Summer Climbing Update
2nd October, 2008
by Jay Harrison
Summer was extremely busy. Guiding down in the Gunks and High Peaks has been a wonderful experience, though sometimes exhausting! Guiding climbing full-time has opened the door of possibility to achieve several dreams of mine.
The best exercise for climbing is climbing may be a worn addage, but it has held true in my case. With increased climbing frequency, my ability has improved a lot compared to the progress of past seasons. I've been able to solidify my lead-climbing at a decent level, and in the process have been able to get on and finish routes that were out of reach just a year ago, on-sight a couple stout routes, put up new routes at higher grades, and climb more confidently in general.
Most importantly, it has enabled me to have a share in the work of making the Lake George region a wonderful place to come and climb. With the advent of Lawyer & Haas' Adirondack Rock Climbing Guidebook, more people are discovering the great potential at the southern end of the Park. With the steep rise in gas prices, Lake George's closer proximity to the Metro region compared to the rest of the Adirondacks is an added incentive to explore its climbing venues.
Specifically, I've used the increased ability to focus on my "home" mountain. Last summer, I dedicated a lot of time to Gull Pond and new route development there - generally with avid climbing partner Jamie McNeill. This year, I stuck closer to home and worked mostly on Crane Mountain. Thus, most of the new routes described herein are on Crane, primarily on the Summit cliffs, but a few others lie sprinkled about other crags on the mountain. Of course, I started, but did not finish, several new projects on the mountain, and a few from past years remain incomplete. Perhaps October and Indian Summer will offer a last-ditch shot at finishing some of these.
The Gunks continues to be both a nostalgic destination for me as well as a grand climbing area in their own right. I went down there often, and although this summer very few trips were purely for recreational climbing; I was almost always able to both work as a guide and fill in the evenings with good climbing, bouldering, or easy soloing. Significantly, working with EMS guides there lent new insights into new methods, equipment, and techniques that have already served me well. Of particular note in this regard, I took the AMGA Single Pitch Instructor course, which introduced me to the AMGA's protocols. I plan to post my thoughts on this course in the near future, but I'll touch on a few of the highlights here.
No one who climbs in the Adirondacks should neglect the High Peaks region, whether they live outside the park or elsewhere within it. I didn't get up there as much as I thought I would this year, but a few sojourns north were made, and I'll go over the highlights of them, too.
Finally, I'm always interested in new places, and this year, I had more than my fair share of first-times to several crags. Most of these are well-documented locales, but a couple are newcomers, yet to get inked into the Adirondack climbers' consciousness with the help of guidebook descriptions. Indeed, I added two Gunks localities, one that I hadn't visited for 25 years, another one totally new to me, to my crag list. These are particularly deserving of mention, especially for those who may travel to the Gunks and find themselves looking for quieter climbing opportunities.
Looking back on the summer, there is a lot to cover. Let's get going...
Summer on Crane Mountain
Roped Climbs
Spring passed with a flurry of activity. I was excited to have the Viewpoint Cliff cleaned up to a respectable level, and opportunities to show it off with several visiting parties arose during July and August. A couple times, Todd Paris, Adirondack Director of C4C, brought friends up to hone their frictioning skills on these lower slopes before heading up to the steeper options on the Prows. Kevin and Val, Adkforummers came up a couple times also to do vertical workouts at one or both climbing areas. We had the whole bunch up one afternoon to enjoy climbing on the Prows, followed closely by a stint of dodging hail and lightning on a hurried retreat from the lofty heights. Afternoon thunderstorms are not the sole property of western mountain environs: on that occasion, Todd actually felt the buzz from one near-strike. Since the trail acts as the major runoff channel during intense storms, we all had to walk down an "electric tight-rope" on our escape.
Jamie leads Dividing Line
Though his move south greatly diminished our trips together, Jamie was able to come up the mountain to climb with me a few times. On one occasion, he and Alyssia TR'd on the Viewpoint cliffs for awhile before heading to the Prows for some more climbing and picture-taking. The three of us managed first ascents of Dividing Line, with Jamie leading; and its neighbor Divide By Zero on TR. These are both excellent short routes, taking attractive cracks through a steep headwall. From the ledge at the top of them, easy fifth class climbing leads to the top. A steep wall to the right offers more difficult summitting options.
