Sunday, May 4, 2008
Slide Mountain (New York)
Slide Mountain is the highest peak in the Catskills. Located in the Town of Shandaken in Ulster County, in southern New York.
While the 4,180-foot contour is generally accepted as its height, the exact elevation of the summit has never been officially determined by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and many informal surveys suggest the mountain may actually top 4,200 feet above sea level.
Like most other Catskill peaks, Slide's summit is gentle and rounded, taking the form of a narrow ridge that rises to a wider bump on its eastern end. From there the mountain slopes down steeply to the col with neighboring Cornell Mountain.
The mountain received its name locally from a landslide in 1819 on its north face near the summit. The scar can still be seen today, and in fact was partially gouged out again by another slide in 1982.
