Endangered Species

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Poko-O-Moonshine – Adirondacks,  NY

01/14/2011
Adirondack Mountainfest 2011

Story Up-Date 1/20/11 from Bayard Russell

True to Mountainfest tradition of establishing new climbs, Bayard Russell, Matt Horner & Matt McCormick established – “Endangered Species” M6+ NEI5+ R. The climb is just to the right of Jeff Lowes legendary line “Gorillas in the Mist”.

“It’s so cool that, after all these years, the Northeast continues to generate some of the most exciting winter climbing in the country” – Dougald MacDonald

The 2 Matts having a go on Gorillas In The Mist. No tools left this time. Photo by Smike

The 2 Matts having a go at Gorillas / Endangered Species earlier that week. No tools left this time. Photo by Smike

We were treated with photos and a video of the ascent Sunday night at Matt McCormick’s slide show.  A very impressive climb by some very motivated and committed climbers. Well done.  See the video..

Matt Hornor,s tools on Gorillas in the Mist. - Photo by Jessew

Matt Horner’s tools on Gorillas in the Mist, 2008. – Photo by Jessew

Many attempts over the years have been made on this section of cliff . Lack of good ice has always blocked the way. Back in 2008,  Matt Horner tried the climb in an after-work ascent where he ended up lowering off his tools in the dark, that was the best anchor he could build in the thin, candled ice (see photo).

See Fifty favorite climbs: the ultimate North American tick list By Mark Kroese  for information on Gorillas in the Mist

The Big Wall section of Poke-O. The thin strip of ice is the new route "Endangered Species" (Horner/McCormick/Russel). Photo by Jim Lawyer

The Big Wall section of Poke-O. The thin strip of ice is the new route “Endangered Species”. Photo by Jim Lawyer

More on the NEice Forum

Source: Matt McCormick, Matt Horner, Bayard Russell, NEice Forum, Facebook & Climbing.com

Story Up-Date 1/20/11

 

“There are a couple of things that we did do, and a couple of things that we didn’t do; here’s the deal” – Bayard Russell


Hydropower M9 WI5-

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

Video by Ryan Stefiuk of Bigfoot Mountain Guides

Read more about “Hydropower” and the Catskills Ice Fest 2010

The Bossman

The Bossman

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Bayard Russell & Matt McCormick

were crushing it in the “Dacks” during Mountainfest

True to Mountainfest tradition of establishing new climbs, Matt McCormick and Bayard Russell opened up “The Bossman” (M9) on the High Falls Crag in Wilmington Notch. This section of cliff had repelled some of the best ice climbers in North America recently, including Maxime Turgeon, LP Menard and Steve House.

“The Bossman (M9, 3 pitches) follows a single, continuous crack for 230 feet. The first pitch climbs technical, steep terrain on turf shots and thin pick torques. Pitch 2 contains the crux, an extremely reachy move with chickenscratch for feet. The last, short pitch corkscrews behind a minor icicle then “worms out” onto the ice” – Matt McCormick

“I whined a little bit starting the first pitch, on unbonded thin ice, but pounded a specter hook in some turf and muckled up onto a ledge anyway” – Bayard Russell

See Alpinist.com for more on this climb and Bayards blog Cathedral Style

More on Matt and Bayard – Astro Turff / The Painted Wall Icicle / Strippers

Strippers!

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Josh Hurst about to fire the FA of “Strippers” Frankenstein Cliff, Crawford Notch NH. – Bayard Russell

“it was impressive, the final roof suiting his style of climbing – extra burly pull-ups”

-Bayard Russell

The route is between Cocaine and the Wrath of the Valkyrie.

Read more at Cathedral Mountain Guides

Source: Bayard Russell

The Painted Wall Icicle

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M9 WI 5+

FA – 1/6/10  Bayard Russell – Peter Doucette, Kevin Mahoney & Doug Madara
Peter Doucette following the ice pitch. The first pitch climbs overhanging rock from the right.  The icicle was in unusually fat condition  1/6/10

Peter Doucette following the ice pitch. The first pitch climbs overhanging rock from the right.  The icicle was in unusually fat condition  1/6/10

russellKevinM

1/6/10 – Climbing guide Bayard Russell has succeeded on the first ascent of a stunning mixed climb on the Painted Wall, Kancamagus Highway NH.  This climb has seen numerous attempts over the last few years but this week every thing came together for Bayard.

