Saturday, May 13, 2023

Adirondacks: Evening Walk to Kilburn Slide, 5/9/23


A forecast calling for a string of sunny days prompted Carol and I to make last-minute plans for a quick getaway to the Adirondacks. We headed out mid-morning on a Tuesday and several hours later we were cruising across Lake Champlain on the ferry, with views of the Dix Range, Rocky Peak Ridge and Giant Mountain.



After getting settled, Carol relaxed in Lake Placid while I drove up to Monument Falls near Wilmington Notch for a late day walk out to the base of the 1995 slide on a spur of Kilburn Mountain in the Sentinel Range Wilderness. The mile-long approach to the slide drainage follows an unofficial path along an old road that once connected North Elba and Wilmington.



Along the way I made a short bushwhack out to a beaver meadow with a fine view of Mount Whiteface.



Whiteface zoomed.



Backcountry skiers have made a rough path paralleling the brook that drains the slide.



The Kilburn Slide features several steep headwalls. This one at the base is really a footwall. Its steep rock face is intimidating.





Looking across the footwall.



 
 
 
On the left side of the footwall is a sort of steep natural staircase. When John "1HappyHiker" and I visited this slide in 2015, the staircase was damp from morning dew and looked dangerous. We made a rough bushwhack through the steep woods to the left to bypass it. It didn't look any better today, with some of the footholds wet from spring runoff. This slide gets skied regularly. I'm not sure how the skiers get up or around the footwall.




This is the route John and I used for the bypass on the left. I remembered it being pretty miserable, so I decided to see if there was a better route to the right of the footwall.





On the right side I soon encountered a ledge wall in the woods and skirted back towards the slide along its base.




I emerged at the edge, most but not all the way up the footwall. It was too sketchy to go out here and continue up, and it was evening so I wouldn't have time to go much higher (and then descend) anyway.




I had a tiny bit of a view here.





Above the footwall, the slide is a delightful climb on grippy anorthosite bedrock, with wide-ranging views. (Photo taken in 2015.)





From my precarious perch I descended back through the woods to the base of the footwall and paid another visit to the beaver meadow, where I enjoyed a light dinner while listening to a rousing chorus of spring peepers.






Evening light in a nice hardwood glade behind the beaver meadow. It was great to be back in the 'dacks.




 

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