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RedBeerd
03-05-2012, 11:54
Feel free to skip my short story...

About 3 years ago (I was 17) a vacation in NH landed me on a hike up Mt. Monadnock. I was wearing skateboard shoes and carrying an energy drink. I quickly became obsessed with hiking. While working on NH 48 I learned a real lot from many rookie mistakes, such as hiking shoes are ideal, and water as well. Who wouldve thought? I got my ten essentials, an REI membership, and my first day pack. Fast forward a few years and here I am a few months away from my LT e2e. I have an UL setup, and have become a self-taught backpacker (okay okay, a forum/self taught backpacker.) One thing that remains however is a very uneasy feeling on super steep inclines. For example, Mt. Adams via king ravine, or the tripyramid slide.

How many people experience this nervousness when hiking up a very steep incline?
Under the treeline steepness doesnt seem to bother me. Maybe above its the vulnerability?
Has it gone away for the seasoned hikers/backpackers?
Is it jut part of the thrill? When I get to a peak I always feel its worth it. What is everyone elses experience with this?

bigcranky
03-05-2012, 12:00
I feel nervous if there is a steep drop on one side, so a misstep might be fatal. Just a steep trail is no big deal after a while.

Shutterbug
03-05-2012, 12:07
Feel free to skip my short story...

About 3 years ago (I was 17) a vacation in NH landed me on a hike up Mt. Monadnock. I was wearing skateboard shoes and carrying an energy drink. I quickly became obsessed with hiking. While working on NH 48 I learned a real lot from many rookie mistakes, such as hiking shoes are ideal, and water as well. Who wouldve thought? I got my ten essentials, an REI membership, and my first day pack. Fast forward a few years and here I am a few months away from my LT e2e. I have an UL setup, and have become a self-taught backpacker (okay okay, a forum/self taught backpacker.) One thing that remains however is a very uneasy feeling on super steep inclines. For example, Mt. Adams via king ravine, or the tripyramid slide.

How many people experience this nervousness when hiking up a very steep incline?
Under the treeline steepness doesnt seem to bother me. Maybe above its the vulnerability?
Has it gone away for the seasoned hikers/backpackers?
Is it jut part of the thrill? When I get to a peak I always feel its worth it. What is everyone elses experience with this?

There is a difference between a healthy respect and an unfounded fear. If one doesn't have a healthy respect for situations that could result in injury or death, he or she is likely to die young. On the other hand, I have hiked with people who panic when the trail has a steep drop off on side. With experience you should keep the healthy respect but get over the panic.

jakedatc
03-05-2012, 12:08
Feel free to skip my short story...

About 3 years ago (I was 17) a vacation in NH landed me on a hike up Mt. Monadnock. I was wearing skateboard shoes and carrying an energy drink. I quickly became obsessed with hiking. While working on NH 48 I learned a real lot from many rookie mistakes, such as hiking shoes are ideal, and water as well. Who wouldve thought? I got my ten essentials, an REI membership, and my first day pack. Fast forward a few years and here I am a few months away from my LT e2e. I have an UL setup, and have become a self-taught backpacker (okay okay, a forum/self taught backpacker.) One thing that remains however is a very uneasy feeling on super steep inclines. For example, Mt. Adams via king ravine, or the tripyramid slide.

How many people experience this nervousness when hiking up a very steep incline?
Under the treeline steepness doesnt seem to bother me. Maybe above its the vulnerability?
Has it gone away for the seasoned hikers/backpackers?
Is it jut part of the thrill? When I get to a peak I always feel its worth it. What is everyone elses experience with this?


have any rock climbing friends? have them take you slab climbing (with ropes) you can work on your technique and be more confident. you can also learn to read the trail/route better so you pick good lines that have the best holds.

I did Tripyramid this summer and i was fine. I've been rock climbing for 12 years so it does not feel that steep but being unroped i was sure to be cautious

RedBeerd
03-05-2012, 12:14
I understand risk and know my capabilities. I dont doubt my skills, its just being a little freaked out. I feel like I could fall backwards and just keep going! I guess with all things the more you do it the easier it becomes.

jakedatc
03-05-2012, 12:18
That is where technique comes in. you shouldn't put yourself in a position to tip backwards. "head down, ass out" is how we describe slab climbing ;)

RedBeerd
03-05-2012, 12:23
Head down, ass out. The steep incline mantra. Got it.

beakerman
03-05-2012, 16:09
I find going down a steep incline sucks more than going up. I figure if I loose my traction goin up I'm going to face plant and slide on my belly so I can use my hands and toes to arrest myself. Whereas going down slope if my feet slip I'm on my butt or back like a turtle....that's the thoughts that run through my mind in those situations. Traversing a slope on a trail never bothered me--it falls into the same category as going up slope.

