Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash. Mount Colden : SummitPost.org : Climbing, hiking, mountaineering. Mount Colden is number 11 on the list of 46ers, standing at 4,714 feet. Mt. Colden’s Trap Dike. Click here for larger-size photo. Go us! The Trap Dike up Mount Colden is one of the more technical classic hikes of the Adirondacks, and it has been on the back of our minds for quite some time. Colden via the Trap Dike. Photo by Ashley Herkert. Two maintained trails lead to its mostly treeless summit, but in the days before our current extensive trails system, the Trap Dyke was the preferred way up. Click here for larger-size photo. Conveniently located in the middle of the High Peaks Wilderness, Mount Colden (4,715 feet) offers great views of New York's highest peaks. Click here for larger-size photo. We hiked on trail to Avalanche Lake, a narrow lake between the entrance to massive fissure that is the Dike, and the hiking trail. Once on the main slab, depending on weather conditions, the ascent can follow any line up to the top of Mount Colden. The Trap Dike is a formation which cuts across Mount Colden in the Adirondacks. The entrance to the Trap Dike (44.1318, -73.9678) is the obvious, massive cleft in Mount Colden that spills out onto Avalanche Lake’s eastern side. Traditionally, hikers have gone part way up the Trap Dike and then climbed out onto the nearby slide to reach the summit of Mount Colden. Click here to read a detailed account of climbing the Trap Dike … Though most parties will only rope up for a couple for a couple of pitches, the Trap Dike provides a fun, exposed, and fairly continuous line directly to the summit of Mt Colden. (Jeremy Krupa) The peak was briefly renamed "Mount McMartin" the next year, but the older name persisted. Mount Colden via Van Hoevenberg Trail is a 12.3 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Lake Placid, New York that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as difficult. It is ranked as a fourth-class climb in the Yosemite Decimal System. The peak was named after David S. Colden, an investor in the McIntyre Iron Works, in 1836. Trap Dike (summer) T 4th 1 2 I 2 M 1b Unknown (Project) T 5.10+ 6b+ 21 VII+ 20 E3 5b PG13 Wine Bottle Slide T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b PG13 There are a couple routes to Colden from the Loj. Although falls on fourth-class terrain can be fatal, the climbs are easy enough that ropes are regarded as optional. By Phil Brown We started up the trail a little after 9 a.m., but the real adventure began about noon, after we had hiked to Avalanche Lake and stood gazing up at the Trap Dike, the famous gash in the cliffs of Mount Colden.