Spring Climbing Summary

19^th June, 2008

by Jay Harrison

Since the end of ice climbing season, I managed to go rock climbing many times and at several places. As one of my partners pointed out, I am fortunate to be able to do so. It is one of the benefits of choosing a guide's life, and this year more than most, I've already enjoyed it frequently. Here is a synopsis of rock climbing activities for the Spring of 2008.

Stewart's Ledge

10^th April

Jason invited me to climb with Simon and him at Stewart's Ledge one afternoon, so I drove out to the east side of Lake George and made the short walk to the cliffs. Whereas in my neck of the woods, snow still lay deep on the ground in the forest, the low country around Lake George was completely bare. The two were already working the moves on DogPounder when I arrived. Along with them, Lawrence was watching and contemplating his first outdoor rock climb nearby. Jason had met Lawrence while bouldering on the Bicycle Path Rocks. We introduced ourselves and then set up to climb Revolver. I made one feeble attempt at leading through the normal route's 5.10b crux and then opted for the "5.8 escape" variation heading diagonally left up the slot. After Lawrence followed the route, we cleared the gear and Jason belayed me on Dogpounder. By then, dusk was approaching, so we packed up and returned to our vehicles.

Second Outing: Crane Mountain Boulderwoods

27^th April && 1^st May

The Viewpoint Ledge on April 6^th, 2008. There is still too much snow on the ground and thaw runoff to climb here this early in the season.

Although it warmed up enough to make southern Adirondack ice unsafe quite early (see this article for details), it did not get warm enough to make rock climbing a viable option for quite awhile longer. The snow high on the trails was still thigh-deep when the Boulderwoods thawed to bare ground - with the exception of ice under the shadowy overhangs and crevices below and between the rocks. I hiked up Crane Mountain in early April but found it difficult to get to the base of the routes up there. One could boulder and climb a few partial routes, but the overall impression was that "real" climbing would have to be done in lower country. I also tiptoed across semi-supportive snow crust to the boulders early in April, but managed little more than a few easy lines, as it was difficult keeping shoes dry in the snow. It wasn't until April 27^th that I actually had the time to climb and the conditions were good for visiting the Boulders for real. First on my hit list was the Chuck Norris Warm-Up. I didn't expect to get this, but I wanted to see if there was any improvement from last year. On the first try, I got one handhold farther than I've managed since 1993. With a crash pad, I might have gone for the whole thing. As it was, I chose to back off and head down to the Grape for a run or two on Footpad and Ninja Creeper. I managed Footpad but Ninja Creeper was beyond me.
Continuing farther into the Boulderwoods, I scoped out the possibilities near the Whale. Next door, a large boulder with a challenging face beckoned, but the landing was bad even with a crashpad. One boulder farther over, I found a reasonable possibility, so I scrubbed a bit and came up with a nice V0 or V1 line with a sit-start, going more or less straight up the middle of the downhill face. I called this Ishmael, a reference to Moby Dick (which in turn is referring to the Biblical Abraham's "outcast child").
I returned to the other boulder and cleaned a bit, scoping out the possibilities for the line up the middle. It's possible, probably only V3 or 4, but it will take a bold climber to pull it off. A difficult layback is required to reach a narrow ledge, from which one must probably go from mantle to lunge in one smooth, balanced motion to grab the lip at the top. This won't be easy: the lip isn't horribly bad, but it isn't terribly positive either. Once latched, a pull-up enables a reach to a good, positive one-hand hold on the top.
Wandering back to the Whale, I scrubbed a bit of the rear flank next to the descent layback. My original plan was to climb up just right of the center of this face, but in the end I managed only to work my way up left of center on relatively easy ground. It is perhaps barely V0, probably 5.8, though it is a fairly run-out bit of slab climbing.
Thus ended my first real afternoon of bouldering for 2008