Feral Bill
03-05-2012, 16:12
Keep weight on the balls of your feet.

BFI
03-05-2012, 16:31
If its steep enough to use your hands for support , use the "Three Point Rule". Thats to say, two feet and one hand or one foot two hands always have to be in contact with mother earth (rocks). Go slow and breathe.

Tipi Walter
03-05-2012, 16:51
It all changes with 75-85 lbs on your back.

On my last couple trips I hiked three or four "dangerous" stretches---
** On the Kings Meadow trail in the Snowbird backcountry---a section goes up as bad as Jacob's Ladder north of Stecoah Gap. I was going up with about 70 lbs and seriously knew if I slipped backwards and fell I'd be cartwheeling like a red-headed bonobo monkey on crystal meth. The biggest challenge would have been to backtrack and lose the trail and have to go back down that sucker.

** The lower Slickrock Creek trail around Calderwood Lake is what I call a "peruvian goat path" as it hugs the high hillside with the lake far below. One slip with enormous weight and you're cartwheeling etc. Not a great trail to finish off a long day of backpacking as you're stumbling along.

** Then there's a creekside rock face on the lower Slickrock which must be hugged and slid across. It's dang easy with no weight but a real challenge with a fully loaded and heavy pack. If you slip you fall 10 feet into a deep pool of cold February water. The solution? Cross the creek two extra times just to avoid.

Like I said, it all changes with 85 lbs on your back.

beakerman
03-05-2012, 17:36
loving that description of your catwheeling Tipi...a red-headed bobonbo monkey on crystal meth...that mental image just makes me smile for some reason. Thanks

beakerman
03-05-2012, 17:37
oh my now if I could just type....cartwheel and bonobo......what's so hard about those words!

Feral Bill
03-05-2012, 17:42
cartwheeling like a red-headed bonobo monkey on crystal meth. . Just for the record, bobobos are not monkeys, they are apes, like us.

jakedatc
03-05-2012, 17:58
" It all changes with 75-85 lbs on your back."

that is why i keep my pack weight around 25lbs. I've climbed trails that involved fixed ropes with that amount so there isn't much on a hiking trail that will cause an issue.

Amanita
03-05-2012, 18:31
I agree that going down is a lot scarier than going up. Especially when the rocks are wet and slick. I took a couple spills last spring in CT when I did Lion's head, Bear, Racerback, and Everett in the rain. I had one sore bum at the end of the day. The biggest thing is to always "fall up" by leaning into the hill so that you land on your butt/side, and then you may end up sliding down a particularly slick face. It still hurts, but it greatly reduces the chances that you split your skull open or go into "cartwheeling bonobo" mode. You can teach your body to instinctively lean up hill when you feel unstable, and if you have a lot of experience skiing or snowboarding you may have already acquired this skill.

Hooch
03-05-2012, 18:51
Nah, it's just fallin'. :D

hikerboy57
03-05-2012, 19:16
just keep your weight over the balls of your feet and your hands in front of you. dont try to reach up or lean into the rock or you'll find yourself slipping. if its the exposure that bothers you, take a rock climbing class, get used to heights while on the safety of a rope.if you're going downhill, always face the rock.

Drybones
03-05-2012, 19:33
As long as you are concerned you will be okay...it's when you become too comfortable you get hurt.

Del Q
03-05-2012, 22:10
I am older, knee surgery last year, bad back...........and I am out there alone, I go SLOW and EASY on the downs, good tips of weight on the balls of your feet. My hiking poles help a TON.

MuddyWaters
03-05-2012, 22:21
Nope. Not a bit. Im not nervous on 40+ degree exposed pitches on skis, no reason to possibly be nervous on solid ground.

DBCFlash
03-05-2012, 22:53
Yeah..poles. They have changed my view of steep descents. They still cause me some worry, but the poles have saved me a tumble or two.

