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I found this slide to be a LOT easier than what I expected based on what I’d heard and read. The Colden Slide (from Feldspar Brook) is a lot cleaner and more pleasing but I found the views to be a lot more interesting on Nippletop.
It's funny how some trips seem to just fall into place. After not getting even a nibble on my threads here and at VFTT for a partner for the Nippletop Slide I decided to do it solo. I had heard that this was a pretty difficult slide and was glad when Rik was kind enough to be my safety net. He and Charlene would wait on the summit while I climbed the slide. We would have radio contact which added to my comfort level.
When I pulled into the parking lot a friendly looking guy asked me if I was Neil and was I doing the Nippletop Slide? After I replied in the affirmative to both questions he says that he's doing the slide also. I'm thinking it's kind of a strong coincidence that a total stranger would know my name and my plans and show up at the TH with the exact same goal in my mind. Sure enough, he's a member of the forum, Adirondacker to be exact, and he saw my post at 11pm the night before that I was going to do it solo so he changed his plans and decided to go for the slide.
He headed up the AMR road a half hour before Rik, Charlene and I did insisting that we would catch up.
En route to Elk Pass Rik and I made sure the radios were on the same channel and that they worked and we split up at the pass. No sign of Adirondacker as yet. I headed down the drainage following the intermittent herd trails that countless slide aficionados have made over the years remembering ADKBen's experience of popping out on the slide almost half way up after a thick bushwhack. The trick here is to stay low, with the drainage. There are faint trails all along the creek's edge. For some reason I always tended to stray left and get above the creek so I kept making right turns heading down to the water.
Half way to the slide I called out and got a reply from Adirondacker who was up fairly high. After he dropped down we made the slide's base in short order.
This slide has got to be the easiest one to find in all the ADK's. It comes right down to the creek. The very first section looks quite daunting as it hulks over the puny, would-be slide climber but it yields quite easily to a zig-zag course and then levels off for a fair while. In fact, the next segment is quite overgrown with willows and is more like a bushwhack than a slide climb until you break out just below the steepest section which is also the most aesthetically pleasing. Fairly steep, but not dangerous by any stretch of the imagination, clean rock with plenty of hand and foot holds. Looking behind us, we could gauge our vertical progress based on our position relative to Colvin and Blake.
Rik and Charlene had been on the summit for some time now and I found it very cool to be able to talk to Rik using my GPS. (RINO) (I even ordered beer, which I got…back in the parking lot)!
After the steepest section we were at least half way up and the slide became quite rubbly not unlike Macomb's slide. The terrain alternated between nice clean slabs of rock and fine gravel that made me think of some of the moraines I’ve hiked on out west. Topping out, the slide gets very narrow and rather steep but all sections are climbable thanks to the odd hand up.
Finally, we were on a very steep bushy section that led to the scratchy herd trail to the summit. It was funny to arrive having come through the back door (so to speak) and find all kinds of people there.
So, now I have finally done this slide and made a new friend to boot.
A big thank you to Charlie and to Rik and Charlene for another great day in paradise!
P.S. Charlene, I’ll take my flute on the next hike we do, promise.
Pictures are right here.
It's funny how some trips seem to just fall into place. After not getting even a nibble on my threads here and at VFTT for a partner for the Nippletop Slide I decided to do it solo. I had heard that this was a pretty difficult slide and was glad when Rik was kind enough to be my safety net. He and Charlene would wait on the summit while I climbed the slide. We would have radio contact which added to my comfort level.
When I pulled into the parking lot a friendly looking guy asked me if I was Neil and was I doing the Nippletop Slide? After I replied in the affirmative to both questions he says that he's doing the slide also. I'm thinking it's kind of a strong coincidence that a total stranger would know my name and my plans and show up at the TH with the exact same goal in my mind. Sure enough, he's a member of the forum, Adirondacker to be exact, and he saw my post at 11pm the night before that I was going to do it solo so he changed his plans and decided to go for the slide.
He headed up the AMR road a half hour before Rik, Charlene and I did insisting that we would catch up.
En route to Elk Pass Rik and I made sure the radios were on the same channel and that they worked and we split up at the pass. No sign of Adirondacker as yet. I headed down the drainage following the intermittent herd trails that countless slide aficionados have made over the years remembering ADKBen's experience of popping out on the slide almost half way up after a thick bushwhack. The trick here is to stay low, with the drainage. There are faint trails all along the creek's edge. For some reason I always tended to stray left and get above the creek so I kept making right turns heading down to the water.
Half way to the slide I called out and got a reply from Adirondacker who was up fairly high. After he dropped down we made the slide's base in short order.
This slide has got to be the easiest one to find in all the ADK's. It comes right down to the creek. The very first section looks quite daunting as it hulks over the puny, would-be slide climber but it yields quite easily to a zig-zag course and then levels off for a fair while. In fact, the next segment is quite overgrown with willows and is more like a bushwhack than a slide climb until you break out just below the steepest section which is also the most aesthetically pleasing. Fairly steep, but not dangerous by any stretch of the imagination, clean rock with plenty of hand and foot holds. Looking behind us, we could gauge our vertical progress based on our position relative to Colvin and Blake.
Rik and Charlene had been on the summit for some time now and I found it very cool to be able to talk to Rik using my GPS. (RINO) (I even ordered beer, which I got…back in the parking lot)!
After the steepest section we were at least half way up and the slide became quite rubbly not unlike Macomb's slide. The terrain alternated between nice clean slabs of rock and fine gravel that made me think of some of the moraines I’ve hiked on out west. Topping out, the slide gets very narrow and rather steep but all sections are climbable thanks to the odd hand up.
Finally, we were on a very steep bushy section that led to the scratchy herd trail to the summit. It was funny to arrive having come through the back door (so to speak) and find all kinds of people there.
So, now I have finally done this slide and made a new friend to boot.
A big thank you to Charlie and to Rik and Charlene for another great day in paradise!
P.S. Charlene, I’ll take my flute on the next hike we do, promise.
Pictures are right here.
.
) My pics are a lot darker and hazier.
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