Hydropower M9 WI5-

February 24th, 2010

Possibly the hardest mixed route in the Catskills

FA Matt McCormick 2/22/10

“On my first attempt of the day on the new route I made it all the way to the ice before elbowing my ice tool out of a hook while clipping! AAAHHHH! I couldn’t believe it. I had the route in the bag only to knock my own tool off the route!

After climbing 90+ feet of drytooling to get there it was hard to motivate to get back on but I rallied and sent on the next try. After pulling onto the icicle I moved above the attachment point and fired in a screw about 3/4 of the way when a high powered stream of water cam shooting out the back of the screw! I had never had this happen to me and was startling to say the least. I moved quickly to avoid being totally drenched and climbed to the trees to top out the line” – Matt McCormick.

Read all about the FA and more Catskills action on Matt McCormick’s Blog

Video by Ryan Stefiuk of Bigfoot Mountain Guides

4 Responses to “Hydropower M9 WI5-”

Scott Grimes:

February 25, 2010 at 11:03 am

Nice job on the climb and the video too
gaetan:

February 25, 2010 at 11:29 pm

hi, do you think it is still in good conditions ?
enough hard lines for five days ?
thank you for answers.
gaetan
Bob Otten:

March 2, 2010 at 12:20 pm

I’m glad to see that someon of real talent has finally found a way up that section of the wall. It has been a point of distraction that all the tat and gear has sat dormant for so long. Well done Matt M. and Ryan S. Lets all be thoughtfull and spartan in the deployment of fixed gear. There are signs of unneccesary proliferation of it elsewhere. We risk jeopardizing our priveledge to climb in these pristine places should these places start to look like climbing gyms. Good thinking to rap and remove lose blocks. Kudos to both of you.

Bob Otten
shim:

March 7, 2010 at 6:24 pm

McCormickini you are da man