Finding the nippletop slide?

[hillman1]

Just head into elk pass and bushwack towards that general direction until hitting the base? If it's dry enough, alistair and I are possibly doing this friday.

[Neil]

Been down to the base of Nip Slide 3x now and here's my advice:

Stick with the drainage, like glue. It's very easy to maintain elevation and drift away from the drainage, which would be a bad thing entailing lots of difficult side sloping and coming out on the slide half-way up. Sound familiar? Also the going is considerably easier if you stick to within no more than a few feet of the drainage.

When you get there you'll see the slide as a huge headwall on your left.

[Mavs00]

Originally Posted by Neil

Been down to the base of Nip Slide 3x now and here's my advice:

Stick with the drainage, like glue. It's very easy to maintain elevation and drift away from the drainage, which would be a bad thing entailing lots of difficult side sloping and coming out on the slide half-way up. Sound familiar? Also the going is considerably easier if you stick to within no more than a few feet of the drainage.

When you get there you'll see the slide as a huge headwall on your left.

Agreed. There is actually a poorly defined (but followable) herd path on the left side of the bank, that meanders between 5-15 feet from the river itself (it's always within sight).

I made it to the headwall in like 15 minutes following it. I was alone though and not "encumbered". One of the easier "whacks" (if you can call it that) out there. It starts just to the left of the outflow from the pond.

[hillman1]

Thanks for the beta. Looks like this friday, barring rain, and the dix circuit saturday with rob(viewseeker).

[mirabela]

That headwall at the bottom is easy enough to find. It comes with a couple of complications, though. It is pretty steep, and you might be more comfortable whacking in the woods to climber's right. Fair enough. Once you are above the steep cliff, there is some kind of a little dodge right that you have to do through a band of trees. If you just follow the obvious grown-in drainage from the top of this cliff, you wind up climbing Nippletop via a very horrendous bushwhack. I've made this mistake. Try not to make it yourself. I've climbed a few of the peaks "the hard way," and this was about as bad as I've ever had it.