Sep 28, 2014 — Take the well-traveled trail from the Heart Lake parking lot trailhead toward Marcy Dam. Enjoy the nice mountain views with Marcy Dam in the foreground. Once you reach Avalanche Lake, keep a lookout to your left across the lake to find a big chasm in the middle of the mountain (see photos below). To get to the chasm (the Trap Dike), turn left almost directly after Avalanche Lake's southwestern most tip onto a fairly visible trail, though unmarked. Follow it around the lake and approach the obvious crack that goes up Mt. Colden (the dike). After some scrambling, you'll get to a 30 foot waterfall. If wet, this can be really dangerous. With the Dike framing your mountain view, continue past the waterfall (use your best judgement - this likely has one 4th class section) and continue up the Dike. Do not exit the Dike too early, or risk being on some seriously exposed slab climbing. Continue up toward the encroaching trees toward the top of the Dike and then find a way to scramble onto the slab to your right. Route-find up the slab (which is really a landslide that left bedrock exposed), avoiding the steeper sections. Go until the slab ends, and you'll be greeted with a likely muddy, steep ending that has an unmaintained trail to the summit of Mt. Colden, and a well-earned view of the surrounding Adirondack Mountains high peaks. Turn left at the summit and go down the traditional way.
Definitely requires some rock climbing abilities to get up the waterfall. There's a 4th Class section for sure that could have pretty bad consequences if you slip. The slab after crawling out of the dike is also fairly scary: there are some steep spots, and if it's wet, be careful. Don't exit the Trap Dike to enter the slab too soon, or it will be some serious climbing. Go until you reach a wall of trees before climbing to the right and ascending.
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