Read the full story on Bayard’s blog – Cathedral Style

Source: Bayard Russell

Photos by Bayard Russell & Kevin Mahoney 

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Silent Spring

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The Bethel Crag

by Josh Hurst / Photos by Eric Eisele and Ian Austin
Josh on Slient Spring

Josh on Silent Spring

Finally got the job done!  Super psyched! We called it Silent Spring, M12

The real praise goes to Ian who was a patient driver and belayer for the 4 days of redpoint attempts and 3 days needed to equip the route.  He never bitched once about the 3-mile approach, would never let me break trail and was always full of encouragement.

Training all fall and winter paid off- just in time!  Silent Spring feels harder than the current routes in the Cathedral Cave and is way more powerful.  It’s a combination of precise, technical feet and super burly power.  I was tearing muscle every time I tried it and could only take 2 tries per day before being totally wiped-out.  I would then hurt for the next 2 days.  A week after sending it my obliques and lats still hurt.  I’ve learned that you don’t just train for strength, but mentally for the pain associated with a pitch like this.  The route is 110′ long and overhangs 45′.  It’s 14 bolts, 1 cam and a screw.  The ice was getting beaten by the sun so I dropped a rope with a draw on it to protect the ice.Josh on Silent Spring

Silent Spring starts on a thin slab to a stance where you look out horizontally past 8 draws hanging above the valley.  You torque out a flake system to the lip, the crux, where your feet lead above you.  Once around the lip it’s M8 to the hanger, characterized by big moves on an overhanging wall.  My first go the day I sent I got the crux move for the first time and then dropped my tool- it took a 250′ fall into the trees.  Ian rapped down to get it while I took a rest.  Ice was crashing down around us and I knew that this was the last burn of the season ssJosh03no matter what.  When Ian returned, tool in hand, I turned it on and got the job done!  The funny thing was one of my front points was really loose so I couldn’t get the needed heel toe rest after the crux so was left to improvise the M8 moves, then ‘rested’ my way up the final 30′ of M7 to the top.  Usually, the ice is the easy part but even it overhung 2′!  The whole time I was thinking about Jim Ewing’s advise on how to get up hard routes- ‘JUST DON’T LET GO!’  YeeHaa!!!

Josh

Moody Aunt Ruby

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Lake Willoughby, VT

Moody Aunt Ruby (WI 6 R/X, 110M) – Will Mayo, Joe Szot & Ian Boyer
MoodyAuntRuby

Photo by Doug Millen

Across the Lake on Mt. Hor, Joe Szot, Ian Boyer and I climbed the ethereal yellow icicles that hang from those compact limestone cliffs today, 12/13/2005, naming the route. Arriving at the base of the cliff with the temperature not much above zero and racking up above the southward rolling fog along the surface of the open waters below after having traversed the entire south end of the Lake, I realized that I had left the rock rack in the Flying Brick (my van).  I asked the boys with a straight face, “Okay, who’s got the rock rack?”  But, they knew the mistake was mine.  My punishment was to lead the thing with only ice gear, which made things rather run-out. The first 60M pitch was the crux and involves a hollow vertical column of ice to a ramp to attain the golden double-tiered free-hanging icicles that hang above.  These daggers of ice were the cruxes and required launching up gymnastically onto the hangers with gear well below.  Joe Szot climbed the 50M WI 5 second pitch up mushroomed ice to a tier of free-standing columns and reached the trees.   Moody Aunt Ruby was climbed on-sight in “ground up” style and was yet another in a string of phenomenally exciting days of ice climbing with close friends.  Moody Aunt Ruby is definitely one of the most exciting ice climbs I have ever done.

-Will Mayo

NOTE: This Route is Reportedly to have been climbed before by either Barry Blanchard or Kurt Winkler. The information is unclear and no details are available at this time.

Premature Birth

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Poke-O-Moonshine – Adirondacks, NY

“Premature Birth” WI5, M6 – Joe Szot & Ian Boyer

Joe Szot established this new line right of Mid-Life Crisis just before the sixth annual Adirondack MountainFest. With little ice around Joe was definitely working out side the box, or in his case shall we say the cage. He and Ian Boyer rappelled down to the ledge for the first ascent of “Premature Birth” WI5, M6. Midlife Crisis, another Szot test piece to the left was first established in this same way since the ice rarely reaches the ground. True to form Joe gave it what I believe is an understated rating of WI5, M6. On Friday Jim Shimberg and Will Mayo cleaned up the line by climbing the first pitch of Discord and then used the Garter traverse to reach the climb. Shimberg said “it felt like we were climbing 5.12, the gear was truck! What a great climb”.

Photo: Premature Birth is the broken ice line on the right – Photo by Doug Millen