freedan
New member
Spent a couple of weeks wandering around the Adirondacks exploring new places, from lakes to mountains, hiking and climbing to canoeing. It never ceases to amaze me after 25 years of living 15 minutes outside of the blue line and spending countless days hiking, canoeing, climbing and backcountry skiing that there are still so many places to explore. A whirlwind summary:
Started out by stopping in at Chimney Mountain for some rock climbing and put up a FA, Caveman's Hairy Backside - 5.4, next to Caveman Crack - 5.8, another climb we put up last year. It was a fun exercise in excavating holds from the lichen and carefully avoiding lose rock and flakes.
From there we moved on and did the Trap Dike on a beautiful day. In fact, a little too nice for baking on open rock but we hit the Dike early and the walls kept us in the shade until we emerged onto the slide. The falls were just a trickle and it was perfect conditions to do this classic scramble. The most interesting part of it is the 4th class waterfall - wish that went on for a little longer. Fun but easy climbing.
Next up was an island campsite on Lake George for a couple of days with the intent of doing Little Finger on Rogers Rock. This was during the only really hot days of summer we had a week and a half back so spending the day sizzling on the rock was deferred for some cooler fall weather and swimming became the main activity. The main crux of this journey was not getting swamped by the many powerboats that seemed not to care in the least about buzzing a fully loaded canoe. Oh by the way, we thought the map that you get at Rogers Rock campground might give some general indication of where the islands are - even if not to scale, but that is a negative. We got to our destination fine but a few hints like maybe the shorelines on the map and some distances would keep the possibility for epic wandering lower.
We followed that up with a quick afternoon exploratory hike up Roostercomb to scout out the descent for the climbs on the main face and the next morning we hauled up the rock gear bright and early. The trail is very nice with steps and well constructed switchbacks which made the hike up even with rock gear no problem. We went light with just one pack so we didn't have to go back to the bottom of the the cliff to retrieve anything after climbing, just walk off. The climb was the Regular Route, a Fritz Weissner classic. Really enjoyable climbing. The first pitch was my favorite with a traverse under a big roof followed by laybacking up a big ramp. Here is my wife following on the lower portion of the ramp:
The second pitch includes climbing some cracks and up a small chimney. There are several historic pitons on the first two pitches including a ring piton that very well may have been place by Weissner himself over 60 years ago. The third pitch is an airy 4th class traverse across the cliff face and the final pitch brings you right to the summit after some easy climbing along the base of a big wall.
The follow up to this was camping on Lower Saranac. We endured some torrential rains but were able to get some unique climbing in on Bluff island just to the left of the lower ledge where people jump into the water. Set up and anchor and get lowered to water level, then climb back to the top. Fun cracks and nice pocketed rock for face climbing. The really cool thing about climbing there was the two bald eagles that circled the crag all day.
We got off the lake and holed up for a day as the rains came down again. Took a quick sunset hike and were pleasantly suprised by the nice views for virtually no effort offered at Panther Mountain just down the road from the Ampersand trailhead.
Next up was a couple of days of climbing between more rain with some very cool temperatures (Saranac Lake set a new low record of 33F for the day of August 27th). Saw some frost even in the early morning. Excellent climbing at Baker Mountain in Saranac. The mountain also abounds with herd paths that you can ramble around and explore for hours. Another cool little mountain.
Finally we decided to do a quick cruise up Phelps, neither of us had ever been up this 46er, bypassing it for bigger and further objectives. I usually enjoy more off the beaten path stuff like slide climbing versus ticking off trailed peaks, but it has some beautiful views and will definitely be on my list to ski this winter. The list keeps growing of things to do, never seems to run out.
Here is a slideshow with a collection of images.
http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n169/dmosny/Rock%20Climbing%2009/August%2009/Edited%20Vacation%20Pics/?action=view¤t=2792c727.pbr
Started out by stopping in at Chimney Mountain for some rock climbing and put up a FA, Caveman's Hairy Backside - 5.4, next to Caveman Crack - 5.8, another climb we put up last year. It was a fun exercise in excavating holds from the lichen and carefully avoiding lose rock and flakes.
From there we moved on and did the Trap Dike on a beautiful day. In fact, a little too nice for baking on open rock but we hit the Dike early and the walls kept us in the shade until we emerged onto the slide. The falls were just a trickle and it was perfect conditions to do this classic scramble. The most interesting part of it is the 4th class waterfall - wish that went on for a little longer. Fun but easy climbing.
Next up was an island campsite on Lake George for a couple of days with the intent of doing Little Finger on Rogers Rock. This was during the only really hot days of summer we had a week and a half back so spending the day sizzling on the rock was deferred for some cooler fall weather and swimming became the main activity. The main crux of this journey was not getting swamped by the many powerboats that seemed not to care in the least about buzzing a fully loaded canoe. Oh by the way, we thought the map that you get at Rogers Rock campground might give some general indication of where the islands are - even if not to scale, but that is a negative. We got to our destination fine but a few hints like maybe the shorelines on the map and some distances would keep the possibility for epic wandering lower.
We followed that up with a quick afternoon exploratory hike up Roostercomb to scout out the descent for the climbs on the main face and the next morning we hauled up the rock gear bright and early. The trail is very nice with steps and well constructed switchbacks which made the hike up even with rock gear no problem. We went light with just one pack so we didn't have to go back to the bottom of the the cliff to retrieve anything after climbing, just walk off. The climb was the Regular Route, a Fritz Weissner classic. Really enjoyable climbing. The first pitch was my favorite with a traverse under a big roof followed by laybacking up a big ramp. Here is my wife following on the lower portion of the ramp:
The second pitch includes climbing some cracks and up a small chimney. There are several historic pitons on the first two pitches including a ring piton that very well may have been place by Weissner himself over 60 years ago. The third pitch is an airy 4th class traverse across the cliff face and the final pitch brings you right to the summit after some easy climbing along the base of a big wall.
The follow up to this was camping on Lower Saranac. We endured some torrential rains but were able to get some unique climbing in on Bluff island just to the left of the lower ledge where people jump into the water. Set up and anchor and get lowered to water level, then climb back to the top. Fun cracks and nice pocketed rock for face climbing. The really cool thing about climbing there was the two bald eagles that circled the crag all day.
We got off the lake and holed up for a day as the rains came down again. Took a quick sunset hike and were pleasantly suprised by the nice views for virtually no effort offered at Panther Mountain just down the road from the Ampersand trailhead.
Next up was a couple of days of climbing between more rain with some very cool temperatures (Saranac Lake set a new low record of 33F for the day of August 27th). Saw some frost even in the early morning. Excellent climbing at Baker Mountain in Saranac. The mountain also abounds with herd paths that you can ramble around and explore for hours. Another cool little mountain.
Finally we decided to do a quick cruise up Phelps, neither of us had ever been up this 46er, bypassing it for bigger and further objectives. I usually enjoy more off the beaten path stuff like slide climbing versus ticking off trailed peaks, but it has some beautiful views and will definitely be on my list to ski this winter. The list keeps growing of things to do, never seems to run out.
Here is a slideshow with a collection of images.
http://s112.photobucket.com/albums/n169/dmosny/Rock%20Climbing%2009/August%2009/Edited%20Vacation%20Pics/?action=view¤t=2792c727.pbr