BirdBrain
08-02-2015, 22:47
Old thread. Just did a search here on North Tripyramid to see if anyone else had the same surprise I did. In getting the remaining 4000' hills of NH the past week, I did the North Slide of North Tripyramid.... in a misting cloud. If anyone ever does the Tripyramids, please don't opt for the North Slide unless it is hot and bone dry. It is easily the scariest section I have ever been on. I now have all 48 in NH and 60 out of the 67 of New England. I am yet to see anything that comes close to this slide when wet. At about half way up I realized that I had made a big mistake. It was impossible to go up any more and very dangerous to try to go back down. I successfully went sideways and bushwacked the remainder of the hill. If you ever face this hill when it is wet, opt for the Scaur Ridge Trail instead.

lemon b
08-03-2015, 08:08
Little more nervous on the downside here. One has to worry when they lose respect and normal fear of steep rocky places.

Bronk
08-03-2015, 09:18
Its like working on a roof. When I was building my house I was very nervous up there in the beginning. By the time I was finished it didn't bother me a bit. Then a few years later I had to go up on the roof to fix a leak and I was nervous again. Its all in what you get used to. Your comfort level will increase as you get more experience with it.

Another Kevin
08-03-2015, 11:28
Old thread. Just did a search here on North Tripyramid to see if anyone else had the same surprise I did. In getting the remaining 4000' hills of NH the past week, I did the North Slide of North Tripyramid.... in a misting cloud. If anyone ever does the Tripyramids, please don't opt for the North Slide unless it is hot and bone dry. It is easily the scariest section I have ever been on. I now have all 48 in NH and 60 out of the 67 of New England. I am yet to see anything that comes close to this slide when wet. At about half way up I realized that I had made a big mistake. It was impossible to go up any more and very dangerous to try to go back down. I successfully went sideways and bushwacked the remainder of the hill. If you ever face this hill when it is wet, opt for the Scaur Ridge Trail instead.

Out of curiosity, do you use approach shoes and climbing gloves on the slides? I know that I've seen other people's trip reports from the Adirondacks and Whites. Some of them make me think that I'd want to be wearing something stickier than the NB MT610's you and I both wear for ordinary hiking. It looks as if there are a few for which the slides are the most popular approaches. I'm used to slide climbing in the Catskills, but the rock there is roughly fractured sandstone and the slides are boulder scrambles on rock that;'s as grippy as sandpaper. The slick and slabby granite and gneiss farther north intimidates me a little.

BirdBrain
08-03-2015, 13:02
Out of curiosity, do you use approach shoes and climbing gloves on the slides? I know that I've seen other people's trip reports from the Adirondacks and Whites. Some of them make me think that I'd want to be wearing something stickier than the NB MT610's you and I both wear for ordinary hiking. It looks as if there are a few for which the slides are the most popular approaches. I'm used to slide climbing in the Catskills, but the rock there is roughly fractured sandstone and the slides are boulder scrambles on rock that;'s as grippy as sandpaper. The slick and slabby granite and gneiss farther north intimidates me a little.

I never carry special climbing anything. I used the skin of my legs to gain the traction I needed once I realized that I was in trouble. My legs are pretty torn up at the moment. I made the bad assumption that because it was a maintained trail without a warning sign, that it would be safe enough for my skill level. The Tom Wiggins Trail going up to Blueberry Ledges on Whitecap has a sign that reads "steep, loose, not recommended". That hill was nothing. Trust me, I am not complaining. I had fun. I survived. Just informing and hoping to be a help.

Nooga
08-03-2015, 13:34
I find going down a steep incline sucks more than going up. I figure if I loose my traction goin up I'm going to face plant and slide on my belly so I can use my hands and toes to arrest myself. Whereas going down slope if my feet slip I'm on my butt or back like a turtle....that's the thoughts that run through my mind in those situations. Traversing a slope on a trail never bothered me--it falls into the same category as going up slope.

Agree. On steep down hills, you can see your future.....

theoilman
08-03-2015, 16:38
March last year I was on the Jesus Trail (in Israel) and had to go down "the cliffs of Arbel." It was nearly 500' elevation drop of very steep to nearly straight down. There were "staples" set in the rock on the straight down sections. I had 25 lbs in my pack. I went down face out because I didn't want the extra weight hanging out. Then the very steep (60 deg to 75 deg down) were just hang on and slide down very slowly and gently. After several sections of straight down (about 15 feet at a time) and very steep - I began 1. to wonder what I had gotten myself into. 2. How much more of this is there? 3. I wasn't really afraid of heights when I started but I was reconsidering that.

I used a 5 point contact - and always keep 4 in contact: 2 hands, 2 feet and rear end.