The Land That Time Forgot: Seneca Rocks

Seneca Rocks, West Virginia

Wild Flowers and the West Faces from our campsite

As usual, I'm a couple months behind in reporting my adventures.  It's pleasing to look back at this trip, three months later, as it is now mid December and cold rain has been falling outside for days here in the ADKs.

Crossing through West Virginia reminded me somewhat of home.  Lush, rolling, green mountains, rushing rivers and streams, seemingly endless wilderness.  The September air was hot, humid and thick, though.  Autumn's cold nights and changing colors had already signaled summer's end back home.  In West Virginia summer was still in full effect.  A steamy sunset welcomed us to the Mountain State.

We arrived at night to pitch our tents at Seneca Shadows Campground, directly across the street from the rocks themselves.  Just down the hill from our site was downtown Seneca.  This consisted of a general store, the Gendarme climbing shop, and a restaurant called the Front Porch.  Seneca Rocks was simple and quiet, a nice escape from the busy tourist season of Lake George I had subjected myself to at the pizzeria where I worked.  The locals moved slow, talked slow and I found most of them unusually friendly.  There was an exception though.  One of the older men that worked nights at the general store didn't ever say much and hardly acknowledged that I was standing in front of him trying to purchase something.  He always seemed to have that "you ain't from around these parts, boy" look on his face.  Thoughts of the movie Deliverance filled my head.  For me, this only added to the charm.

Matt leads Pleasant Overhangs

On to the climbing!  I don't wish to bore anyone with a recap of every day we spent at Seneca (seven) or every route we climbed (a lot).  I will say that we climbed each day we were there.  Despite two massive thunder storms, that flooded my poorly pitched tent with gallons of  rain water, the rock remained magically dry.  Seneca is very steep, hard rock, and sits high above the forest in the wind.  The formation has east and west faces that align almost perfectly with a compass.  These factors all worked in our favor to be on clean, dry rock everyday.  The photo above is my partner Matt leading a traverse out under the massive roof of the route Pleasant Overhangs.  The position of the belay was ideal to take photographs.  Above, the route continues up a slightly overhanging corner system with large holds and solid gear.


Summit of the South Peak

 

The summit of Seneca Rocks is unique to the east coast.  It is basically a knife edge, with a drop of two to three hundred feet straight down to the talus on either side.  While the summit ridge is extremely exposed and caution must be taken there, it does afford a wonderful panoramic view of the surrounding area.  Both Matt and I concurred, a bad ass place to be.

View of the town and beyond

The Southern Pillar from the Cave

Within Seneca Rocks there are multiple climbing areas.  The photo above depicts the Southern Pillar, which is separated from the main formation by Roy Gap.  My second favorite route of the trip, Climbin' Punishment can be found here.  I was able to link the first two pitches together in an all out effort.  Every piece of gear I had on me went into protecting 200' of hand jamming and continuous roof pulling up a beautiful left facing corner system.  A couple moves shy of the top out ledge I was at yet another overhang, running out of gas and completely out of cams.  I poorly placed a micro nut that definitely wouldn't stop a fall.  I looked down ten feet to my last piece and wished for a second I hadn't tried to run the two pitches together.  Too late for that nonsense though.  I went for it.  Got my feet up high and reached for something good with my left hand.  I found something, not nearly the jug I wanted but just enough for me to hold onto and get my right leg up and over the lip.  I stood up exhausted, heart pounding as I clipped into the chains and relaxed.  It is moments like this affirm our love of climbing and make us realize that sometimes when we dig deep and trust in ourselves we can overcome anything.  I belayed Matt up.  He cruised the route in his usual fashion.

Classic Butt Shot - Climbin' Punishment

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/seneca-rocks/105861910

Only a 5.4 to the summit

Seneca's grades seemed stiff.  Similar to Gunks.  Where most seem a little bit harder than they say that they, are and some just seem laughably sand bagged.  West Pole, my favorite route at Seneca is rated 5.7+.  I won't say much more about it, besides, if you find yourself at Seneca climb it.

The picture above is Matt getting ready to lead Gunsight to South Peak.  The route is one of many under 5.5 that can get you to the summit.

There is also plenty of harder stuff too.  Crazy inverted sport routes in the cave, extreme face climbs, and some cracks in the 5.10 range.  By the tail end of the trip I decided to try leading a crack climb, Pollux 5.10a.  One of the classics.  I got totally spanked.  Painful finger jams and delicate feet with a brutal pump.  Make a move, plug a piece, hang, repeat.  I was able to somewhat redeem my ego with a top rope tough guy send.  Once again I was reminded of a familiar lesson - being able to do the moves and being able to protect the climb on lead are two completely different things.  The good news is that there is a goal waiting for me when I go back.  Climbing is often like that.

Castor on the left, Pollux on the right

 



In closing.  If you find yourself down at Seneca in the summer months chances are you will be hungry, and the skies will open up with a massive thunderstorm.  If both these occur at the same time I highly recommend grabbing a bite to eat at The Front Porch.  The view and the food are outstanding, and also extremely affordable.  Sitting under the covered porch with a big pitcher of sweet tea and a huge plate of comfort food watching a powerful thunderstorm was one of the most memorable moments of the trip.  Nature is a so powerful and beautiful.  And all storms eventually pass.

 Great photo Matt!
 