On another occasion, Jamie met me on the summit and spotted what looks to be the highpoint of Crane Mountain route exploration this season, Gunga Din Chin. We top-roped this plum from below the roof to the top, managing one of the most extreme laybacks I've yet encountered successfully. While it still awaits a lead ascent, I'm hoping to grapple with this line on the sharp end before it is too cold to do so. Later, I returned to the route to clean a bit and define a lower half for it. I'm pleased to report that it does have a nice, challenging start, though of course the undisputed crux is the roof near the top. In any event, Gunga Din Chin is one of the best yet found on Crane, and the name is just doggone fun to say.
Jason B. came up to the Prows with me once this year, and we TR'd several climbs, including the tempting face between Lost in the Crowd and Cornerstone. At 5.10a, Stoned in a Crowded Corner is wonderful face climbing, reminiscent of Drifter at Deadwater Cliffs..
The Viewpoint saw very little new route exploration once summer hiking season ramped up. After doing Blue Streaks, the ledge at the clifftop was too populated to spend a lot of time below and out of sight, clinging to friction. Most hikers are cautious and thoughtful, but the image of one careless bottle flying down on my head kept me away from the cliff's right side most of the summer. After Labor Day, I did clean up Seamly Route enough to give it a successful go; add yet one more 5.8 to this crag. Earlier this summer, one of Todd's friends, Aaron, worked on a line at the far right that may some day get enough attention to climb. While short, this face is steep and sports a couple horizontal cracks a good-sized huck apart from each other. Looks fun...
One fine summer day, I had a short while to explore, so instead of running up to the Viewpoint (as was my springtime habit), I chose instead to walk west of the summit trail to find a small TR wall Carl Harrison & I had used back in the mid-90s. I couldn't remember what it was like, but thought it might be worth revisiting.
A twenty minute bushwhack, starting and staying at about the same altitude as the Frankenstein Boulder, brought me to this short cliffband. Thirty meters wide by perhaps 20 meters tall, this won't be an all-day climbing haven. I did put up one route, roped solo, going more or less through the center, that was about 5.7. There is room for 4 or 5 more routes there, ranging up to perhaps 5.11. The nice thing about this wall is that it crests in a peaked ridge, so the usual wilderness flotsam runs away from the face. A bit of cleaning and this wall would stay reasonably clean for a long time.
Once, I ran to Putnam Farm to visit the owner, and while awaiting his arrival, took the time to wander up the Pond trail and climb both Convenient and Inconvenient, 10 meter routes on open rock right along the trail where it begins to level off of the mountainside. I cleaned and climbed these routes last fall, and although they won't win any awards for quality or length, they're worth throwing a rope on them if you pass by with your equipment ready. At 5.4 and 5.7, one or the other is good for most climbers.
I visited the southeast side of Crane only once during the summer, thrashing through the flotsam left by the ice storms to the Waterfall Wall. I headed to a short, 10 meter face to the left of the main wall and cleaned a route, but never managed to climb it. The mosquitos were horrible, hungry, and legion; the deer flies took whatever they could carry. This was the only time this year the bugs have driven me off a cliff. The southeast face awaits a return visit this fall, when I hope to finish some incredible projects on the bigger Slanting Cracks and Black Arches Walls.
Bouldering on Crane
Not much new to report for the Boulderwoods this summer, at least not from me. I suspect others have more to add than I do, because this area has seen a huge influx of boulderers; however, there are a couple things to add to the list of lines here, and a newly-discovered pocket of awesome boulders that deserve closer inspection.
Most of my time in the Boulderwoods was spent either introducing others to the fun or sneaking a bit of climbing in whenever I didn't have time to go somewhere farther afield. I wandered the rocks with several people this summer: my friend Moe and his son Connor, my neighbor Mark and his two boys, another neighbor, Jed (whose intro to rock climbing came during the Southern Adirondack Rock Festival); and of course, one evening I ran into Jeremy Haas & Doc Livingston as they too looked for an after-work pump here.
