9.30.2012 Puffer Mountain

It was another rainy weekend in the Adirondacks, so instead of staying in Troy wishing the weather was better, Cam and I decided to head back to Puffer Mountain.  We ended up hiking through chest deep snow and dense forest before realizing that we weren't even close to the cliffs.  Instead of waking up early in the morning, we slept a few miles from the private parking lot and started hiking in the morning.

The most maintained part of the trail.

Starting up the rock-bed creek.

After a 5.5 hour bushwack we caught the first glimpse of the cliffs and crossed a large beaver dam to get a better look.  A good portion of the hike followed a creek that flowed over moss-covered rock, which was the most scenic part of the hike.

Flagging trees.

One of the beaver ponds.

We tied marking tape along the "trail" to make it easier to find the cliffs again in the winter for ice climbing.  There are only a few documented rock climbs here, so there is great potential for FAs.

Mossy, waterfalls, textured rock.

First glimpse of the cliffs through a blanket of fog.

Fog clearing, making our way around the large beaver pond to cross over to the cliff side.

Arriving at the cliffs.  The view from the base does not show the true height.

Another angle.  The base is not groomed or maintained at all.

Wetness.

Hiking back down the stream.

Lots of running water over moss.

More water. More moss. Falling leaves.

Back down at Puffer Pond.  Had to hike around it instead of walking over the ice like we did last time.

Looking down the pond, trees changing colors.

We'll be back for the ice.

9.20.2012 Training Session

Earlier in February I wrote a post about the construction of my home training center.  I stopped by Rock Spot Climbing during my quick visit back to Rhode Island after climbing at Mt. Washington over winter break.  There was a box full of used holds and bags of foot chips in the gear shop, so Cam and I bought a bunch of holds to mount on the truss back in New York.

Now we have holds made of real plastic in addition to shaped 2x4s, door molding and wooden railing.  After falling "through" a single mattress and hitting the ground during one of the first sessions, we double stacked mattresses for extra padding.  During a typical workout we traverse the crack by hand and with ice tools, traverse with hands and use feet on the bottom board with foot chips, do pullups on the rock rings and do pushups along a ladder on the ground.  Also, we just started doing a ladder workout inspired by Markus Bendler (1:08 Vimeo: Eisprinz - Chapter one).