To my great shame, I have never been to the Adirondacks to climb. Luckily, I will redeem this oversight with a ~9 day trip up there next week. I was wondering if you could help me with:

Route Recommendations

We are basically looking for routes up to mid 11, perferably multi-pitch but some single pitch stuff for more "relaxing" days. I suspect we will mostly want good routes in the 9s and 10s for longer climbs.

What about the new routes that are going up? Anyone have info?

Camping

Thoughts? Whats best? Right now we plan on heading to Poke-O first so we'll most likely stay there.

Town Stuff

Places to eat, stuff to check, gear shop...

Remainder

Anything we should checkout, know of, ...


Thanks for your help!

Ross

It's below the grade you're looking for, but I thought Quadrophenia (5.7 at Hurricaine) was one of the nicest routes I've ever been on.

I only did the first pitch of Fastest Gun (5.10 at Poke-O), which was supposedly 5.9, but it was seriously hard 5.9 and I hear each pitch is harder than the last.

check out Moss Cliff

The Dacks have some great road-side crags and you have recommendations for them above already, but, don't forget that you can get a real feeling of backcountry up there too.

For this, I recommend doing Noonmark. Hike up Noonmark and climb some of or all of the routes on the summit cliff. The Weisner route, for example is 100ish feet of varied 5.8 bliss in a setting that you can NOT beat. Do it on a nice weather day.

You should also do a slide climb. The Trap Dike outing on Mt. Colden his hard to beat. No, it's not fifth class climbing, but, it is something unique to the Adirondack climbing experience. There's lots of rock climbing in Avalanche Pass which you could check out while there- and Avalanche Pass is only one of the most scenic places on the planet....

Places to eat. Dinner- The Baxter Mountain Inn on the way to Elizabethtown from Keene. Breakfast- Cedar Run Bakery on the intersection of 73 and 9 (or is it 9N, I always forget) in Keene. Stop at the Rivermeade farm stand in Keene Valley for fresh product and on Sunday's there is a farmers market at Marcy Field.

I've heard a couple folks say that Fastest Gun is among the best climbs they've ever done...anywhere. You should do a route on the Washbowl cliff at Chapel Pond. You should do something at King Wall. Spend a day on the Beer Walls (do Frosted Mug, among others). Spend a day at Pitchoff and Cascade Lake. Go climb a friction slab (I'd recommend Roger's Rock at Lake George; Slip Tease-Skid Row there is an excellent 58m pitch. Little Finger Direct is just fun-fun-fun)

i agree with dalguard that quadraphenia is an awesome climb. two of my other favorites are the diagonal on wallface and gamesmanship at poko.

you may want to stay a couple of days near poko and then move to the keene valley vicinity as they are not especially close to each other. lake placid is okay for a rest day but nothing super special. the cedar run bakery is wonder and baxter mountain inn pretty good. the climbing is great up there. enjoy!

Hrumph.
You must never have: walked out of Price Chopper on a crystal clear winter day and seen Whiteface in the distance as if it were a chiseled sculpture, paddled up Lake Placid in the thick July morning fog and have had Whiteface reveal itself in all of its grandeur just 30 minutes before arriving at Whiteface Landing, or spent much time browsing old guide books from the past 100 years while inhaling the aroma of various pipe tobaccos at With Pipe and Book, nor stumbled out of the lake placid brewery after nearly freezing to death on the side of Catamount, having a "Colorado" chased down with two pints of UBU, or had fairly priced fine EYETALYUN food at "Charcoal Pit" or surprisingly good mexican at Desperados.

Def. spend a couple of days at poko - right all together are PT Pillar, Gamesmanship, Bloody Mary, Fastest Gun and Green Onion.

I guess you can walk in to Wallface and do a route (you can do in and out in a day, no problem, with days being as long as they are) just to do it - honestly, it's not a place that I feel the need to make a habit of hiking in to, but it's something to experience at least once.

Hurricane has a few nice climbs - Quadraphenia was great; Forever Wild is beautiful.

If you can find directions to Willsboro, there is some one-pitch but very scenic (directly above the lake) climbing there. see, e.g. this photo: http://www.jimlawyer.com/Picture%20-%20WindJammer-LakeChamplain_WH12.htm?picring=2 - a little different than most of the rest of the High Peaks area.

Definitely go to Barkeater Cliffs. There is a lot of (mostly single pitch) stuff there, but some really beautiful climbs. It's nice because it gets away from the roads, which seems to be the problem with most of the other well developed crags in the area. It might be more moderate than what you're looking for though - mostly 5.8-5.10ish. I really liked Eat Yourself a Pie and Mr. Clean in particular.

To really pump yourself silly, go to the Spider's Web. All beautiful overhanging cracks, nothing really much easier than solid 5.8. For easy access, you can't really beat Pitchoff Chimney Cliff, and it's unfortunate that Rt. 73 runs right by it, because there are a lot of really stellar routes there (The El is a mega-classic moderate). I don't know that I'd personally bother with the Beer Walls. I think that there's just so much more that is more scenic - where you really get up and above and get a real feel for the High Peaks - rather than staying down in the canyon.

Honestly there is just soooooooooooooo much rock there that it's hard to recommend anything.

There are plenty of free places to stay besides Poke-O, just check the guide book - though if you're climbing at Poke-O, it'll be easiest to stay there since it is a little bit removed from most of the rest of the climbing in the area. I always recommends dinner at the Carribean Cowboy in Lake Placid, and breakfast is usually good at Cedar Run in Keene (73 and 9N are the same thing through Keene, Strat... Cedar Run is just before the two diverge as the reach the Ausable), although sometimes on weekends it can be slow and disappointing. Generally the disappointing can be avoided by ordering one of the wraps or breakfast sandwiches rather than an omelette... $5 pints of margaritas at Desperados in Lake Placid are also always a good bet.

Gear shop = the Mountaineer in Keene, or EMS in Lake Placid. I may work for the latter, but I'd go to the former.

Actually, it's AFTER the two diverge, coming from south to north.