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The Bossman

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The Bossman, M9, High Falls Crag, Adirondacks, NY. NEice.com photo.

Matt McCormick and I hemmed and hawed a bit, looked at some other options, but couldn’t resist trying the line. Some good climbers had been up there, and they definitely cast a shadow, but what the heck, you can always go down, right?

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I whined a little bit starting the first pitch, on unbonded thin ice, but pounded a specter hook in some turf and muckled up onto a ledge anyway. The other folks who had tried this route had all taken a right hand chimney/corner system, but the second pitch’s crack we wanted to climb begun here, down low on the first. Matt and Steve House, who had been up here a few days before, had rapped over this unclimbed section and said there was gear. With that in mind I cautiously started up and found plenty of protection, some mungy, but it kept coming. The climbing was good too, thin ice, pick cracks, turf shots and steep for this kind of climbing; at one point maybe just past vertical. Things were melting though, including the turf – a clump of which blew out as I was making the crux move, leaving me dangling from the rope after a clean, short fall. “Damn,” I thought, and finished the pitch.

Matt following the first pitch.

Matt followed, and we figured the pitch was about M7, well protected and a classy example of typically scrappy Adirondacks mixed climbing.

Now, however, we were below the business. I had reinforced the belay of two knifeblades, one not very good, with three more shitty pins, and felt good about strength in numbers. When I first got there water was only dripping from the outside of the icicle above, and I could lean inside to stay dry. This worked well for a while, but as Matt was putting in the work, finding the bomber gear and figuring out the hard moves, it began to drip from all over. Soon there was nowhere to hide. By the time he had it fully sussed and had done the crux move, he had been hard at work for an hour and a half. Tired, Matt lowered off he asked if I wanted to try. “No.” was my emphatic response, wringing out the cuffs of my belay jacket.

Matt putting in the good work on pitch 2.

But, I quickly realized my error, pulled the ropes and tied in. Long, kinda dynamic moves are natural for me, so I was optimistic, and after watching Matt I knew where all the holds were. I got the gear Matt placed clipped, and down-climbed to the ledge. After a short break I got back up, hitting the hard move first go; a long reach to a tiny but positive hook with bad feet. A couple of more thin hooks, with worse feet, and I was looking at a sideways jab at the hanging curtain. I took a whack, a low percentage sideways swing, and my tool stuck in the soft ice. “Shit,” I thought, “I’m in.”

The ice climbing above was strenuous, but forgiving due to the temps, and very wet. After pulling one more hanging icicle I eventually found a good place to belay off right; tied to a wobbly cedar and a couple of small cams. Matt followed as twilight begun to settle in. From my perch I could see the final icicle above and off to my left, and I really wanted to finish up it – for the proud line and a third and final new pitch. I havn’t had the chance to climb with Matt alot, and I knew that not a lot of people would have gotten excited about this prospect, but McCormick was all over it – despite the impending darkness and being completely soaked from his belay session. He squirmed through a tiny gap behind the icicle, chopping his way through until he was able to swing into the intimidating dangler. He managing to sneak in some good gear before topping out and bushwhacked into the cedar to find a good anchor. The pitch, while short, is memorable. One 70m rappel deposited us at our packs, in the dark.

We had some fun, laughed a lot and never expected much from the day. Sometimes that works out the best. I’m looking forward to some more adventures with this guy.

Check out more at Alpinist.com, and NEice.com.

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This section of the High Falls Crag, in the Adirondacks’ Wilmington Notch, has a short, but interesting history. The corner systems right of the ice were first attempted by the prolific, and entertaining, Joe Szot with partner Will Mayo.Then it sat for a few years until Quebecois LP Menard and Maxime Turguon went up there on the recommendation of the Adirondacks’ main man, Matt Horner. They got up the first pitch and tried to add a second, but bailed after a fall. Matt Horner decided he better have a look and finished the Canadians’ second pitch, but headed down below the top, he told us. Inspired, Matt McCormick and Steve House went up there the Thursday before this year’s Mountain Fest, this time trying a new and direct second pitch; up an overhanging and improbable looking seam. Steve approached it in incredible style, Matt reported, fiddling in tiny gear and going for it. He eventually fell and blew a piece, and zippered the rest – except the one that caught him, a small wire. After three more falls they opted for Horner’s original second pitch and added a final one as well, topping out twenty feet right of what would become the Bossman’s final icicle, thinking the line was about M6.

