4.29.2012 Rumney, NH

Instead of making the usual trip to the Adirondacks, we decided to head to New Hampshire and climb at Rumney.  The group this time was a little larger than normal.  Charles, Eloise, Cam, and Joe all came along for the trip.  This is a pretty popular place, so we expected  to see a few more people than we normally do in the Daks.  Overall, it was another successful day, ten routes completed.

Area: Jimmy Cliff

Routes:Lonesome Dove

           Junco

           The Nuthatch

           Hammond Organ

Area: Bonsai

Routes:Masterpiece

           Kamikazee

           Centerpiece

Area: 5.8 Crag

Routes:The 5.8 Crack by the Road

           Snake Skin Slab

           Bolt and Run

I had a long day of meetings for my fraternity, so we had to leave Troy at around 6pm.  The drive to Rumney was a little over three hours.  We arrived at the parking lot near telephone pole #27, put some money in the drop box to get a parking pass for the next day, and then set up camp.  Charles and Eloise slept in the bed of his truck, Cam and I slept in the tent next to the truck in a tent, and Joe slept on the ground next to the tent.  

While we were waiting for water to boil before tossing in a few bricks of Ramen, we all messed around on a couple boulders surrounding the parking area.  After dinner it was time to get a good nights rest.

The first stop of the day was Jimmy Cliff .  Getting here was pretty simple, just walk along the road until pole #37 and then follow the marked trails.  There was plenty of signage to direct climbers to all the different areas.  The first climb of the day was Lonesome Dove, which Cam lead before setting up the other rope on Junco .  After TRing on these for a little while, I led The Nuthatch.  Afterwards, Cam led Hammond Organ and then Eloise and I climbed it.

Cam on Lonesome Dove

Belaying Cam on Lonesome Dove

Joe following The Nuthatch, Eloise on Hammond Organ

Cam leading Junco on the left, Eloise cleaning Lonesome Dove on the right

One of the other groups climbing here said that it would be good to check out  Bonsai, as there are plenty of high quality climbs between 5.8 and 5.11 there.  The first tick here was on Masterpiece, which Cam lead and I followed.  This crag was plenty overhanging, even though the photos do not really show it.  I wanted to get a lead in here also, so we walked to the right side of the cliff to Kamikazee.  Once again, we cycled through on this climb before heading to Centerpiece.  Cam had a solid lead here, and I followed.

Cleaning Masterpiece

Ropes were set up on nearly every route

Cam leading Centerpiece

Cam up on Centerpiece

Starting up to clean Centerpiece

Cleaning Centerpiece

Nice and juggy, but plenty overhanging

The crowds were gathering at Bonsai, so instead of waiting to get on more routes we headed down to the 5.8 Crag to check out what it had to offer.  It was a worthwhile trip, as there were some pretty good climbs.  I started off leading Snake Skin Slab, graded at 5.8, but Cam and I both agreed that it seemed a little sandbagged.  Oh well, still a great climb, great feet and delicate hands throughout the upper half.  Cam took the lead on Bolt and Run, which Eloise and I followed.  Afterwards we broke out the minimal trad rack that we took along for Cam to lead The 5.8 Crack by the Road.  The route name is a little peculiar because it is actually a 5.7 climb.  I followed to pull the protection and Eloise finished off the day rappelling down off the route because there were no quicklink anchors.

Charles attempting Snake Skin Slab

Joe attempting Snake Skin Slab

Eloise working her way up the climb

Cam leading Bolt and Run

Seconding on Bolt and Run

Big thanks to Clif Bar for supplying us with the energy we needed to climb all day long without much of a break. 

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.

3.31.2012 Shanty Cliff

This morning I left Troy at 6:30am with Charles, Cam, and Joe with the plan of climbing at the cliffs near Long Pond.  As usual, those plans ended up changing.  After 2 hours of driving, we came across a metal gate crossing the road that leads to the trailhead for the approach.  Access to the road would cut off 6 miles from the hike each way and we were not willing to spend the time to hike 20 miles and then barely have any time left to climb.  This didn't seem like a very enjoyable day, so we looked in the Adirondack Rock guidebook for somewhere else in the area.  Shanty Cliff was chosen as our destination, and it ended up being a good choice.

The guidebook said that the approach was only 15 minutes, which is the shortest one we have had in a long time.  However, there was one stream crossing listed, noted to be 1 to 2 feet deep in the summer.  The water was pretty cold, so Charles, Cam, and I decided to walk right through in our boots and gaiters, while Joe took off his shoes and braved the cold.

About 20 minutes later we arrive at the base of the cliffs and sorted out all of the gear for the day.  We spotted a nice looking hand crack and made that the first climb of the day.  Cam lead and I followed while Charles and Joe went up a 3rd class scramble to take some photos and check out the view.  The next series of photos are from this route.

From the top of the cliff, the view was excellent.  It was still snowing a little bit, and was cold all night, so the white covering could be seen on all the distant mountains.  Later in the day it warmed up and all the snow melted, but it was warm enough all day to only wear a fleece when climbing.  Cam ended up trying to pull off a Sharma and took his shirt off in the middle of one route.

There were no other parties climbing or hiking when we were there, but it became apparent that this area was very developed when we came across bolted routes and anchors at the top of each climb.  Here I a attempting to lead a 5.8 sport route.

The next route was a 5.10a, which Cam took the lead on.  This was a mixed sport and trad route, so the best of both worlds.  Cam and I are seen climbing this route below.

Contemplating the next route.  Joe wanted to try one of the 5.7s on a nearby wall, so Cam lead it to set up a TR.  At the same time, Charles belayed me on a route that our second rope was already set up for.

I would call this next climb the best one of the day.  There weren't many spots for natural protection on this route, so the nice bolt ladder came in handy.  The climbing was pretty technical, at 5.11c, and the roof was intimidating from the ground.  Cam figured that if he took off his shirt like Chris Sharma, he would be able to climb at least a grade higher, but this wasn't the case.  We were both able to climb up to the first bolt on the roof, but Cam aided the second bolt before pulling over the roof.

I believe that this next route was a 5.8 that started off with a diagonal handcrack and lead to a nice layback off of a flake.  

After lunch we did one more route.  I lead, Cam pulled protection, and then Joe climbed it.  This one was a 5.7, but still a fun climb.  We had to be back in Troy early due to a time conflict, so this was one of the first trips I've been on in a while where headlamps were not required for the hike out.  All things considered, it was still a great day.  The weather turned out to be nice, the rock was dryish, and the views were great.  Instead of hiking back to the car the same way we came up, we went down a different way that followed a long creek that flows in to the river that we had to cross.  Even with this detour, it only took around 30 minutes to get back to the car.  The water at this crossing was faster moving and deeper that it was at the first spot, but it wasn't like wet boots would really matter for the short hike back to the car.