PG. PG. PG. PG. NEWS STORY WE AREN’T COVERING THIS MONTH: AF TER BIG SK Y WHITE THE URBAN Planet Ski reports that St. Anton—in response to too many foul-smelling locals upsetting vacationers—is requiring THE RAIN BOARDS RANGER ROPE TOW après patrons to change out of their ski gear by 8 p.m. The Jaded Local seeks to intervene. PHOTO: SCOTT MARKEWITZ 46 FALL LINE 46 48 50 52 47 Ian Forgays rips Angel Slides off 5,115-foot Algonquin Peak. Mount Colden and the Trap Dike can be seen in the mid-ground (the deep- cut slide angling left to right on Mount Colden’s lower half). New ADIRONDACK York’s tallest mountain, Mount Marcy (left), and Skylight Peak (right) are in the background. ASCENSION PHOTO: BRIAN MOHR RISING OUT OF TROPICAL STORM IRENE’S DISASTER, NEW SLIDE PATHS OPEN IN UPSATE NEW YORK orty-degree lines scar the faces of prior to Irene, but was gouged out to be many of the Adirondack High Peaks wider and longer,” says the 32-year-old Fin Upstate New York. The descents Haas. “When I skied it with [Plake], we mostly consist of landslide paths that ran found excellent conditions—powder deep to the anthracite bedrock after rain snow and terrain up to 40 degrees with events. Slides like Bennie’s Root Canal steeper bulges.” on Lower Wolfjaw or Grand Central on Haas, originally from Ithaca, New Mount Marcy, New York’s highest peak at York, has lived in the tiny town of Jay, 5,344 feet, have been popular ski routes New York, in the heart of the Adiron- for decades. dacks, since 2007. He’s scouted new The faces of the ’Dacks changed, how- slides by fixed-wing aircraft and says that ever, in September 2011, after Tropical while the new potential is vast, most of Storm Irene dropped a foot of rain and the unskied lines that remain exist deep heavy winds in the region. The aftermath in the backcountry. created scores of major slides, which be- Skiing Adirondack slides, both new and came big couloir-like runs, causing a rush old, is a serious endeavor. The snowpack for first descents. is often shallow and avalanche prone; Many of Irene’s formations—specifi- the terminuses of the slides are logjam cally, unnamed ones on Basin Moun- terrain traps; and beta is scarce. For these tain—are quite remote. Others, like the reasons, backcountry skiing in the Ad- spectacular slide irondacks is a low-traffic activity where that runs down the self-sufficiency is imperative. “It’s not side of Cascade “The new slide on Basin [Mountain] is re- Mountain, are a mote,” adds Haas. “It requires a seven-mile about short approach skin and then it drops off the backside of the from the road and Great Range. The slab is quite steep. I know the first can be skinned and of no one having gone after it last season.” descent,” skied in half a day. Haas, like many skiers and climbers And although no alike, says his favorite new line is the Trap he says. low-hanging fruit of Dike, a narrow slot of snow and ice that first descents remain looms over Avalanche Lake. Accessed by “It’s about in the region, these a fresh slide that runs to the summit of new slides have been Mount Colden, this apron drops 1,000 my first the focus of the local vertical feet from the apex to the top of descent…” ski community. the Dike’s narrow chasm. It’s more pro- According to Drew tected from the wind and is less scoured, Haas, author of The Slide Guide and found- says Hass. “It’s been skied for years but er of Adkbcski.com, a website dedicated to [after Irene], the Dike is now flushed Adirondack backcountry skiing, discovery clean, allowing for more linkable turns of the range’s new offerings will be wide- between ice bulges and rappels.” spread this winter due to the diminutive The local skiers’ approach to the new 2011-12 snowpack. During the 10th annual slides embodies a unique Adirondack ski Adirondack Backcountry Ski Festival, Hass ethos. Although for some there’s a battle and the venerable Glen Plake were some of for first descents, Haas claims that isn’t the first to descend the longest new slide, a the Adirondack way. 1,000-vertical-foot slash down the face of “It’s not about the first descent,” he Saddleback Mountain that, with the runout, says. “It’s about my first descent. If you’re is a two-mile-long ski. the first to drop a new line, who cares?” “[The slide] existed in a small sense —BRIAN IRWIN.