and the madness on the summit!