Moby Grape

Cannon Cliff - New Hampshire

After having to bail from the Whitney Gillman Ridge , my climbing partner Lukasz and I, were itching to get back to Cannon.  We were forced to retreat because Jackie was actually climbing with a broken hand, although none of us knew this until it dislocated on the second pitch...get well soon Jackie! WGR climbs the arete just left of the black corner in the photo.

This time we decided to tackle Moby Grape.  The line climbs 1000' up the tallest part of the cliff.  Slightly left of center in the photo above.  We had heard this route was classic and had been talking about getting on it since our road trip back in April.  Turns out, Moby Grape, is probably the best climb either one of us has ever done....granted this is only my second season rock climbing.  The route goes up pitch after pitch of classic climbing.  At least 4 of the pitches would be 5 star single pitch climbs.  The fact that they are stacked on top of each other makes this route something special.  Each pitch is very distinct from the others and as a unique feature.

I got to lead the first pitch, known as Reppy's Crack.  The crack is 120' of perfect to wide hands with absolutely no face features to cheat on.  Without a doubt the purest jam crack I have ever been on.  The off vertical angle of the face keeps this pitch at a moderate 5.8, although it is sustained and somewhat rough on the feet for climbers like me not accustomed to some much jamming.  Super good looking and fun none the less.

 

Blue skies and splitter cracks

After the crack the pitch dials down and climbs through an exposed corner system to a bolted belay.  Above this a short crack leads to another belay below the Triangle Roof pitch.  Another absolute classic pitch.  Maybe the best of the entire climb.  Lukasz was up on lead for this one.  The sloping ledge below the roof is gained by climbing a right rising finger crack.  The moves on this crack are thin and exciting but it protects well.  The roof is split by a perfect hand crack and is pulled with a strenuous layback move.  Above the roof the difficulty dies down and climbs though really pleasant cracks to a belay ledge.

Pulling the roof

The next pitch breaks right through some blocky terrain in a right facing corner.  A steep layback tops the corner and a gear belay can be built.  From here the climb works up and right aiming for the Finger of Fate.  The finger is a unique feature that looks like a giant shark fin, about 20' tall.  It appears to be a flake wedged into the cliff.  I led the pitch to the base of this crazy fin.  This pitch climbs a right facing corner in a slab.  The corner ends at a long horizontal roof.  A thin traverse leads right to another unique feature.  The Sickle is a sword like horizontal flake that can be slung as natural gear before pulling a mantel up and over it.  Great friction properties and solid gear make this pitch a lot of fun.

The Sickle and The Finger of Fate

 The Finger can be pulled on either side.  Neither has any protection unless you happen to have a Big Bro handy.  Luckily, the lip is a massive jug and a leg can thrown up and over the flake.  If someone wanted to up the excitement they could campus all the way to the top before pulling over the Finger.  However, a fall on lead from here would be at the very least an ankle buster.  There is another unprotected 5.6 move as you step back to the main cliff from the Finger on slab.  This is in the realm of R rated climbing but shouldn't be a problem if you have made it this far.

On top of the Finger of Fate

 The next pitch begins 30' left across the ledge at a manky looking crack.  A small cam and a then a #3 Camalot protect a V2 boulder move that gets you off the deck.  Above the climbing was a little wet but much easier.  This leads to another belay ledge.  A pillar that forms a left facing corner can be seen up and left.  There is a cave in the middle of the corner.  A bit of delicate friction climbing leads to the base of the corner.  A steep layback gets you into the cave.  I was on lead and clipped into a fixed tricam and one of two nuts that we ended up getting as booty.  A blind reach for a jug, followed by committing moves lead to a strenuous exit from the cave and onto the crack riddled face above.  Another classic pitch.  From here Lukasz led us out the standard finish.  This pitch is supposed to be 5.6 but its just as hard as the other 5.8 pitches throughout the entire route.

Finally we topped out!  The climb ends up on a huge, flat rock ledge with amazing views of Franconia Notch and the surrounding mountains and rock faces.  A great place to relax, take the shoes off and grab a bite to eat.  From here one heads climbers right and follows the cliff line down towards a small helipad.  A trail is followed from here down past where the Old Man of The Mountain used to sit.  The old metal turnbuckles that held him on are still in place, dangling over the side of the cliff.  The trail winds back down to the lake and eventually the climber parking lot after about an hour.  What a day.

Time to get out of Dodge

Flat ground, Way up High, Great View, Nasty Feet

Partner in Climb

Some Technical Information:

Car to Car :  About 10hrs
Rack : Full set of Nuts, Set of C3s, Double rack of C4s #.3-#3, One #4 Camalot, Lots of slings

I think the grade of 5.8 is fair when I think about other climbs of the grade I am used to in NY.  The climb is not very strenuous.  Only when pulling the Triangle roof did I feel a little pump.  I think being confident in the friction of the granite and having well rounded climbing skills is the key to getting up efficiently and having fun.  Moby Grape requires hand and foot jamming, steep laybacking, pure friction, and mantling.  We both found that with a decent hand hold our feet were solid on any angle of the granite.  Makes for fun and creative moves.  All of the hardest moves are really well protected but there are a couple spots of R rated climbing and quite a bit of PG, especially where ledges come into play in the event of a fall.  There are a couple spots where the rock is dangerously loose.  There is a death block under the Triangle roof that needs to go.  It is hard to trundle, I'd imagine, on such a popular route.  But overall, this is a five star classic climb in a gorgeous setting on a badass cliff.  Both of us would go back and climb it again tomorrow.