The Tuesday after the Mountain Fest Matt McCormick and I had a chance to head up there. We added a direct first pitch, with some effort lead Steve’s second pitch clean, and added a direct third pitch up the final icicle. I just wish I hadn’t blown out of a turf shot on the first pitch!

John Henry: The Hammer Swinger

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Leaving the ice. Freddy Wilkinson photo.

When we started bolting routes in the quarry in Evan’s Notch it was a free for all. In two days we had four mixed lines, all with substantial sections of ice climbing. No one was hurt, there aren’t any plants to kill, and after the dust settled we had some great projects.

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To make a good mixed climb you don’t need much more than a chossy overhang and a little dangling ice. Steep terrain is the important part. I’ve had visiting friends from out west tell me the overhanging choss we were climbing was really good compared to what they had at home, so its all what you’re used to. But, when Ray Rice took Eliot Gaddy, Freddy Wilkinson and I out to this abandoned quarry in Evan’s Notch I thought we might be on to something, and as it turned out, the Mica Mine, had some great choss.

It also has ice, so when we first rolled into the cave it didn’t take long to put together the line that would become John Henry. There was a twenty five foot flow of shoulder wide grade 3+ ice in the back of the cave and a hanger at the lip, separated by twenty five feet horizontal dry tooling. There were other options too, and Ray Rice had already begun equipping one of the best, a hard M7 pitch that came to be called Gold Rush. A true mixed climb with an easy ice start, some mixed climbing around an amazing hanging blob and steep drytool moves out to a free hanger. One of the best pitches of the grade around, complete with a bit of up-side-down dangling.

The line that was to become John Henry was all dangling, and it took a few days of effort to finally to send, and an uncomfortable morning to equip. There is only one way to bolt such a steep route, from the ground up (and over, as the case may be). Me, an aider, a home-made daisy chain, my ice tools, my Bosch and a two hour belay from Freddie got most of the route equipped. Make a couple of hook moves hanging from your tools, drill a bolt, repeat. I aided as far as I could but the hooks ran out and my kidneys were bruised. After a break on flat ground, I jugged the fixed line up towards the hanger to drill the last bolt, feeling really nervous there wouldn’t be any holds out there. There were, they were just hidden, and really far away.

Its a long way up. Freddie WIlkinson photos.

Most of John Henry is fairly straight forward, positive drytooling; fluid and fun, right to the lip of the cave. Outside of the cave, the wall is about forty five degrees overhanging and there is body length section of blankness. Its a funny moment, dangling from a figure four at the end of the traverse of the concave roof, no where to put your feet and looking up to what seems like completely blank rock. The shallow hook you’re hanging from, with the inside of your knee locked over your opposite wrist, is positive but not huge. There is nothing else to do but swing. With a bit of momentum, and lots of flailing learning the move, I could eventually grab it, a good positive hidden hook in a quartz pocket. The climbing isn’t over yet, a couple of drytool moves followed by the thin ice of the hanger, but it definitely gets easier.

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John Henry is a great route to work, the climbing is fun and unique, it’s in a beautiful, quiet cave. It’s an ideal modern mixed route in that you begin on ice and drytool to some more ice. Hopefully, we’ll continue to find good conditions at the Mica Mine. It takes a few years to develop a sense of what a crag needs to form, but this one has the right ingredients; its wet, dark and cold.

I’m not really sure of how hard the route is, New Hampshire routes of comparable difficulty are mostly in the dry Cathedral cave where I haven’t spent a whole lot of time. Some well traveled hard man will have to swing by, onsight it and tell me what the grade actually is. I figure it to be somewhere in the M10-M11 range. Let me know.

The Mica Mine

Busy February

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The middle of February is when most of New England gets time off, and that’s when we get really busy, and thankfully so! There have been a few days on Mt Washington and a bunch of days guiding around the ice crags of New Hampshire.

Eugene Kwan on Supergoofers, Cathdral Ledge, NH, NEI 5

Euegene on Dropline, Frankenstein Cliffs, NEI 5

Amos Beninga on an unnamed mixed route in Madison NH, M6-ish

Champney Ice Bouldering

Aurthor from Cincinatti ice bouldering on a beautiful day in Chamapney Falls

Its been a beautiful year. Right now the north facing routes are growing fatter with the current freeze-thaw cycle, but the sunny routes are starting to get blasted. The truly fun spring mountaineering and skiing season is just ahead, and Mt Washington has tons of snow. Should be a great spring of sunny sport climbing and skiing on the mountian, but winter is not over yet!