SAdkClimber Blog

Rock Season rushes along. I’m starting to get behind in covering the “goings-on hereabouts” so here is a brief summary of the past week or so. This doesn’t include a run to Fish Mountain, which (obviously) has its own post, nor Eagle Falls (ditto), and there is nary a mention of our trip (which I hope to cover in separate installments).

Ra tries out Val’s new route, Yodellaybackloon.

While Ra & I plied the waters of the Thousand Islands, Val came out to Crane and sent her project, the attractive right-facing corner right of Oddy’s Crack of Horror. She dubbed it Yodellaybackloon, it registers in at 5.6 and definitely wants big cams. Think everything from Camalot C4 size 1 to 5, maybe even six if you’re timid on the sharp end. Ra & I climbed it on Saturday, and it’s a fine addition. Congratulations to Val on her first official FA!

That same day (Sunday May 6th) was yet another Crane Mountain Group Day. I heard that in addition to Val and Kevin, Keith, Lukasz Czyz, Michael Gray, and Tom Lane were also there climbing. I don’t regret our trip, but I do miss you guys and these times on the mountain!

I spent much of Thursday working on a new project, or rather, a renewed project. Tom and I climbed a rather unpleasant chimney/cave system on the left side of the amphitheatre last year, escaping out of the darkness onto the face about fifty feet up. The upper pitch we did seemed good enough to make into a route, but our starting pitch was not pretty. I’ve found an alternative that combines to make one of the better multipitch routes at the BAW. Hopefully, more on this shortly…

Yesterday, Tom Rosecrans made his annual pilgrimage to Crane, dragging Lake Placid Rock guide Royce along. I played tour guide for the day, showing them to a few of the routes put in since Tom’s last visit, and a route or two he hadn’t yet done. Pictures say it better, so here’s the rundown of our activities:

We warmed up on Stairway to Heaven’s first two pitches. Tom led the show.

Royce then led Moe-hammed, Larry, & Curly.

Royce is nearing the finish line.

Tom followed Royce up the route.

We all took a TR lap on Long Play. Here, Tom throws for the foothold.
Interestingly, Royce found an alternative start, utilizing a freshly-revealed foothold.

We then headed to Amphitheatre Crack. Tom took first shot at the lead.

Royce finished it off. We then TR’d Broken Broom before calling it a day.

Neal Knitel and I have been trying to climb together for almost two decades. We finally pulled it off last Friday when, along with Tom Lane, we met at a crag near Lake Pleasant that Neal discovered recently, a short way up the side of Fish Mountain.

Neal Knitel styling up the face route on Fish Mountain

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Heading for the Thousand Islands, we chose to swing by Eagle Falls, an area I’ve wanted to visit since I saw the pictures in the latest guidebook. In this case, “swing” meant a long, roundabout trip from the east, driving twisty, winding roads through Big Moose, past one “ROAD CLOSED” sign, dozens of scary LOGGING TRUCKS! signs, around potholes reminiscent of WWI trench warfare, a coyote, and a turkey to get there. No matter, it was time well spent, both in reaching the destination and in giving said locale time to dry.

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Another bushel of visitors to Crane’s southeast flank today. Valerie arrived at our house at 9:30, and before we headed up the road, Tom came along. We three headed uphill, parked at the shortcut, and headed into the woods, but not before Lauren, Scott, and Jeremy arrived. The developing squad hiked in together until reaching the far end of the TeePee Wall, where Valerie and I headed up to set a rope for her to do some route-scrubbing.

Val cleaning house on Crane Mountain 

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April is out for blood, enthusiastically vengeful. Maybe March, finally furious, maddened by its warm, comfy tenure, hired a hitmonth. Whatever, we’re watching this last week draw a damp, cold cut across the jubilee of climbing we had so early embraced. Yesterday’s walk to the Amphitheatre spied nothing worth climbing, and the path was polka-dotted with clumps of coagulated snow at every cliff. Whether the weather or something other is to blame for the funkiness, I’m in a moody mood.

Maybe Levon is at fault. I’ve had his craggy southern voice crooning in my head since the day he died. I don’t usually feel so linked-in to the music crowd, but this year, he and I, in one of those strange coincidences, almost met. Sort of. Which tells you just how close we weren’t. After working one of those cold Catskill guiding days, I was heading homeward, listening to a local radio station, when the announcer mentioned a concert at Levon’s place, going on that very night. I knew that concert wasn’t far away. Literally at a crossroad, I contemplated turning to hunt the place down and join in. But weariness and homesickness pulled rank and pushed me back to Thurman. For some reason, I was disappointed to miss this one. Now perhaps, I know why.

