Matt got done working on Monday at 4:30. We jumped in the truck and headed Northeast. By midnight we found ourselves at Rich's aunt's house, just over the Maine border, 20 minutes from North Conway. There was disgusting rain for most of the drive up, so we were not really expecting to climb on Tuesday, but we went out, with minimal gear, to check out Whitehorse. (The minimal gear thing ended up being a bummer later, as the whole cliff was bone dry.)
Whitehorse is a cool cliff. On the far right side, there is a nice Chapel-pond-esque slab. And then as you work left it gets steeper and steeper. The rock itself reminds me a bit of Poke-O-Moonshine with slabs, dikes and some faces and roofs. We ended up getting on Future Shock (5.11a), Ethereal Crack (5.10c), Seventh Seal (5.10a), and then we simul-climbed the slabs at the end of the day.
Me hanging the draws on Future Shock. What a wild route! (Rich got a fish-eye lens for his birthday -- cool huh?!)
Coming down the slabs.
The gang from Cathedral, looking over to the Whitehorse slabs.
Rich and Nyssa had to work the next day, but Matt and I didn't have to work. So, instead, we decided to get on the Prow (5.11d) at Cathedral. This is by far, the hardest undertaking Matt and I have ever attempted. It's a six-pitch climb that breaks down like this: 5.10a, 5.11d, 5.10a, 5.11d, 5.11d, 5.10a. It is a superbly awesome climb from bottom to top. It's also really hard. I got one of the 5.11d pitches cleanly on lead. But the other two didn't quite go as well. That said, our effort was better than expected and we got up the thing in the end with out too much "nylon jug pulling."
Me on pitch one. Slab slab slab. The route goes up through the triangle roof up high. Off to the left you can see the last pitch of the uber-classic Recompense (5.9).
Matt hanging out on pitch three.
A demonstration on how cams work, half way up the prow.
Matt coming up the beautiful 5.11 finger crack after the crux of pitch four.
The top of pitch four.
Matt coming up the last pitch.
The last moves of the last pitch.
The top.
When we got down to the truck again, we noticed there was another party climbing The Prow. We wondered to ourselves, "How often does this thing get climbed twice in a day?" Here they are on the third pitch. Up and to the left of The Prow party you can see a climber on Recompense.
Our next objective was at Cannon Cliff. A little thing called VMC Direct Direct IV (5.10+). Of course, we had been on it once before but had weather issues and was only able to scope it out. And as fate would have it, we ran into the first ascensionist, Steve Arsenault in the parking lot after climbing The Prow. He said he tries to climb VMC Direct Direct at least once a year. We chated with him a bit more and headed off to Cannon. This time around we were psyched to crush. We rolled in at night, set up "truck camp" and called it a night. The stars were out and the cliff looked great.
We got to the start of the climb after some heinous talus scrambling, and started up. Things were going fine to start, we climbed to the top of the second pitch with no problems. But that third pitch is a doozy. After some hard underclinging in a tips crack and smearing on a blank granite face on the second pitch, the third pitch comes at you on all fronts. It's technical and pumpy and it's sustained, both mentally and physically. As fate would have it, Matt and I both fell. But at least we got to try climbing it this time! We climbed one more great pitch, and then rapped, having gotten to our previous high point again -- the top of the fourth pitch.
The day was not lost though. We got to the ground, packed up our stuff and moved to the right a little bit to Moby Grape III (5.8). This climb is close to 1,000 feet long, and it climbs some pretty fantastic features, starting with a splitter, Yosemite style hand crack and ending with a huge fin shaped boulder called the Finger of Fate. We scurried up as fast as we could, knowing that we already spent half the day on VMC. Just around dark we arrived back at the car. Amazing climbing, nasty decent. All in all an excellent alpine climbing day -- 11 pitches and 1500 feet. After pounding some food we called it a night.
Cannon Cliff at sunrise.
Matt at a rest on pitch three of VMC Direct Direct.
Top of the fourth pitch on VMC Direct Direct with the historic Whitney-Gilman ridge in the background.
Me approaching the Finger of Fate on Moby Grape.
The top, with the White Mountains in all their glory.
We anticipated one more half day of climbing at Cannon, but the weather was not on our side. We had stashed a second rope at the base of Vertigo (5.9 R) the day prior, and just as Matt was getting to the belay at the end of pitch two, it started to rain a bit. So we bailed. We did end up at Rumney to do a couple of short sport climbs before heading all the way home. We did a fun steep corner at the Bonsai Wall called Peer Pressure (5.10d) and we also checked out Waimea (5.10d) at the Waimea Wall. Both classics. Both awesome.
I think the final tally was somewhere near 30 pitches and 2,500 feet of climbing. Not bad for a little four day road trip. This should be a good jump start for 20, 5.10 pitches in a day?!
