Hogwarts

After a three week absence from climbing due to awful, awful weather conditions and other reasons outside my control, I finally took another trip to Hogwarts with Adam. I had taken a trip up there a few weeks back, but feet of snow remained in the woods, and we left with nothing to show besides frozen toes and shoes soaked for days.This time, after weeks of rain and warm weather, I knew conditions would be different.

With leaves beginning to show on the trees, and no snow cover at all, the whole area had a different feel. The feel always associated with a boulderfield that has been largely untouched. We quickly found interest in one of the first boulders you approach upon entering Hogwarts. The face is lightly overhung, with strange, patina features and flakes. The sequence is hard. Really hard. And we're not quite sure how it goes yet.

Right now, it seems like a poor heel hook right off of the jug start, strenuous bump moves with the right hand, and a left fall into an incut crack. The top-out is slopey, and the problem will be incredibly classic.

Wanting to not get stuck at one problem, we moved towards another boulder, only to find that the sloped top made it terribly difficult to clean. After disappointment at that rock, we moved towards a face that had caught our eye on our first visit. Crimpy sidepulls and pinches up a lightly overhung, pinkish rock make for an incredibly aesthetic problem. We quickly cleaned off the top, then began trying the moves from the bottom.

The crux for me is the first move. A balancey, thrutchy bump from a poor, poor right hand crimp/pinch (crinch? pimp?) and a left hand incut sidepull. For Adam, the crux revolved around a second thrutchy right hand bump move to another positive crimp sidepull higher up. I almost sent once, but couldn't find the right feet to get to the top.

After destroying ourselves on go after go, we got a little visit from the landowner's son and his friends. They were totally friendly and perfectly fine with us climbing there, the kid mentioned that he had done his fair share of climbing by the cliff as well.

We were too tired to send the problem, but it will definitely go on our next visit.

Overall, I was dissappointed with the spot. Everything there feels hard, and the stuff that isn't has not been very good. There are just less problems than originally thought. I would prefer Gnarnia to Hogwarts.

I'm working on a post about the best "Adirondack Projects" but need some help. Any ideas on the best projects in the dacks?

Pictures later from Hogwarts.


-WB