Don’t ask me what the connection is. I’m about as Yankee as they come. But I miss that man.

It surely has something to do with my erstwhile employer. I’ve banged my head against a corporate wall for three fruitless years. I made a big investment in time and money, wooing another hopeless cause. Finally admitting that it was a bad investment stings a bit. I’ve gone through the denial, the rage; now I’m floundering in the surrender phase.

Aging doesn’t help matters. This winter has been rough, in a beat-the-old-guy-with-a-club kind of way. In-the-knees, specifically. They were unhappy companions all winter, and continue nagging me now. There are several key skills my lifestyle (and career!) cannot be without, and bipedal transportation is one of them. Aching through the days puts a dent in one’s enjoyment of anything, and the foresight I’ve acquired regarding physical decay doesn’t paint a rosy picture up ahead. Ignorance, in this case, would be better, if not bliss.

All the funk will pass, soon enough. It has to. The sky will clear, it’ll get warm. My knees are responding well to therapy. I’m getting old, but I’m still able. Levon is gone, but I can still hear him singing. There’s a long list of things to do (miles to go, and all that, Mr. Frost): Lord willing, there will be time to do most of it.

The latest route is the righthand line. Sweeper & Swept Away are shown to the left.

So much sunshine had to be used. After work, I motored directly home, changed, and headed for the summit ridge. Just above the short ladder, I cut across the marsh and walked up to the Rockslide area. Here, two routes, Sweeper and Swept Away, lie on the right edge of the freshest rockslide area. Walking eastward, I came to a short face scored with a wide vertical groove and several other, narrower ones. Climbing up, fighting my way past a dead spruce to gain the ledge, I then moved a bit right to a vertical crack a few feet left of a brush-and-tree choked corner system. The crack stayed on open, steep rock, curving slightly, rightward around a bulging narrow buttress. I climbed this (felt 5.7ish), then entered an easier corner system to a brushy ledge. Rather than deal with all the vegetation, I hand-traversed right out a perfect horizontal crack onto a slab to finish. It’s about a 100′, and turns out to be better climbing than I expected.

Another foray to the Underworld Roof, this time with company: Tom Lane and Peter Whitmore wanted to see this mythical beast. Rappelling down it, they were impressed. Peter decided to give it a go.

 
Peter starts out on his attempt.

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Lukasz made it up late last night, looking to get some Crane Mountain climbing under his belt. We didn’t rush to get out the door in the morning: we needed a little extra sleep, and with temps well below freezing, the rock would need plenty of time to warm up. Nevertheless, we succeeded in hitting the trail by 9am. With ice crunching underfoot, the wisdom of that feat seemed overrated, but as we rounded the bend, sunshine greeted us. As usual, the southeast flank of Crane is well-protected from the wind, so despite the

Lukasz launches into the 5.10a variation of Muckraker 

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I won’t be zipping along in my snazzy lil’ blue car anymore. I knew it was decaying to the point where “safe” was no longer an applicable adjective, but I didn’t know just how deeply it had dived into the danger zone until last weekend. After seeing $1600 of needed repair work before pulling off the last wheel - and suspecting another 1K worth - we chose to get what we could out of the Elantra and buy another. No complaints about the Elantra: with 172600 miles on its odometer, it was one of the best cars we’ve ever had.

We found a used car that fit most of our requirements, its only obvious fault being an automatic transmission (I tremble in fear of CoO on that account), but having desperate need and no other appealing alternatives, it made it to the finals and won (if being driven into the ground by the Harrisons can be construed as “winning”). Introducing our new car, a 2008 Kia Rondo:

Yep, that’s Jesse Maiolo again. He must cringe every time he sees us walk in!

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Another posse of climbers headed to Crane Mountain today for a sunny, albeit brisk, day of climbing. Mike P., Cheryl G., Garth B., Matt H., and I met at the shortcut a little after nine this morning, and headed to the Measles Walls. There, Mike led Social Climber, showing the Under the Measles Wall some lovin’ as the rest of his gang followed up it. While the headed over to climb Hydrophobia, Tom Lane and Ben Brooke arrived. The three of us headed deeper into the wilderness, heading toward Pinnacle Overlook.

Having pulled the crux, Tom steps left for key gear placements.

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