Big Slide via the Brothers

March 7, 2026

This was supposed to be a rainy winter hike of Cliff and Redfield. In fact, a few weeks prior, this was planned to be a ski from South Meadow to Lake Colden, followed by a short jaunt on snowshoes to the tops of these mountains. Fate changed things significantly.

After the most amazing winter of skiing ever and excited for more, the weather forecast unfortunately indicated an abrupt end to winter, with double digit temperatures and significant rain on our planned date. We decided to leave the skis at home, prayed that the weather folks were wrong about the rain, and changed the plan to a hike via the standard route from Upper Works. As we drove down to Keene on Friday night, the drizzle and warm conditions reinforced the correct decision of leaving the skis behind. We went to bed early, planning an o-dark thirty wakeup in preparation for the long day ahead.

The next morning we hit the road just at the end of darkness, in a balmy 5 degree drizzle. As we drove south down the interstate the temperature slowly clicked downward. As we turned onto Blue Ridge road, the temps approached freezing and I increased the driving caution, but the road so far was fine. After passing Boreas Ponds however, the handling of the vehicle seemed to get "weird". I slowed down and we determined that the road was very icy. We continued cautiously, glad that the driving was almost over. We rounded a few sharp curves at a a crawl, and then the road went down a hill. Our crawl picked up speed, even though the foot was on the brake pedal. Somehow managed to keep control enough to reach the bottom without mishap, negotiated a few more curves again at a crawl... and then came to an uphill section of road. Well, we managed to get about half way up this hill before th the car stopped and then started sliding backwards. Trying to steer an unintentional backwards moving vehicle was entertaining to say the least. Thank goodness no one was behind us. As we picked up speed, Paul suggested to try backing into the snow bank, which was a good idea, because upon contact with the rear wheel, the front end pirouteed around and after a bit of dizziness, we were facing downhill. This made made it significantly easier to control the uncontrolled decsent back to the bottom. A little adrenalized now after that excitement, I made an attempt to go back the way we came and succeeded in getting three quarters of the way up that hill, but then we were sliding backwards again in a bit of deja-vu. This time I somehow managed to somehow pull over to the side and park in a reasonably safe spot with visibility in both directions. Put on the four-way flashers and let the rest of the adrenaline drain away with a few deep breaths.

We were stuck like a marble at a local minima in a failed marble-works track. Well, so be it. Perhaps a highway crew will be through with some salt, or we simply wait until the day warms up as forecast, and melts the ice for us. Hiked down the skating rink highway to investigate if there was anything useful to see or a maybe a better place to park the car, but it seemed like it was best to simply remain where we were. Half an hour we later were drinking tea in the cabin wondering how long we would be stuck here for, and debating whether we should try calling someone. We certainly did not feel like we were in an emergency situation, just inconvenienced to get to a hike. In the end we figured we should call some sort of authority, just so that we could perhaps prevent someone else ending up stranded like us. But who to call? Ah! there is a DEC emergency number on our map, let's try that. Turned on the phone... no cell service whatsoever. Fortunately though, Paul had emergency satellite texting on his phone, so after a lot of debate of should we or shouldn't we, he finally put through a text to 911. We found that this actually was the right move though, as he texted back and forth with the 911 operator:

"Are you hurt or do you need a tow truck?"

"No we are fine, please just have someone salt the road"

"Ok, the Town of Newcomb will send a truck out. Sit tight for another half hour.

Just after turning the phone off, a U-haul cube truck appeared on the top of the hill and started coming down very slowly. Shortly after dropping into the descent though, the driver lost control and the truck came into the other lane, the one we were now parked in like a sitting duck. As the truck turned broad side and began a slow motion slide towards us, Paul jumped out the passenger side into the snowbank, I climbed over the console attempting to exit the same way, but was out of time. I instead braced myself in the passenger seat for the imminent impact. Amazingly though, the driver managed to regain control at the very last second and somehow successfully steered around our car and continued on past with only inches of clearance. Some more deep breaths to clear the adrenaline for the second time today.

