Skiing Chapel Pond Slab ....

I was at Chapel Pond Slab yesterday afternoon (Fri  at 5:05)  .....and  watched 2 dudes ski all the way down to the base (not sure how high they started from) !!!  I've never seen or heard of doing this before,  Does skiing the slab happen often ...or ever ? 

That’s awesome 

RL Stoltz of (the now defunct) Alpine Adventures guide service, skied it a couple decades ago. Almost surely the FD.

Then there's this: https://www.theinertia.com/news/half-dome-first-descent-skis-jason-torlano-zach-milligan/

Would think that the avy danger would be considerable.. ??? All the low angle ice that was loaded up at Willoughby slid last week. 

Ian Dibbs wrote:

I was at Chapel Pond Slab yesterday afternoon (Fri  at 5:05)  .....and  watched 2 dudes ski all the way down to the base !!!  I've never seen or heard of doing this before,  Does skiing the slab happen often ...or ever ? 

It happened so fast I never got a chance to record it ..... I congratulated the 2 skiers at the bottom (5:10) and asked how the decent compared to the Tucks at Mt Washington ..... "dude" said he'd never skied the Tucks"

The snowpack was pretty stable around Chouinard, Crystal Ice Tower and above. Didn't see or feel anything moving on those walk off, even when crossing gully with snow beneath (though that's all convex feature).

Ian Dibbs wrote:

I was at Chapel Pond Slab yesterday afternoon (Fri  at 5:05)  .....and  watched 2 dudes ski all the way down to the base !!!  I've never seen or heard of doing this before,  Does skiing the slab happen often ...or ever ? 

If your timeline is correct, then two separate parties skied it on Friday!

I wrapped up my day climbing at Chapel Pond a little before 3pm. I drove up to check out the conditions for a descent myself and couldn’t believe that 2 folks hopped over the guardrail with skis as I was driving by! One set of ski tracks from the very top, with a second set starting from just below Bob’s Knob very clearly visible.

Turns out it was a 19yo Saranac Lake local and friend from UVM. SO AWESOME!!!

Besides the RL Stoltz descent that Mike R mentions above (and is almost certainly the FD), I’m aware of 3 others. Given the number of descents known by me, chances are that others exist.

A serious feather in the cap to all descents of Chapel Pond Slab!