The Back Story
A couple weeks ago I ventured out to ‘The Gunks” with Paradox Sports. That trip went pretty horribly. I ended up getting sick before I even got to climb and drove the 7 hours all the way home. I did get to see friends I hadn’t seen in a long time and it was a pretty drive though. One of those friends happens to be the National Program Director for Paradox Sports. Dom and I actually met at a paradox training before he came to the team.
The Idea
Last week Dom suggested we meet up in Rumney New Hampshire so that I could at least get some climbing in. Without friends taking me to amazing places to climb, it can be very difficult to get any climbing. The terrain on the east coast and in most climbing areas really make it quite difficult if not close to impossible to get to a climb by myself. You may say “but wait! , “Enock you always say you can do anything.” You are right. I could still get to the climbs by myself but it would take hours if not days of grueling hauling of gear, possible crawling, and most likely injuries. So to avoid all that I call on friends for some help to expedite the situation and make things a bit less risky. Well less risk until I actually get to the climb at least. Climbing without some risk would be pretty boring.
Barn Door Hostel
Dom got together a couple more friends. Brigette who I actually met in Yosemite and Dave who owns the Barn Door Hostel in Rumney. Side note if you ever go to Rumney or near Rumney you should stay there. It is very accessible at least it was for me and is a beautifully put together place. There are 2 full bedrooms downstairs and upstairs is a unique place to stay. There are hammocks upstairs. I thought that was a really cool idea. You can check it out for yourself here..
Unfortunately, Dom had to work on what was looking like the best day of the week so we ended up climbing on Wednesday. It was during a rather blustery, rainy, cold day. I really can not say how appreciative I am that they all put in the effort first to get me to the climb but also standing around basically waiting for me to get done in the cold rain. At least I was moving and working so I was warm. They had to have been cold and tortured. I just realized that doesn’t sound like helping me climb is very fun. So any of my friends that would like to help me go climbing ignore that and we will go on better weather days.
The Climb Before The Climb
Getting to the climb was actually a bit less horrible than we expected. Not to say it didn’t take a lot of effort. The hike starts out easy just going along the paved road until we got to the trailhead. This is where the type 2 fun begins haha. The trail starts out with a set of steps and is quite steep leading to other sets of steps. I am quite good at picking alternative routes around things so with a little observation we were able to circumvent these obstacles and make our own path. Once we got close to the climbing area it was a matter of figuring out how to actually get on the climb. With my trusty Labonville climbing chaps to protect me I simply hopped out my chair and climbed up onto a flat rock to prepare for the climb.
About The Route
The climb is a pretty close to vertical crack about 30 feet tall. Even if you don’t climb you should hike up just to see this rock, There is an amazing feature running through it that looks like a waterfall but is actually rock. They say when you do a first adaptive ascent you get to rename the route. So I wanted to call this one Waterfall Wizardry.
I don’t have enough cams in my rack yet to complete the climb so I borrowed some from Dom. More about that later haha. I did the climb on top rope. This means that I was tied into a rope that was attached to the belayer, AKA Dom. with a belay device. This way if any of my gear popped out of the crack I wasn’t going to fall very far and had very little risk of the other gear popping and letting me fall to the ground. I decided to do it this way just to get some practice placing gear. I also wanted to figure out if I could actually lead this crack before I truly try to lead it.
Climbing The Route
My first ascent of the crack was all about figuring out what gear I needed to get to the top and where to place it. There aren’t any beta books for things like this when you are the first one to try it. So its a lot of try this cam and try again if it doesn’t fit. The start of the climb takes a fair number of smaller cams and then after about 10 feet it becomes alternating between the same 2 or 3 cams over and over. This made the climbing a lot faster. The second attempt went way faster and smoother since I knew exactly what I needed. I also figured out that If I did a one armed pull up on the gear I already placed, I could get a lot more reach for my next gear placement. This made it possible to get a good 3 to almost 4 feet on some of my placements. The pull ups also served as a way to test if my placement was solid or as we climbers like to say Bomber!
Oh I almost forgot to get back to that hint I made about borrowing Dom’s gear. Unfortunately on my second ascent one of my gear placements worked its way into the crack and as hard as I tried there was no getting that cam back from the crack. The cam happened to be Dom’s.
So if anyone wants a cam there is a black one in Black Jack Crack.
A Future Dream Is Possible?
I once told Timmy O’ Neill I wanted to climb Moonlight Buttress in Zion National Park by myself. He joked that it would take years to do that at an adaptive pace. I actually wondered if he might not be far off at the time. After doing this though I think I could potentially do at least 1 to 2 pitches a day. Of course that climb would involve a lot of other things like hauling food water and everything else I needed so maybe 1 pitch a day is possible. Which means it would theoretically take about 12 days or so for Moonlight Buttress.
Ending The Day
Getting out from the climb was a much different story. We chose a different route back to the road. It was more direct but much steeper. For the safety of everyone I scooted on my but protected by my Labonville chaps for the last half of the journey. It was actually really easy to do it that way albeit very wet and cold haha. For me it was well worth the sufferfest. I can;t wait to go back and get on the sharp end and lead the crack properly.
Leave a Reply