Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Hiking Slide Mountain, winter edition

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Slide Mountain is one of the four peaks that must be hiked again in winter for membership in the Catskills 3500 Club, so on Sunday I joined the club on a trip up to the top. I had hiked it in the fall, but of course it was quite a different experience in winter.

Unlike Doubletop, Slide has a perfectly nice trail up it. Moreover, the previous day's hikers had flattened the trail out for us, so the snow was reasonably well packed. I was able to do the entire hike in my microspikes.

(Note: That term doesn't really seem appropriate, as mine don't actually have spikes of any size on them. Nevertheless, I was pleased with the performance of my "Ice Trekkers Diamond Trip Traction System." They bit the snow nicely and prevented sliding.)

We had a nice, sunny day for hiking. Our crew consisted of several children as well as adults, the former more than able to keep up with the latter. The children perhaps had more fun, as on the way down they speeded their descent with some mini sleds.

The above photo is from the viewpoint just past the true peak.

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