Attempt on Trap Dike

The Trap Dike, located in the heart of the Adirondack high peaks region is home to some of the longest sustained 3rd to 4th class scrambling east of the Mississippi river. The physical feature is a canyon down the side of Mount Colden created by rock slides. The second half of the line leaves the canyon, leading to long sustained slabs. After finishing our classes for the week Dennis and I, Ben, decided to try the famous Trap Dike before winter came rolling around. The forecast was scary, but we decided to go for it regardless (more on this later).

The ride up to the high peaks region is incredible with lakes and mountains the whole 4-hour drive. We stopped for some food close to the trailhead to stock up for the hike. The final road to the trailhead revealed the vast mountains that are the Adirondack high peaks.

We checked in at the lodge and rented bear canisters. After packing the bags we headed out to the campsite at Marcy Dam. At this point, we were racing the sunlight but the hike was quick and we made it to camp just as the sun set behind the mountains. We set up camp, ate, and prepared for the next hard day of hiking and scrambling.

The rain seemed to hold off for the most part overnight. We got an early start, having set the alarms for 6:00. We dropped our overnight packs at the nearest shelter to protect them from the rain. The hike up to Avalanche lake was for the most part easy and took around an hour. The view at the lake was incredible and made you forget the difficulty of the trail. Parts of the trail involved climbing over rocks and bridges that went over the lake. We continued and got to the end of the lake which contained our objective: The Trap Dike.

Once at the end of the Lake we started the minor bushwack to the entry point into the crack.

This is when the “no rain” started to turn into a steady drizzle or mist. We had made it this far so we had to at least give it a try on wet rock. The beginning of the crack is just a simple scramble until you reach the first waterfall. Unlike the pictures we had seen, this looked more like a waterfall than a small spring. From this point on the climb became a class 3-4 scramble on wet rock. The issue we ran into was the rock not directly under the waterfall was prone to have slippery algae on it. With the rocks to the side being extremely slippery and the waterfall rushing with the recent rains it made the Trap Dike challenging. We continued up until we could see the crux of the route. We both looked at it and said no way we were going to try that, a 35-foot waterfall slamming down. While trying to reverse down that terrain didn't seem ideal either, it was better than being stuck in the crack with little supplies and an incoming downpour.

We carefully made it down the rocks, sliding on our butts at times. We even passed rappel webbing which didn't help my nerves. In the end, we made it safely down. All told we only made it 300 virtual feet up the crack and it took over 2 hours to do this. We reversed the bushwack and ate some lunch. We ran into some other guys who said they were going to attempt the Trap Dike also. We told them about how slippery it was, but they insisted on trying anyway. From here we decided to hike to the top of the Trap Dike (Mount Colden) via the common trail. This was a hard trail but we made it to the top in about another hour or two. At the top, we saw the two other climbers. They had successfully climbed the Trap Dike. We got showed up for sure! They were very friendly and insisted we should try again on a nicer day.

Now it was a straight shot downhill back to the campsite and then the cars. As we got off the summit the real rain started to hit. It rained and rained and rained. Every piece of clothing I was wearing was no match for this rain. It was a long wet slog back to the campsite. We picked up our overnight packs and made the last 2 miles as fast as we could. Finally back to the warm car, we checked out at the lodge and headed back home that night.

This was an incredible journey that taught valuable lessons on decision-making in the mountains as well as slogging it out when you feel terrible. I definitely will be back to climb the Trap Dike successfully.