Tripyramids

 I'll let the trip reports speak for themselves.

 tMail's Report
What an adventure!  This was my third time on the North Slide once in primo winter snow ice crampon / axe conditions, once bombing down it and Saturday Dogtown Day.

• Weather Reports have been whacked lately, Saturday was suppose to be snow instead sunny weather, decent views.
• Its an over looked area for hiking but the interconnectivity of Passaconaway, Whiteface, Tri's, Osceola, Tecumseh and Hancocks is worthy of high adventure.
• Fireworks went off on the North Slide, dangling from trees, traverses that got pucker factor across the slide, bushwhacking both left and right side of slide.
• Ice axe and traction equipment of the day.
• Never would I have though I would be pretzel-ed around a tree on the North Slide trying to get 100lbs Trudy through ice, over a tree then DogMan over me while holding Trudy.
• Trudy is all of 100lbs, 200lbs when she is frozen on the slide collapsed against your left rib cage.
• DogMan put your axe down the root of the tree, Tmail drive your axe to secure it. Ok I'm in you in? Yes, ok hand me Trudy.
• We had Dog release rolls, Dog spotter rolls and Dog catcher rolls while handing the dogs off on the slide.
• Black Diamond gloves continue to reign superior.
• Ibex liner gloves superior.
• Wool superior.
• Looking at Mutha coming down to support the Trudy experiment and seeing Spanky anchored to a tree by either a hiking pole or ice axe.
• Mutha telling Cody at Dunkin Donuts the size small coffee cups suck and he should fix them, poor Cody.
• "When were the bagels made?"
• "Our dogs need food, you have day old food around?" Cody - "yes we have stuff for dogs."
• DogMan freaking out at Dunkin Donuts saying "this is all fictitious food."

What a great day!

DogMan's Report

Some of my thoughts:

• The root structure of the tree of life is somewhat implanted in my brain.
• Sometimes you can go up, but can't go down. And shouldn't think about it.
• Total body work out. Like no other.
• Sand in the v*? How about sticks up your ass, literally.
• I need truly telescoping poles. Who knew that could matter so much.
• That little "leash" thing on the tree hooker (eh ice ax), good idea.
• Flashbacks still occurring here. Simple walk in the woods today, slight slip of the foot, brain instantly sends message "you are going to fall 300 feet and die!".
• Conveying confidence to your dog by forcing it to put all it's weight onto you while perched on a quasi vertical slab of rock ice, held in place with crampons, an ax and pine saplings is weird, but ultimately proved helpful.
• TMail was a f* marvelous manager and partner at a crucial time. I can't compliment or thank him enough. Neither can Trudy.
• My brain was completely flushed. Like a big mental stress s*, no room left for the bullshit of everyday life after that.
• Dunking Donuts is indeed a marvel. A restaurant that does not sell food. But that green thing I had sure tasted good.

Thank guys.

PS - no more of that for the dogs I think. Happy to have got us all through that in one piece. But for me anyway, new rule is if ax required/recommended, it is not a dog friendly scenario.

Mutha's Report

• This was truly a day of high adventure.  The clear blue skies transitioning in the late day to threatening clouds and then back to clear skies with stars was a complete surprise (based on the forecasted snowy/stormy system spinning to our north).
• The dog thing was, astonishingly, a surprise.  It may seem like it was a bad idea from the start - and I feel a little bad about labeling it dog-friendly - but my past ascents put it at a workable trek... at the limit, but workable.  As it turned out, it was over the edge.  Live and learn
• As DogMan said, the day was a complete brain dump.  High levels of focus relieved me of all the outside cares and woes.  The day was about not slipping and moving the dogs in stages.
• On the plus side, I learned that I could micromanage Spanky. She did fine with it until near the top when each 'staging' would present her with no obvious next move. Then she was clearly not thrilled. But I did learn where her balance point is for a one-hand lift-and-place while feet were anchored and the axe placed for security. Quite a few times I had to secure the axe and do a two-hand lift-and-place to head-level, then retrieve the axe with one hand on the dog. At 50lbs she was a lot easier to manage than Trudy, but my shoulders are still aching.
• It's amazing how versatile that damned axe is.
• The microspikes did well on the slide. The lack of toe points requires rethinking body position. The fact that the points are set in, under the foot, also requires careful placement in sketchy conditions but I was determined to test them to the summit. Not bad. Kept them on until we were down from the snow/ice.
• Tested the Columbia Omni-Max sweater. The inside lining is all shiny - my "Liberace Dinner Jacket". Could only wear it as a summit warmer - too warm to hike in in those conditions.
• The descent was via the Scaur Ridge Trail (to avoid the South Slide). This trail also required a lot of dog management. It's steep, rocky, icy on that day but with beautiful views north and south. It's razor thin at the saddle near the junction but the surrounding trees make it secure.
• The day was truly transformative.