10.27.2012 Barton High Cliffs

We had an opening of clear weather before Hurricane Sandy was supposed to strike NY, so the plan was to climb at Barton High Cliffs.  Cam, Joe, Kyle, and I all packed up after classes on Friday and drove up to Exit 25 on the Northway.  After about twenty more minutes of driving, we parked on the side of the road just like last time.  The guidebook shows a hike time of one hour; however, we were able to lower that to 45 minutes on the approach and just over 30 minutes on the way out.

Looking up at Final Frontier

We organized gear and set up the tent at the only flat spot around and only a twenty minute hike to the base of the cliffs.  It was tough to get to sleep with 4 guys side-to-side in a tent meant for two adults and two children, especially with sleeping bags meant for temps of 0-20F.  After a few solid hours of sleep it was time to get up, make "breakfast", which consisted of Bam-Os canned pasta and Ramen, and hike to the start of Final Frontier.  Cam and Joe shared one rope and Kyle and I shared the other.

Joe getting ready to clean P1.

The first pitch was dirty and a little damp, which did not make us too excited for the second pitch.  After Cam belayed up Joe, I started leading off to where Joe was belaying Cam on the second pitch. 

 

By the time I started belaying Kyle on P1, Cam was already climbing P2 and had just made the clip at the piton about 20 feet up the pitch.

Cam looking down at Joe and I from the piton clip.

Tricky climbing up to the piton, only able to place one small nut along the way.

Joe starting off on P2, view from the bottom...

...and the view from the top.

 I was pretty nervous about climbing the first part of the pitch, so Joe was nice enough to lower a piece of webbing he was carrying, let me attach my rope and a quickdraw to it, and clip the piton for me.  This was a huge mental relief for me, but I still got plenty scared leading the rest of the pitch.  The rock was completely dry when Cam and I first climbed here and the conditions this time around made it much more difficult.

 

Cam lowered himself off of this stopper, backed up by a nest of cams, and took some nice photos of me climbing...he also gave some mental support along the way.

Bomber nut placement.

No chance of this anchor failing.

With the use of a GriGri, Cam had a nice workout going down and up the pitch a few times when Kyle and I were climbing.  Even so, it looked much easier than the GriGri and two prusik method I was trying to use at Poke-O-Moonshine last time we went climbing.

 

Kyle working his way up P2.

Fog just starting to clear as we were at the top of P2.

Fog fading away.

Kyle working his way up P2.

Looking down from the top of P2.

Looking out as the fog starts to burn off.

 

Pitch three was looking very dirty and wet, so we all decided not to bother climbing it and just to rappel down and head over to a different area.  When Cam and I were here in April we put new webbing around the tree stump that serves as the rappel anchor but it ended up being torn apart when I reached the anchor, it looked like an animal decided to eat through it.  Joe brought enough webbing to replace the anchor, so I cut off the three old slings that were still around the tree and left a nice and strong anchor behind.

Looking down at Joe and Cam from the rappel anchor.

Hiking through the talus field over to Sunset Arete.

The "I can't believe we didn't pack more food" look on all of our faces.

Next on the list for the day was The Excellent Adventure, but it was looking very wet so we decided to keep on walking by and head over to Sunset Arete.  This was a pretty classic climb from last time, so Cam took the lead on it again. 

Cam leading up Sunset Arete

With Joe belaying Cam, I spotted a line that looked climbable and decided to give it a try.  The route ended up being Animal Logic, and by the look of the sling around the tree at the top of the first pitch, it had not been climbed in quite a while.  It was still a fun climb, so I set up a toprope so everyone else could give it a try.  Meanwhile, I belayed Kyle up Sunset Arete.

Kyle following on Sunset Arete.

With the same rope setup from Sunset Arete, Cam climbed the slab to the left of the arete and recommended that I do the same.  This route is not listed in Adirondack Rock, which is no surprise because it would not be protectable at all.

Climbing the unknown slab route.

After finishing off these routes, we packed up our bags and hiked back down to the tent site to make the rest of the food and hike back to the Car.

Kyle hiking back to the tent.

The view from our tent site.

 

Heading back home on 87-S.

