Yesterday and Today

Yesterday, my buddy Grant came up to visit, and with his friend Marc we all went up to the Summit Cliff. I hadn't been up that-a-way in some time, so I was particularly excited to get back on our "firsts."

We met at the trailhead and worked our way up what could be the worst approach in Silver Lake. That said, the approach isn't bad at all. For the first little bit its nice rolling clear logging roads. Once you start heading uphill though, the quality of the logging road deteriorates a bit, and the brambles start to get taller. And with a total of 45 minutes of approach, it isn't bad at all.

When we got there, Green Mountain Boys was wet (like usual), but Handlebarbarism was dry (like usual). So I convinced Marc to get on it, which he did, and ended up onsighting. His first Adirondack 5.10 onsight. 'Atta boy. Grant and I then toproped it. Such a good climb.

When I got to the top I belayed from up Marc and Grant, and we headed over to Tales of Weakness -- the summit arete crack -- which is one of the more obvious lines in all of Silver Lake. Marc led again, and Grant and I followed. What a day what a day.

Grant has pictures that look pretty good. I'll try to find those.

And today. Well, today I am cleaning the house.

7,000 Words

Beaver Brook

Yup, went. Rich and I got in two pitches. Rich led Old Men Shooting Powder, which is a pretty fun roof, followed by some sustained, balanced face climbing above. It goes at 5.10b and, like the other climbs at the crag, it felt a little sandbagged. The light was waning, so I hurried up Save a Tree, Eat a Beaver (5.10d). There are some good long moves between good holds, slightly reminiscent of the gunks. Oh, and mandatory foot cut.

Dat's what I'm talkin' bout.

Poke-o-moonshine

Colin and I went to Poko today for a few pitches of climbing. The sun is back, and the rock is dry! We were able to put away three excellent pitches -- three five-star climbs.

We left here around 9 o'clock this morning and went straight to the crag. Once there, we headed straight to C-Tips to "warm up." C-Tips, which goes at 5.10c goes straight up a blank, black water-streaked wall. The climbing is tenuous. Very balancey, with quite a few small holds. The route definitely requires a fair amount of footwork. Colin had climbed it many time, so he gave me the lead. It went down no problem.

Next we went to try one of Colin's long-term projects. This route, God's Grace (5.11b), goes up a wild corner, out to a sharp arete, then back to the corner again. It requires, again, really precise footwork. Lots of stemming, and pulling on tiny crimps. Colin had tried it last week and almost sent. Today, he crushed it. I followed cleanly, gave him serious props, and then we moved to climbs over to another classic corner climb.

Karmic Kickback (5.11b) is similar to God's Grace. Stemming up a corner, smearing, crimping, sharp aretes -- simply awesome. Colin gave me the lead. I struggled slightly at the crux, but other than that enjoyed the climbing to the maximum.

Just talked to Rich, I think we are going to go to Beaver Brook for a quick evening session. Yeheah.

Fire Wood

More rain, more wetness.

We got a load of firewood delivered today. The guy actually lives over at Silver Lake. I think he is one of those local land baron types. Owns a ton of property and rents several houses on the lake. The guy had a huge gut (probably from eating fine foods) and a little Jack Russell dog that kept kept eating grass and puking it up. And his father graduated from St Lawrence in '32. Certainly a nice enough guy though.

So, he missed our driveway, as there is no mailbox or number or other indication, turned around, and then tried to back into our driveway. Turns out "it's a little soft" at the end of our driveway. He backed up his huge trailer loaded with firewood into the drainage ditch, resulting in the necessity of a tow from his son. "Tell the boy to bring the four-wheeled drive and a chain."

Things eventually sorted themselves and they dumped five face cords worth of wood in our driveway. After they left, there was a huge pile of wood laying in the middle of our parking spots. I went to start carrying the wood over to the shed, and instantly realized there was no way I was going to carry a couple thousand sticks 50 yards back and forth. A search ensued and lo and behold there, behind the second shed, was an old, red, wagon/cart -- the kind you can attach to a riding lawnmower, only definitely hand built.