Crane Mtn. Summit

Capping off Monday Gym Nights
May 5^th

Through the winter, a merry band of kids and young adults had come to Rocksport Gym for Monday evening climbing. It was a great way to maintain some "hone" and stay in touch through the cold months. With the onset of warm weather, we wanted to close out our Monday get-togethers outside somewhere close by. A quick run up Crane revealed summit cliffs clear of snow (finally!), so we made plans for meeting up there. Ryan and Nathan arrived at my house at 2pm and together, we headed up to the trailhead and onward to the top. While resting on the summit, a couple boys arrived, and I guessed correctly that these were members of the Esper family, come to join the festivities.
We went over to the Prows and I set up Foretaste in order to get a sense of each person's ability on rock. Everyone flew through the "standard" line, which is the crack itself, and everyone managed to get up using just their right hand on the crack. Most everyone managed climbing up the face to the left, and a few hardly seemed challenged by even that bit of climbing, which includes a 5.6 or 7 move.
That meant it was safe to set up Cornerstone. I rigged up a belay and began lowering people one at a time down the face. Nathan went first, as he and Ryan had to head down. Without good climbing shoes, he struggled a bit but managed to hang on, successfully making the traverse to the arete and the remaining ascent to the top again. All but the youngest Esper boy gave this a whirl, too; and each made it easily. Nathan and Ryan had to head down after this, but the Espers had the entire evening, so we said good bye to the two young men as they headed toward the trail and home.
We shifted the belay over to give the Espers a shot at Lost in the Crowd. Once again, the three older boys were up to the task, though this time the younger ones grunted a bit more and no one opted to climb the entire handcrack sans the lower corner. At least they were working at one route!
We had a bit more time, so I shifted to the big prow for a belay up Rock of Ages. This is a 5.7 route with a crux start that is very challenging for shorter folks. The boys opted to begin this climb by coming in from the right, literally lunging to reach the key holds for starting this line. Impressive and bold technique for ones so young!
With that, the lowering sun indicated it was time to head down ourselves. We took a moment for group pictures and then packed up the equipment. We descended rapidly, never quite needing the headlamps at all. This was a fine way to cap off a winter of indoor gym climbing.

Spider's Web

May 6^th

Jamie called me up and suggested a trip north to Keene Valley, where the snow was gone but the bugs not yet swarming, as they were in the Lake George region. We headed up to the Spider's Web, a crag I've never climbed at, simply because I've always considered the routes there mostly above my climbing competence. There are a couple 5.8s and 5.9s, but for the most part, this steep wall offers strenuous 5.10s and 11s. All the lines require not just strength but stamina as well, perhaps my weakest category. But I figured it was worth exploring, and Jamie is starting out this year with a bang, enthusiastically throwing himself at challenging routes.
We began on Esthesia, a 5.10a near the left end of the cliff. Jamie likes to warm up on an easier route, but one 5.8 looked - precisely as it is described - like a pile of loose blocks jammed together, and the other one was wet at the bottom crux moves. We didn't have a lot of options. Slim Pickins is rated lower but looked difficult to protect.
Esthesia spanked us both, though Jamie did get up it after a few falls. The initial overhang is a solid 5.9, but the second one, where the crack widens significantly, requires a wild 5.10 lieback. We did get to test my Big Bro, which held up well despite feeling "odd" as a piece of pro. Its one major disadvantage is that removing it absolutely requires two hands. At the crux point on this route, that is not possible without hanging on the rope, which I ended up having to do in order to reclaim the piece. At the belay ledge, we both admired the view for awhile, then rappelled down, inspecting Slim Pickins as we did.
We top-roped that route and then pulled the rope so Jamie could lead it. He did, though he wasn't as confident on that end of the rope. Once he got himself together, he worked smoothly through the entire route. We were out of time, but had made the most of it that day. Early May, and we were testing ourselves on 10s and hard 9s!

FA (Roped Solo): Pain and Pleasure (and More)

