Karla and I just returned home from an awesome trip to Rumney and North Conway, New Hampshire. The weather was perfect and the climbing was sensational.
Day 1: Climbed 16 routes (sport and trad) at Rumney at the Darth Vader Crag, Waimea Wall, Triple Corners, and Jimmy Cliff. There were not many climbers there on Friday, but the ones we did meet were super friendly. The friction on the wavy schist was phenomenal and the climbs were well bolted with many large glue-in eyebolts. The grades felt a little soft and we onsighted nearly everything we touched (except for a very bouldery 5.12 that took a couple of tries).
Day 2: Climbed 4 easy routes at Rumney (The Meadows Area and the Parking Lot Cliff). Then went BOULDERING. The Pound Boulders had an ideal approach and a few scary highballs. We took lots of great photos then drove to the badass trad area: North Conway!
Day 3: Climbed a long and wild 10 pitch runout route at White Horse. None of the pitches were less than 100 feet. After only 4-5 pitches we were already looking down onto Cathedral Ledge and enjoying a spectacular view of the White Mountains. This place was SERIOUSLY sandbagged and all but two pitches had incredible runouts (sometimes an entire rope length). The 5.11? crux of our route was a delicate and balancy friction traverse 6 pitches up with terrible pro. I just imagined I was on a V4 water groove at Horse Pens, trusted that my feet would not slip and set a goal on getting to a crack another 40' up that I could use to place some pro and build a belay. A couple of easy pitches we even rope-soloed and belayed from a single 1/4" rusted bolt or ancient piton.
Finding the mile and a half descent trail from the summit was the best part. We decided we didn't want to climb any more runout multi-pitch slabs this year. The next day we went to Boston and walked the historic Freedom Trail and saw my great uncle's grave: John Hancock.
Anyway, we'll post some pictures soon and get back to work at Muir now.
Wild Runouts on New Hampshire Granite
Wild Runouts on New Hampshire Granite
"Those iron spikes you use have shortened the life expectancy of the Totem Pole by 50,000 years."
--A Navaho elder
--A Navaho elder
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squeezindlemmon
- Posts: 1452
- Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 7:02 pm
No, no, no Sandy. You HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO climb the slabs of Whitehorse. It'll be a once in a lifetime experience (although you might swear against climbing any slabs at all for the rest of your life).
I'll post pics here ASAP but I dunno if I can top Wes' pics of NRG..... hmmm....
Oh and Sandy, pm me, I have LOTS of suggestions where you can stay (key word cheap).
I'll post pics here ASAP but I dunno if I can top Wes' pics of NRG..... hmmm....
Oh and Sandy, pm me, I have LOTS of suggestions where you can stay (key word cheap).
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our mind. ~Bob Marley
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I love climbing at Cathedral and Whitehorse. The routes I did there weren't too bad in terms of runout. You should check out Canon, that is some scary stuff. You must have found the "good" ones at Whitehorse!
"But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?" – Lord Byron
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squeezindlemmon
- Posts: 1452
- Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 7:02 pm
Btw, we met this very friendly guide named Bill who rappelled a pitch to retrieve a tcu that 'our party' dropped (I won't mention who dropped said cam 
). Told him to check out Muirvalley.com and redriverclimbing.com.... Bill, if you read this, sorry we lost you during the 6-10th pitch... we do still owe you beer for the gear. So PM me for the payback. And thanks again.
). Told him to check out Muirvalley.com and redriverclimbing.com.... Bill, if you read this, sorry we lost you during the 6-10th pitch... we do still owe you beer for the gear. So PM me for the payback. And thanks again.Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our mind. ~Bob Marley
