Consumed by a Route at Lost Hunters Cliff...

My past two full day climbing outings (Saturday June 9th and Saturday June 23rd) have involved hiking a grueling hour approach to one of the most stunning single pitch cliffs in the Adirondack Park.  "Lost Hunters" cliff was discovered in the early '90's by Fred Abbuhl and his father while deer hunting.  Over the course of a few years, Fred brought various climbing partners into this hidden gem as he managed to tick off every climb on the main face.  One of these originally developed routes was named "Elusive Trophy" and given a grade of 5.13a.  It involves 90 feet of a slightly overhanging bulletproof, clean orange colored wall on small sidepulls, crimps and edges.  I have broken the route down into three 30' sections.  In my opinion, the first section is a mid 5.11 to a good rest, the middle section is the crux and is basically a 30' V7/8 crimpfest, followed by a decent jug rest before the final easy 5.11 push to the anchors.

This past Saturday, at the end of a long day of climbing I was able to climb the first section to the resting point where I hangdogged for about 1.5 minutes.  After the rest, I did the remaining 60' of the route in one clean push...this of course was all on toprope as I rehearsed the route.  There are only six bolts on the route with two key gear placements to avoid some pretty significant falls.  It's only a matter of time now before I lead it clean.  I have been having some sweet dreams about this climb, definately one of the best things I have ever worked on!

Media Update:

Thursday June 14, 2012: After work session @ Pottersville

Kippy (Adkbouldering.blogspot.com) and I met up this past Thursday for a quick after work session at Hogwart's in Pottersville NY.  I haven't been to the area since April 3rd and was itching to get back to see some of the new lines that he has been revealing on his blog.

As always with Hogwart's there is never any disappointment.  Kippy and I had a stellar session, just getting to see him boulder again is enough to get any climber psyched.  I was even burnt off on a new boulder problem by the Adk legend!  Good on ya Kippy.  Looking forward to getting back in the next few weeks.

On a side note...I have been creating video archive pages for some of the local areas.  I figured it would be a good way to organize some of my youtube videos.  Check out the pages if you get a chance and let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Media Update:

A Highball Classic at Nine Corners Lake

Here are some images of Rodney Manning (Aka Ron aka "Super Human") and I styling our way up the highball classic "Tower of Power" at Nine Corners Lake as part of the photo shoot with Richard Nilsen from the Leader Herald this past Sunday.  Not many boulder problems in the woods were dry that day but this problem allowed us to showcase some of the areas potential.

Media Update:



Lost Hunters Cliff: Saturday June 9, 2012

This past Saturday, Rodney and I rendevoused at the tailhead for Lost Hunter's Cliff.  It had rained hard the night before and was on and off all morning.  We both decided that we'd head into the cliff regardless so we could lower over some of the older routes to see what they were all about and maybe re-clean one or two of them.

An hour later, we were at the base of the impressive, slightly overhanging 90' tall cliff band.  To our surprise, one of the most difficult and stunning routes on the cliff was completely dry...from top to bottom.  We made our way to the top of the cliff to set up a top rope and then preceded to work out all of the moves and sequences on one of Fred Abbuhl's unrepeated 5.13's.

I was able to do every move on the route and by the end of our session had put together some pretty decent links.  Basically, I have the route broken down into three distinct pieces.  The first piece is about 30' tall and involves some lower end 5.12 climbing with 3 bolts and maybe one or two pieces of gear.  I felt very solid on this section and had done it clean three times throughout the day. 

The middle section was where all of the excitement was.  You begin this section after a nice rest in a prominant crack 30' off the deck.  Immediately you are forced to crimp hard, high step and thrutch your way through another 30' of V7-V8ish bouldery sequences.  I could do every move in isolation, however, in one continuous push it felt VERY difficult.  There is one move in particular that I already know will be the redpoint crux and it is the last two moves right before another good rest.

The final section is another 30' of climbing to the anchors.  You begin on a nice jug/rest hold and the climbing to the chains felt like mid 5.11 climbing on pretty positive holds.  Despite the holds being positive, the lock off moves are huge and from a continous push from the ground, one could easily come up short on one of these full extension moves.

MAJOR props to Fred Abbuhl for putting this line up in the mid 1990's.  I received an email from Fred and plan on frequenting the cliff with him in the next few months to work on this route as well as equip some of his other test pieces from "back in the day".

Media Update:



Adirondack Sports and Fitness Article...June 2012

Below is a well written article on Adirondack bouldering by Josh Potter for the Adirondack Sports and Fitness which is an outdoor recreation and fitness magazine that covers the Adirondack and capital New York region. 

http://www.adksports.com/


Media Update:

The evolution of some screw on sets for Element Climbing

This past weekend's rain allowed me to focus my energy on some new screw on sets for Element Climbing.  The images below show the evolution of a series of (10) screw on pockets from their original sloper shape to the final foam prototype.  Also pictured are screw on sets for incuts, rails and foot holds.

Screw on Hold Series:

More disturbing news from Nine Corners Lake

So I haven't been up to Nine Corners lately...mainly because I have switched gears to rope climbing and partly because of how crowded it has become.  Here is a blog post I came across from www.boulderingguides.com

After reading the post below I think I need to venture back up in there to see what all of the disgust is about.  Remember everyone, carry in and carry out.  If you do come across trash in the woods, please do your part to remove it.  Also, this is the third time I have heard people complaining about all of the spilled chalk and excessive tick marks on boulder problems.  I'm not saying chalk doesn't spill or you don't need to tick that key foothold, but please clean up once you are done for the day!  PLEASE!!! I won't know what to do if we lose access to this Adirondack gem!!!!

Post from www.boulderingguides.com


Ethics Alert

May 14, 2012 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments and 0 Reactions Tweet

Quick recap. The past few weeks I took a couple trips up to a couple of the more popular Adirondack bouldering areas. I havent been up there in a long while so it was a trip well due.
I felt many emotions those days (shocked/disgusted/angered/saddened/angry again/loss) none of which I was planning to experience. Bouldering is such a peaceful soul rejuvenating activity, it caught me off guard. So you ask what caused all this.




BAD HORRIBLE ETHICS!


I witnessed things I cannot describe. Tree cutting, landscaping, firepits, climbing related litter, generic litter, unsightly tick marks, blow torching (assumed from finding a torch head behind, again littering), numerous chalk nugget spills not cleaned up again litter, human shit and toilet paper not properly disposed off and the list goes on…


These places were absolute dumps. Places I considered beautiful and magical now disgust me and I didn’t even want to be there. I didn’t care how far I just drove, how excited I was to climb… I was ready to leave.


How could this have happened? Who was responsible and why hasn’t anything been done. This goes out to every boulder who reads this you need to hold yourself and others to the these strict ethics. If you might have forgot what they or are not entirely sure are grab a guidebook and open up to the section called Bouldering Ethics and read until you understand.


Be mindful of your actions out there otherwise these great places will be lost FOREVER.