May 20^th

I was itching to find something new. Call it a curse, but one of the things I like to do is scour out new climbing routes. Here in the Adirondacks, this isn't easy: scouring is usually a very literal term when one goes exploring for new climbs up here. With few exceptions, cliffs are dirty, overgrown, and often riddled with loose flakes and choss-piles precariously reposed on sloping ledges. One has to first spy a possibility, then either climb from the ground up, wire brush in hand - along with several other cleaing implements - or rappel and clean before making an attempt at ascending. I wasn't sure where to look for a new route, but I figured that among the plethora of cracks festooning the summit cliffs, one would offer reasonable climbing potential.
I ended up ducking off the trail shortly after climbing the little ladder. Not far from there, a relatively recent rockslide exposed fresh rock that I thought might be clean enough to be ground-up plausible. Reaching the scarred area, I looked at the options. To the left, the cliff was steep and appeared relatively unscathed by the slide - meaning it was also dirty. To the far right, the main cliff loomed high above, also uneffected by the slide. I stood near the right end of the freshest rock and could see above me a low-angle face or ramp leading up leftward to a ledge perhaps seventy feet up. In front of me, a small overhang blocked access to the face, but on its right side, it looked like I could dig out a side-pull, haul over and up to easier ground. More intriguingly, the left-facing corner adjoining this line to the right looked very tempting, though quite a bit more difficult. I decided to do the first line and use the opportunity to inspect the other one.
The first couple moves were tricky, but once over these, two parallel cracks offered plenty of pro and holds on low-angle, easy rock. Sharp-angled, loose bits and a fine coating of sand littered the otherwise clean rock, so I made good progress upward. The last move was a bit steep and dirty, but of no great difficulty. Traversing rightward, I anchored to a handy spruce and set up a rappel.
The top of the interesting corner was quite dirty, as was every possible hold along the face. Apparently, I was at the edge of the rockslide: the vertical wall of the left-facing corner was crusted haphazardly in lichen, as if not long ago, parts of it had fallen off to reveal clean rock. The lower-angle main face was typically rockslide-strewn: every possible hold held a small pile of sand or stones. The corner itself was a bit dirty in spots, so I arranged the cleaning equipment and began descending. I pulled enough moss out of the top of the crack to provide a handhold there, and removed lichen from a couple key spots along the way. All the while, I occasionally had to swing left to pull a piece of pro from my previous climb.
Finally, I was back on the ground, looking for a good way to start this route. I could begin at the same spot as my last ascent, but this seemed too redundant. The crack on the inside of the corner swept rightward as it declined to the bottom, passing under a steep headwall that eventually became the vertical side of the corner itself. I decided to begin at the crack's end, over to the right a few meters.
The crack made it to the bottom, but a snarl of blowdown and a few blueberry bushes blocked the way, so I face-climbed a short, steep wall to its left to get above the tangle. The crack was a welcomed grab after the tricky start. I hauled up and left as the crack swept steeper toward the corner. A block lay in the way, easily sidestepped on the left to gain a good ledge at the bottom of the main attraction. The corner swept up steeply from this point, the righthand wall pushing inward enough to add to the difficulty. The crack was plenty big enough to place good cams, and I made the most of that advantage as I climbed up. I still had to clean a bit along the way - my first pass had been a bit hasty and optimistic - but without much ado I was closing in on the hardest part of the route. Seven meters shy of the top, the angle increased a bit, and a tiny overhang added to the complexities. At this point, I couldn't get a good piece of pro in, but I didn't worry because I had a good cam at my knees. Cranking into a lieback position, I kicked my left foot up high and pressed hard, rising above the little overhang and up the crack, closing in on the top. Bracing off, I was able to get a decent cam in higher. The crack widened abruptly and its edges became rounded, making the lieback less secure. Just shy of the top, I was in a difficult way for a moment before realizing I could reach up behind me and grab the rounded outside edge of the corner. With that added security, I fumbled for one more cam at the top of the crack, forcing my largest into the opening, before hauling up and right to my original anchor tree. Pain and Pleasure probably goes at 5.7, maybe 5.8. It's a worthwhile climb to do, and reasonably easy to find and access from the Crane Mountain Trail.

Two routes under my belt and I was feeling sporty. I wandered up to the summit and then over to the Prow area for a lookaround. I decided to attempt a solo of Rock of Ages, which to date had only been top-roped as far as I know. This went without a hitch, so I continued looking for interesting tidbits. The righthand wall of the big prow has a horizontal crack slanting out to the edge, so I decided to try climbing out that and up the small, rounded, left-facing corner just shy of the arete. This was a bit scary, as one starts at the far right and quickly gains a lot of air under foot with each move leftward. The rock is a bit dirty but the position not conducive to hanging out scrubbing. Instead, I made the most of each hold and carefully tested each foot placement before pulling up and onto the safety of a ledge.
That went well...what else was available? Between the two major prows lies a minor one, close up against the smaller, Cornerstone prow. I had once tried climbing up this but backed off, so I decided to give it one more look. Sure enough, this was in range now. The first few moves are on slopey footholds to an overhang. I reached around the left side of the prow and clutched a solid side-pull that made getting over the obstacle feasible. One more route in the bag! My FA compulsion sated for awhile, I headed homeward.