Source: Backcountry Skiing Adventures: Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in Vermont and New York, by David Godman at Wright Peak Ski Trail Complete Trail Guide - Trails.com

Wright Peak (4580'). With a moderate three mile approach up a classic CCC trail and several descent options- from trails to narrow gullies, a ski tour up Wright Peak is an excellent introduction to backcountry skills and terrain for an experienced alpine or cross-country skier.
Source: Adirondack Backcountry Ski Tours in the High Peaks

The trail is now featured in David Goodman's guidebook Backcountry Skiing Adventures: Vermont and New York, published by the Appalachian Mountain Club.

Adirondack Almanack: The Problem With The Wright Peak Ski Trail
The problem is that the ski route ends after a mile and joins the popular Algonquin Peak hiking trail. This means skiers must descend a few miles on trails often crowded with snowshoers. It seems like an accident waiting to happen. The snowshoers probably don't like this any more than the skiers do.

What most snowshoers don't realize is that this section of the Algonquin trail was once part of the ski trail. In those days, hikers went up Algonquin by a separate trail located a little to the north. In the early 1970s, however, DEC closed this trail and moved hikers to the ski trail. Since then, the old ski trail has been maintained with hiking in mind: water bars have been dug, rock steps have been created, brush has been laid down to narrow the passage--all of which makes the trail less suitable for skiing. What's more, hikers have eroded the trail and exposed boulders that create dangerous obstacles.

Wright Pk Forum at viewsFromTheTop.com
The vertical gain on the ski trail is substantial, as it breaks off from the hiking trail at about the 3,000' level and reaches the summit if you perserve. While it's quite wide at the bottom where it hits the hiking trail, it's not nearly that wide higher up, although most of the steeper turns widen out a bit. It's a great ski but a challenging one, certainly.

There are really two pairs of slides on Wright, actually. The ones that reach the summit are approached from Avalanche camp, as described, and the Angel slides from Whale's Tale notch. I've hiked the summit slides in summer and it's a nice hike, pretty open woods leading up to the slides. Haven't skied them, though. The Angel slides had ski tracks on them Weds. It would be a long trek through thick spruce to get to the summit from them, though.

The Angel slides are where a skier was killed and some seriously injured in an avalanche a few years ago, just something to keep in mind.

Yes, for the Angel slides, it definitely seems best to approach, skin up, ski down. The other slides can be accessed from the summit, but all the times I've looked at them from other mtns, they don't seem to hold snow too well. Could be the exposure to the sun, wind, etc. Of course, the advantage of those is that if you get to the top and don't like what you see, you can always take the ski trail down. It's wooded with a northwest exposure, so it keeps its snow nicely.

The ski trail has an interesting history. I guess the original route was cut by the CCC back in the thirties, like the Thundebolt on Greylock and the Tear Drop on Mansfield. I think it went all the way down to the Whale's Tale trail. It fell into disuse with the advent of lifts, and later someone got permission to re-clear it to its present route. I remember working on a trail clearing party the ASTC put on about 15 years ago or so, but it was already re-established by then, we were just doing maintenance. Anyway, it's really a fun trail to ski, hard parts, easy parts, all kinds of fun stuff. And it's nice because it "ends" about 50' below the summit, so if there's all kinds of nasty wind on Wright (which is hardly unusual) you don't have to summit, but if it's a nice day and you want to, it's not hard to do by sidestepping up that final chute.


Links:
Wright Pk Forum at viewsFromTheTop.com

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last updated 21 Jan 2010