These are photos from two February day-trips into Wallface Mt. in the Adirondacks, NY.

The Case Route (5.3)
The Case route is basically a roped scramble in the summer, we did it as a "warm up" for Diagonal - to get a sense of how long the approach took and such. But conditions were rather 'full-on' and it turned out to be more than that.

I pulled an all-nighter Thursday night before driving up on Friday (sleep deprivation sucks, kids); plus we drove up in an ice storm. I got the parking lot at 3am. Kyle was supposed to sleep in the back of my car with me, but I arrived late and he resorted to “plan B.”



The three of us left the parking lot at about 5am.



The forecasted temps were somewhere in the 30’s, but on the wall it felt a lot colder with plenty of fog and wind.



The storm coated everything in a few centimeters of verglas. Not enough to get an honest tool or crampon stick in, but enough to make everything too damn slick to really hang onto. Also, the pro was real hard to find.

This is me on the first 5.0 pitch. I took a ground fall from about 8-10 feet up (!!) when testing my limit of adhesion to verglas; I made another attempt and then backed down. Kyle took over and with a point of aid got us off the ground.





The summer crux is a move of 5.3 on the second-to-last pitch. For us that wasn’t so bad; it only required a bit of gear yanking and a good tool stick. We thought the crux was the 5.1 third-to-last pitch. Here Leslie works out the moves.



We only had one tool each, which added to the difficulties. I know it doesn’t look it from the photos, but keep in mind that everything is completely covered in about 1-2cm of clear ice. Simply put, there was no friction on any surface, which made the climbing very tenuous and insecure.





Here I am finishing off the second-to-last pitch.





A shot of your narrator feeling kinda cold and tired. What with the all-nighter Thursday night, the crappy storm-conditions drive up and the alpine start, by the time we made it back to the car I had gotten about 7-ish hours of sleep in 58 hours.



Looking up the last pitch


Diagonal (5.8)

About two weekends later Kyle and I went back and did “Diagonal.” Conditions were much better: It was colder (forecast for the parking lot = -10F to 15F), but with sun and no wind. This time we also brought two tools each.

Here are two shots of Wallface at the end of the day.





We started at 3am this time, and found that someone had already broken trail to the base of the wall sometime in the past few days (big thanks to whomever that was!). We reached the base of the wall before dawn and stopped to brew up, put on more layers, and figure out where the route started.



We simul-climbed to the top of the ramp in one long pitch, and then belayed the last two pitches normally.



Kyle reaching the top of the ramp





Pretty Mountains…





The last two pitches were climbed with a mix of free, aid, and ice moves.







Me finishing up the last pitch.



And we’re at the top!



Rapping…. We made it back to the car just as the sun set.

Dude that first day sounded epic. I thought the first pic was a haul sled until I read the TR.

NICE TR and great pics (and giv'er attitude). One of the best things I've seen on this site in a while. 5.3 verglas plain sucks (but fun in its own twisted way). Loved the 'hug the block' pic. Dale

Holy crap that is awesome. I have done Diagonal in the fall and thaught it was a great route. Right on with a full winter ascent.

Nice job--sounds like a couple great days! Way to find something off the beaten track.

Way to put us roadside winter cragging weenies to shame! Thanks for the trip report and photos.

Strong work!

Thank you for letting us take a peek into Mr. Rodgers neighborhood, absolutely fantastic.

Awesome reports, great pics!!

I suspect it was Joe & the boys who broke the trail for you the second time around, depending on what day it was. They went in last Thursday (I think)

Anyway, good on you for getting two routes in. Awesome.