My only additions this summer are a couple sit-start routes on the back side of the Grape Boulder. In the narrow corridor between it and the next-door rock, Slammer starts with hands on the frowning seam and feet on tiny indents to the left. Bump up and left to good holds and hand-traverse to the pinnacle. This is V1. A stand-start on the left corner is the V0 Chokey.
I did begin work on two projects that blur the boundary between bouldering and roped climbing. At 12 meters tall, these two lines warrant a top-rope to accomplish. I've not yet worked out the moves, but suspect they will both go around 5.11. While the hardest moves are near the ground, each has 5.9+ difficulty up high, so they're potentially lethal sends without a belay.
NOTE: Real attempts on these two lines didn't occur until the beginning of autumn, but suffice to say we're now pretty certain both of them will be 5.12. More about this when autumn comes to a close.
During the evening with Jeremy & Doc, we worked out the sit-start problem to the left of Ishmael. Jeremy got the send on this when he pushed the reach to a small horizontal crack above the undercut. I can't quite reach that far in one pull, but the hold is good if you can get there. Otherwise, it's a funky grab-cling-bump-dyno undercling sort of move to stay affixed to the face long enough to stabilize and finish. We spent quite awhile on several harder, established problems - long enough to do my fingers some damage! - before it became too dark to climb.
Jed displays the usual result of attempting Chuck Norris Warm-Up
The next evening, I introduced Jed to bouldering. We started on Chuck Norris Warm-Up, just for laughs, then went over to the Grape Boulder and did Footpad, Stalker, Ninja Creeper, and Slammer before moving on to a traverse of the rail on Blueberry boulder (V0, as yet unnamed), Excedrin on the Splitting Headache boulder, and farther afield to Honey Crack on the Hive boulder.
We worked awhile on projects I have on the Brownstone boulder, a squat cube lying close to the Matterhorn. These involve two short straight-ups in the alleyway (Back Alley Bribe, V0 on the left; and Dodgy Deal, V0 toward the right side) and a long traverse starting from the lowest corner and going left around the next corner (top is off) into the alleyway and eventually, I hope, across this and around the other corner. I've not yet managed traversing the alleyway face. If you don't have a crashpad but want a workout, give this traverse a try.
UPDATE: I've since (25th September) managed the alleyway traverse, but have yet to link it with the initial face. At a guess, Three Sides Live goes at V3.
Once again, darkness ushered the two of us out of the Boulderwoods, but we were both completely pumped anyway. My finger was definitely hurting by then and needed rest; Jed was definitely hooked, and would soon be driving to the Saratoga Eastern Mountain Sports Store to buy his 1st pair of climbing shoes.
The Boulderwoods would see both of us several more times before the end of the season. On the penultimate day of summer, he and I spent the morning on the Prows climbing Cornerstone, Lost in the Crowd, and Foretaste along with his siblings. Then, the two of us headed down to do some bouldering. At the Frankenstein boulder, we met Bob and Jim, visiting from East Greenbush. The four of us wandered the woods for awhile bouldering, then decided to bushwhack out to the Measles Wall for some easier top-roping - our tendons needed a rest. It was too dark for good photos during our stay, but suffice to say we had a good time. The wall is getting a bit dirty again; lying low on the mountain and along a major drainage line, it tends to collect rubbish, moss, and lichen quickly. The worst aspect of the crag is getting there: the path I worked hard to develop four years ago has been obliterated by fallen limbs and trees. We spent quite some time thrashing through minor blowdown on our way to it. However, its pockmarked faces are loads of fun, and newly-discovered objectives above the main wall make it a destination worth considering.
We climbed the shortest bumpy face, just left of the mossy waterline, then tackled the easy left-facing corner system and the delicate blunt arete to its left. By the time the anchors were pulled, headlamps were necessary. We stumbled downward through woods, marsh, and logging slash to reach Sky High Road for the walk back to our cars, all of us happy to have explored another crag on the mountain.