We spent the rest of the day doing many (like, many many) little (like, really little) wagon loads from the driveway to the shed, stacking under the overhangs of the roof. Yay chores.

Rain Rain...

Ugh. Shoulda taken the rest day today. It's grey and wet, and I don't really want to go a-scrubbing today.

On the plus side of things, I just finished a new book. It's called Bloodsucking Fiends; A Love Story written by Christopher Moore. It is about a romantic would-be writer named Tom Flood from the mid-West who moves to San Francisco for adventure. And quickly enough he meets Jody, a recently turned vampire. From there you follow the (mis)adventures of the two, as they struggle with the complexities of a monster/human relationship while battling a Fiend many centuries old. On the whole, a very satisfying book. Especially knowing there is more to come with the sequel You Suck; A Love Story. I just ordered it from amazon today!

I've also read The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Grove by Moore, and it is quite good to. Definitely a similar vane to Tom Robbins, only not quite is intricate and hard to follow. As one critic put it, "...the impatient man's Robbins."

Anyways, going to go do some bouldering in Colin's gym for a little while now. One must keep fit, after all.

A day of chill-axin'

Ahh the rest day. What a glorious thing to have.

Today I did a lot of nothing. Well, that's not entirely true. I basked in the sun, soaking in the views of Whiteface. I tossed the frisbee around for a while. I made some apple bread. I caught bull frogs with Cece, Colin and Henry. I ate a great dinner with friends. And we ate banana muffins that Rich made right before dinner that was still warm!

Twas a good day indeed.

Back to Center of Progress

Matt and I went up to the Center of Progress cliff, back to the same area as Oops...I'm Pregnant. There are actually a couple of really outstanding crack climbs in that area -- not just big chimneys and slopey face climbing.

So anyways, yeah, finished up cleaning this crack that cuts this otherwise blank face. As you get higher the crack splits into two cracks, so for a while you are sort of monkeying/bear-hugging. After that, the wall kicks back, the crack gets to small for fingers, and the feet completely disappear. On top of that, there are two cracks, and many possibilities to climbing the cracks, which makes it hard to figure out first where to go, and second how to do it. Needless to say it is awesome. Very cool. I've named it The Chipmunk Waltz and I think it will eventually go at 5.12 something. If not that, then very hard 5.11 -- potentially making this the hardest line at Silver Lake. As it stands, it goes at 5.11a A0.

Here are the preliminary pictures:

Potter Mountain Cliff

Alright! So, it frosted for the first time last night. And now it's really really cold in our house. Brrrrrr. But don't worry that hasn't prevented us from putting up somewhere in the vicinity of 15 pitches (with the help of a sizable crew) all within 100 feet of each other.

All the pitches on on Potter Mountain Cliff, and particularly this part of the cliff were remarkably clean. On top that, there are a series of water runs that have created the cooooooooolest holds ever. There are all these pock marked pinches and edges and finger pockets, toe dishes and the greatest exposure.

In a slightly different section of cliff, Tom and Joe spent the better part of the day scrubbing and doing some crack climbs. There is definitely more potential where they were working -- finishing routes to the top as well as more crack climbs at the bottom.

The setting and the climbing here are awesome. It is nice and remote. You feel like you are way way out, and while the approach is roughly an hour, there is a nice trail to follow (at this point). As soon as we can, we're going to do a serious photo shoot up there.

So, here is the break down of routes:

Stop Making Sense 5.7; four pitches
The Brazilian 5.10a; three pitches
Once in Lifetime 5.10d; one pitch
Groovitational Pull 5.10a; two (long) pitches
Brutus Ate My Sandwich 5.10a; three pitches
Zebra 5.9, one pitch
Leroy Brown 5.11+?
(Can't remember Joe and Tom's last route) 5.9+ one pitch

So yeah, good climbing out there, just as good as any other place we have climbed. Matt and I are off to the Center of Progress to clean up a few more cracks that look outstanding. Woo hoo!