"There is no way that thing is getting up the other side!"

We began walking down the road to help if necessary, or simply join forces in our stranded misery. Before we could see them however, we heard a bunch of sliding, engine revving, spinning tires, and finally slamming doors and a lot of yelling and swearing between two people. We decided that it was obvious that no one was hurt and maybe we should let these folks cool down a bit before we go say a cheery hello. We instead returned to our vehicle. This time I sat in the back seat on the passenger side so we could both exit quickly over the snow bank should the situation repeat itself.

A big truck with flashing lights appeared over the crest of the hill, we jumped out into the snowbank, but this one came down in full control, spraying glorious salty sand over the roadway as the driver blasted past with a wave. We figured we should let the salt sink in for a bit and took a walk to see how Mr. U-haul was doing. After rounding the corner at the bottom of the hill, we could see that the truck was fine, just stuck broadside in the snowbank blocking one and a half lanes. Flashing lights were at the top of the hill and a few people were standing around contemplating the stuck truck. Figuring all was under control here, we turned around and hiked one last time back to our car. After shovelling some sand under the tires, we managed to pull out of our fateful resting spot and easily climbed the hill heading back east along Blue Ridge Road.

Ok, Upper Works was not going to happen today. Since we had lost two hours of our hiking day during this ordeal, it was decided that a shorter hike in the Keene Valley area would be a good idea, and after a bit of discussion, settled on Big Slide. No further issues ensued and we arrived at the Garden just before 10:00 to an unexpected, but very welcome, brilliant sunny day.

Now finally onto the actual hike report!

At the resister we had a friendly chat with a ranger who asked us where we were going, commented that we looked prepared, and made sure that we put on our snowshoes that we had been carrying in our hands as we crossed the muddy parking lot. The climb up the Brothers was a lovely packed snowy trail, though with lots of fresh post-holes on the sides. The center snowspine was very supportive however, and with easy travel and a little time we were on top of first Brother enjoying fabulous views of the Great Range and we sat down in the warm sunshine for lunch.

Enjoying the "rainy" day on a Brother

Some critters found along the trail

The postholes continued along the ridge, some of the being so deep I commented that I did not know that they made humans with such long legs. We debated about how many people were ahead of us, and decided that it must only be two. Just before the summit, we met the two postholers, a couple of cheerie young folk enjoying the day out. I decided not to ruin it for them and did not bring up the postholing. They indicated that two more followed, and sure enough, our earlier argument was settled at a total of four postholers. Kept our mouths shut, and but tried to make it obvious how easy it was to walk in snowshoes today as we past on by. I doubt the subliminal message went through though... glorious naivety of youth (miss those days!). They were having fun though, and since we were now dressed in t-shirts in the sunshine on what was supposed to be a rainy day, we were having a blast too.

Steep pitch past a buried ladder

Lookout at the big slide of Big Slide

Had second lunch in on the very windy summit, before descending down to Johns Brook Valley. Fortunately the postholers went back the way they came over the Brothers and the trail was a smooth snowshoe highway. Down lower where the trail crosses what was now a raging stream due to the warm temperatures, got a little tricky. At one point my snowshoe punched through a snow bridge and my foot dangled underwater for a while until I managed to untangle myself. Oh well, one wet foot was not going to ruin my day. After reaching the valley trail, we stopped at a lean-to for a final break before making the long soggy slog out to the Garden.

Lunch on the summit

View of the Great Range on a great day

Finished the hike after 6.5 hours on the go, which gave us plenty of time to relax before supper back in Keene. Not exactly the gruelling journey we had planned, but with the unexpected brilliant weather and fantastic views of the day during a lovely hike we had no complaints. Though somewhat unbelievable on this balmy day, we found a new respect towards black ice on a highway.

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