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| The Cedar and Hudson Rivers join |
The more I learn about climbing, the more I realize how far off the beaten path we are here in the Adirondacks. There are a many factors that create this synergistic effect. Geographically, we are close enough to major population areas, but other areas like the Gunks and New Hampshire are closer and absorb the brunt of climbing traffic. We have a really short climbing season. The weather is unpredictable, but predictably horrible and wet. Black flies will carry your belayer away if they aren't anchored down in late spring. Sport climbing is scarce (becoming less so now). It is amazing to think that seeing two or three parties at a classic cliff like Poko Moonshine is what i consider a "crowded" day. There are twice that amount of parties waiting at the base of High E at any given time. It's the middle of December now, the snow is falling and I'm sitting around enjoying the memory of my last day on the rock, while simultaneously jonesing to be teleported to Joshua Tree right now.
November came in really harsh this year with a long brutally cold snap, spelling the end of rock climbing season here in the Daks. In late October I had checked out a slide show put on by local climbing legend and owner of Rocksport, Tom Rosecrans. Afterwards, we were chatting and he mentioned a new route he had just put up at Sugarloaf. I was intrigued. A couple years ago I did a little write up about the area after helping Mike Rawdon put a top pitch on his route Heroes. The area has been climbed occasionally for years but has just recently become officially open to climbers. Basically, it is this huge steep slab in the middle of nowhere. Indian Lake is the closest town and if you blink while driving through you might just miss it. There is a Stewart's gas station there however, so there is some redeeming value to the place. The cliff itself is really impressive. Over 500 vertical feet of rock, about a half mile long rises in stark contrast to surrounding greenery and the winding Cedar River below. A beautiful place to be.
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| Original Pro.....cool history lesson here...has modern bolts now |
This would be my second trip to the Loaf in 2014. I had climbed Sole Fusion with Jay Harrison sometime in September. A test piece of hard friction climbing and a historical route that went ground up solo back in the day by Tad Welch. I had a rough couple months over this past summer dealing with some personal demons in a not so healthy way. Long story short, I had not put my hands on rock for three months when Jay and I hooked up to climb. I'm blessed that I have a few good friends that care about me and wouldn't let me totally slip away. But they will put me on a 5.10 multi-pitch friction climb after a long layoff. Jay ended up doing the hard leading that day, which is awesome because 1: he got redpoint sends on all the hard pitches and 2: I would have had multiple heart attacks for sure. Since that day, I've been climbing pretty steady again and life in general has become a lot better for me. I'm really grateful Jay was there for me as a friend when things got dark.
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| Random shot of a brass nut that held my lead fall on a climb called Resistance in the Gunks |
I got ahold of my regular climbing partner Matt Nauman and it turned out he was interested in climbing at Sugarloaf too. It was early November and freezing. I had to work in the afternoon so we met up at 6am to drive the hour up to Indian Lake. It was even colder up here with a dusting of fresh snow, the first I had seen so far this fall. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the forecast called for temps in the upper thirties. Between the right layers and the southern aspect of Sugarloaf I figured we would be fine once 10am came along. We arrived at the base of Tom's route, Soul Confusion well before 9am. We decided that I would lead the first 2 pitches and Matt would take the last 2. This way we would each get a 5.10 pitch and Matt would lead the crux third pitch.
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| Snow! |
The first pitch turned out to be pretty intense for me. It is mostly pure friction. There was a large wet streak under the roof and the crack down low was coated in verglas. So it starts up a slab to a horizontal with a bomber cam. From the crack it instantly becomes 5.10 friction. You have to make a couple really committing moves to clip the first bolt. Well, I hesitated just a little bit and ended up blowing off right below the bolt. I took a nice 15+' fall into a pile of leaves on a ramp just a few feet off the deck. Rise and shine! I was awake now. After cursing the FAs a little I started back up from the ground. I fully committed to standing on nothing and put full faith in my ability and shoe rubber. After the second bolt i ended up climbing to the left of a big wet streak. I got pretty run out and was looking at a huge fall. In dry conditions I would have been able to place some pro in the vertical crack lower, but i couldn't reach it from the left until a certain point. I leaned out as far as I could and managed to get a solid #1 camalot in there. Thank God! I had to bash out the ice so I could trust the placement. Luckily, the ice was softening as it warmed up. All of a sudden I was under a 4' roof in a small left facing corner with a bomber, but muddy, hand jam. I was happy to have something to actually hold on to, but was faced with another tricky 5.10 move. After some sussing out I decoded the move only to be right back into another 30' section of continuously hard friction. Finally, I topped out. It's hard to describe this experience, other than saying it was really intense. I was just dialed into what I was doing the whole time. This sort of climbing requires a lot of focus, a lot of really precise movement, and a real ability to stay calm. Even in perfect conditions, climbing this pitch first thing in the day would be demanding. Every move feels improbable. There is no real crux, but at the same time there is no easy climbing at all. Looking back, this was a rewarding and memorable pitch for me. Meanwhile, Matt was becoming a human popsicle down on the ground. It had taken me a long time to lead the pitch as every move I made had to be slow, well thought out and in control. Next time I'll know to sandbag my partner into this lead. We both agreed that even in perfect conditions this was the mental and physical crux of the whole route for us
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| Top of Pitch 2 has a cool horizontal crack traverse |
After the first pitch everything mellowed out. The sun was warm, the rock was dry and we had a blast. The second pitch climbs a corner and then breaks dead left along a horizontal crack. Now the views up north to the high peaks open up. There are only a couple man made structures visible for miles and miles. Its wonderful to live in such a wild and beautiful place.
Looking up I noticed that the next pitch looked amazing. It was. It climbs increasingly difficult slab past four bolts to join a splitter vertical crack. The crux comes just before reaching the security of the crack, perfect route design from mother nature. You get these perfect hand jams in this crack that splits a totally blank face Its at this point that you can appreciate the size of the cliff. The rock here is just great too. Really pretty pink granite for the most part. Some sections are black from water flow and have this smoother but well featured character. All of it is just solid. Really high quality.
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| Matt on the money pitch |
We ended up under these big roofs at the belay. For a slab route, there are a ton of cool features to climb in addition to the pure friction. The diversity is another reason I really enjoyed climbing this, to the point of actually writing about it. The fourth pitch pulls immediately into a steep corner then around an arete to pass the overhangs. Then follow some crack systems through another overhang and slab up to the anchors. Just writing this makes me wish I didn't have to work that day. We rapped and headed out with tons of daylight left! We could have climbed Tier Pressure. If anyone wants to get out and climb this in the future I posted some more details on mountain project.
You will also find info on a few of the other climbs up at Sugarloaf. The newest edition of Adirondack Rock has some really good areal photos of the cliff, all the routes descriptions (except this one because it is so new) and historical facts and essays written by local climbers. So if you are up in the Daks climbing off the beaten path I highly recommend going off the path even more and checking out Sugarloaf.
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| Last pitch |
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