Silver Lake

There has definitely been some action up there at the new Mountain. Yesterday I went out with a bunch of guys (Jim, Colin, Tad, and Tom) to a new area. We put up four new pithes in one day -- no scrubbing required!! There is a new route that is over 350 feet long and has three 5.10a pitches in a row. It's so gooooooood. Hopefully I'll have some more details later, as well as some more routes to talk about! I'm headed back to the same section right now.

Wallface Mountain

Rich, Matt, Rich's buddy Paul and I just spent Wednesday evening through early Friday at Wallface doing some climbing and camping. Pretty sweet to say the least. The weather was the absolute best we could hope for, the bugs were non-existent, the cliff was impressive and the climbing was remote, adventurous and classic.

We got a relatively late start on Wednesday, taking care of chores and things around the house. Once Paul rolled in (coming from New Hampshire), we packed up the car and headed out to Placid to get a couple of bear canisters and some high-calorie food. From there we took off and headed to the ADK Loj, in the heart of the High Peaks.

Wallface is, in the poetic words of David Henderson, "If Niagara be the prince of waterfalls -- [Wallface] exhibits the prince of precipices." The cliff itself is roughly 700 feet tall, with routes up to 1000 feet long. The climbs themselves, as I mentioned earlier are very adventurous. You have to hike more than six miles to get to the camp sight, with probably another 30-45 minutes of approach through scree and talus. (Sidenote: the boulders out there look awesome.) Once you find your climb, you can expect plenty of lichen, moss, and dirt -- and definitely no chalk to guide your way. Once you get above tree level, which won't take you very long, the exposure and scenery are fantastic -- simply sublime. We were warned before going out there that "the climbing itself isn't that good." That may be true, but if thats what you are looking for, go sport climbing in Kentucky or something. Wallface is definitely about the whole experience, of which there is none better.

So after our six mile hike, each sporting 40 pound packs, we set up camp, cooked a gourmet dinner of pasta and meatballs (quite the feat for the backcountry) and went to sleep with dreams of crushing.

Next morning it was on. We cooked up some instant oatmeal, drank a cup of tea, and racked up for the day. Rich and Paul set out for the classic Diagonal. It goes at 5.8, is 860 feet long and was first climbed in 1962, which is very impressive given the gear of the day. Matt and I opted for another classic, despite the fact that it is only 10 years old. It's called Free Ride and it goes at 5.11a.

The route itself is grade IV (my first), and it 750 feet tall. There are nine pitches in total, and the go like this: 5.11a, 5.10a(sandbag), 4th class, 5.10a, 5.9+, 5.10a, 5.11a, 5.10d, 5.10c. Jim Lawyer has this to say about the route:

This route has brilliant climbing, good-quality rock, good protection, and exposed situations...the exposure on the final pitch is jaw-dropping.

I'm inclined to agree. This route has everything from technical, beta intensive cruxes, to cracks, to steep face climbing to steep friction climbing. On top of that, the last two pitches are spectacular -- so much so that they get their own names: Endurance Pitch, and the Perverse Traverse.

Needless to say, both parties enjoyed themselves thouroughly. We both made it back to camp well before sundown. Once there we drank some whiskey, ate some food (backcountry pueblo stew, kung pao chicken and cheese cake -- yum), and crawled into our sleeping bags.

All-in-all it was a great success.

Wallface

The Gang with Wallface in the background

"The Shield" Pitch 4

Me on top of pitch 7

Me on lead on Pitch 8 -- Pitch 9 traverses out the big roof to the right.

The hike out.

Three new routes + one

Just put up three new routes with Rich and Mike on Thursday. A nasty gully that gets you to the top. 5.0+; A cool chimney called Cackling Spiders at 5.7; and then an unsuspecting slabby thing with sloooooooopers called Oops!...I'm Pregnant. I think that one is in the 5.11 range.

Other than that, started scrubbing this really steep crack. It looks like it's gonna be another classic.

More ADK

So, Rich and I have started to settle in up here. This new place is awesome.

This is mostly a teaser post. Three new routes have gone in. Tooth and Nail, 5.10; Oral Surgery 5.11b; African Barking Spiders 5.10+/11a. Will have photos and the like soon!