4.21.2012 Barton High Cliffs

Rain was in the forecast from 2am Saturday morning until the end of Sunday, so it didn't seem like ideal weather for an overnight climbing trip starting Friday night.  Cam and I decided to give it a go anyways, planning to aid climb if the weather was too bad.  Armed with all of our normal gear, a 60m static rope, 2 jumars, and a tent, we left Troy at 4:20pm and drove toward exit 25 on 87N.  We decided to drive past where we had to park and look for a general store to get some extra food to eat before we headed out to find a tent site.  This was a good move, we got a box of couscous and other snacks, including a bag of Doritos that we left in car for the ride back.  There are no trails or designated camping areas around the cliffs, so we had to navigate through the forest to end up at our final destination for the night.

I think we found the only section of flat and clean ground in the area, and it was just four feet away from a plentiful water source.  After setting up the tent and drinking some water from the stream, we decided to hike towards the cliffs to get a better view of what we would be climbing the next day.

This is what we saw.

Photosynth: Interactive Panorama

The viewpoint was only 20 minutes away from the tent.  Now it was getting dark, so we turned on headlamps and walked back to the tent to make dinner, organize gear, and get some sleep.  It was around 9pm when we laid down on the sleeping pads.  The plan was to wake up at 5am and get to the cliffs by 6am, but that ended up changing.  We were both awake at 3:45am and decided to make breakfast and head out early instead of going back to sleep.

Cam making the first moves on P1

The first route of the day was Final Frontier (5.8+ G 280').  The Adirondack Rock guidebook gave this route a 3 star rating.  Cam led the first two pitches, and I took the third.

 Instead of stepping right around the overhang on P2, we went directly under it and then up the arete.  This led to the face climbing, which was much longer than it looked from below.

View from the P2 belay

Approaching the roof on P2

Slapping rock under the roof to test which blocks are loose.  There was a pretty big selection of rock that had to be avoided so I didn't end up crushed at the belay.

Cam at the P3 belay

All geared up for P3

 After belaying Cam up P3, I lowered him to the ledge below that had an enormous tree stump and then rapped down off the tree I was anchored to.  The tree stump had a couple of old slings around it with two rap rings, but we added a new sling to it instead of trusting the old gear.  We also clipped a quickdraw to the new sling and the rope for safety if the rap rings were bad.  Hauling the static rope this entire time was well worth it when it came time for this rappel.  It was used as a tag line when we did a single line rappel on the dynamic rope.  The 70m dynamic rope barely reached the ground, so this was a pretty long drop.

Full shot of the rappel

Coming down the line

Free hanging for the last 30 meters

Scrambling across the boulder field to the next route

 The next route was The Excellent Adventure (5.9- G 200').  The guidebook shows that this is a 3 pitch climb, but we tied it together in 2.

Route Description

Right leaning crack

Cam starting up the crack, a little wet at first.

There was a fixed belay anchor up where Cam is the the shot above, but he opted to build a new one instead.  The old one consisted of an original Hexcentric and 2 micronuts, each with their own carabiner and toed to a master point with an old cordlette.  This made me believe that someone a long while ago had abandoned their gear, but not really sure.  There were a few other spots around the cliff where similar gear was left behind.  Cam belayed me up off of a red tricam backed up by two nuts.  Up here we switched belays to continue the climb.

P2/3 started off with a step down past the fixed gear and then a dirty traverse left to the prow.  From here it was easy climbing up to the belay/rappel station.  We were able to make it down to the ground with one rappel on the 70m rope.

Back on solid ground, we packed up our bags and hiked to the Sunset Arete Area, further left along the cliff.  The route that we first went to was Sunset Arete (5.7 PG 150').  The second pitch was supposed to be dirty, so not really worth the climb.  Instead, we only did the first pitch (70').  I decided to give it a try on lead, but backed down part way up the arete when it appeared that there was no protection for a while, and I didn't really feel like hitting the deck if I fell.  Cam ended up finding some interesting nut placements and built an anchor off of a tree.  We lowered on the other side of the arete to end the day with some carefree top roping.  The first route that Cam TR'd was Son of Cirrhosis (5.8+ G 60').  To the right of this route was a nice looking face with tiny positive edges and some smooth bulges that we messed around on for a little while.

The rain ended upholding off until we started to pack up our bags at the Sunset Arete Area.  There were periods of heavy rain on the hike back to the tent, but overall we got very lucky.  We made a couple more bags of Ramen when we got back and then packed up the tent in the rain.  The rain stopped on the hike back to my car, which took an hour, and then started again when we were on the road.  Overall, this was another great trip.  No injuries, abandoned gear, and plenty of food and water.