Just a heads up to everyone, the long awaited "Adirondack Rock" guidebook by Jim Lawyer & Jeremy Haas is at the printers and can be ordered now in time for the upcoming season:

http://www.adirondackrock.com/

(If you don't get a website with colour photos, refresh your browser page!)

Wow...photos to drool over.

I don't get "colour" photos with my browser...? Is the site available with color photos?

wow, just ordered mine. Thanks for the hard work, and the cool website.

yes dill it is. i can't wait.

All you dumbasses need a new guidebook to climb? What's wrong with the old green guide? Hey, send me 35 dollars, I'll tell ya exactly where to go to stick your hand in a crack.

RR

P.S. Man I'm feeling fiesty this morning

Holly Sh*t, how about , you give us your 'great' beta, and if we live, you send us the $35 clams...

So I think you owe me at least a buck five at this point!

I ordered mine.

From what i've seen of the Beta version last summer, this will be what I think of as the standard for guidebooks for the next few years. You know, when you're visiting a new area, and you're like, well, this guidebook to XYZ sucks, because it didn't come with .pdfs I could print of all the main cliffs -- i wish J&J had done this one too!

Dude you haven't died...yet. My beta is spot on! Was that a red or gold camalot you didn't have????

RR

gold.

someone mention color photos and Adirondacks. well this thread deserves some photos

this went snap the next day

Just ordered mine. Awesome gallery.

a stormy Avalanche lake

I can't remember a winter visit to Avalanche Lake when it didn't look stormy, or at least blowing 45 knots. Nice shot and thanks for the memory.

I'll be up there this weekend with Smike... Hopefully we'll have some shots of it to post up next week!

talus, i generally hate empty landscape shots, but your dacks1.jpg shot is awesome.

And thanks for the shivers from Avalanche lake! I've never seen it in the sun...

thanks crakers.

dill hopefully you & smike don't have to break trail. getting icy up there now

RR -RED damiit RED!

John , awesome shots! Is that one with a 10.5 fish eye?

Awesome shots there!

thanks guys. photo of drop fly or die is w/ 10.5 fish.

I just remembered a surreal lunch, sitting on the ice of Avalanche Lake about 30 years ago. Having been out for a few very windy days and hitting below -35F at least two of the nights, we were greated on the way out through Marcy Dam with a cold but near windless day. Lunch was consumed in t-shirts even though my little thermometer still read -10F, but we were quite warm with not a cloud to be seen. The pressure cracks were really popping in the ice and a huge one went right under me. The first and only time I could feel the ice crack like that despite many years out on frozen lakes. Felt like a completely different place compared to other visits there. Sorry for the ramble, but a photo sure can bring back memories.

John Try downloading and running the fish eye images through this:

http://www.imagetrendsinc.com/products/prodpage_hemi.asp

It's the most pleasing natural de-fish I've found with out stretching the crap out of the corners

Great Range


Two whippers at the King Wall

2 whippers you must be a pro dog lady

cool photos Aya. post some more

Cure Cottage


Washbowl


Chapel Pond Slabs


Avalanche Lake approach


Slim Pickens


Cobble Hill

Nice shot of Tommy at Baker...that multi-ton block he's hanging onto is cammed in by about 1" of surface. Pretty amazing feature.

Did you guys actually climb on the Banana Belt (in your second photo)?

So Jim, did the words "Death Block" get replaced by "Pretty amazing feature"?

Another Tommy and the Death Block

Yikes! Hard to believe that no one has trundled that block yet. Looks like a gust of wind would send it.

Yeah kind of scary. I didn't want to place any gear behind it for fear that I'd fall and slide it out sideways!!!! It's a nice little spot for an afternoon up there.

Yes we climbed at the Banana Belt, but one of the routes (El Nino, I think) we did differently than described in the book. Instead of going up and right to a spike of rock, we went straight over a little roof and continued up the corner.

actually, I should say "they", as I was out of commission due to my back and was barely able to make the walk up to the cliff.

Considering some of the ice daggers that Tommy is willing to ride, I doubt that chunk of rock bothered him much. I wonder what other Adirondack toddering death blocks, and pointy summits we could begin to list here:
Anyone climb the tower atop Chimney Mountain?

Jim, do you have a picture of Lucie atop Rickety Pinnacle?

Walking beneath Pitchoff Chimney Cliff, or the Poke-O Nose gives me the willies......

JHaas

I found this stack at the start of the second pitch of Whoops at the Upper Washbowls a little disconcerting...

i can remember climbing Summer Solstice with jim damon a zillion years ago. i laughed last time i looked for it!

yeah the nose will end up on the northway some day. great cliff that poco - one of the finest anywhere imho.

look forward to the guidebook - i know it will be super / fantastic stuff up north

Aya,
I know those blocks (on Whoops)! The first time I took Erika to the Washbowl, what did we climb? No it wasn't the classic Partition or the high-quality Overture, rather it was Whoops and BBC. All in the good name of guidebook fieldwork. She learned a good deal about obstacle avoidance on some of the choss pitches. The worst part of Whoops P2 is having to step off of loose blocks and onto unprotected rock, agreed?

Felix,
Meschinelli assures us that the Nose is keyed in there really well. When was the last time you saw some one climb it? I knew a guy, when I lived in Colorado, that soloed the Sky Traverse! Begging to be climbed and I'm going to be real disappointed in myself if I don't pony up before she falls off Poke-o.

Definitely the worst part. I stepped up a couple of times, but couldn't commit to the transfer of balance onto my right foot without pro, so I ended up coming down and letting Joe lead it. He's a magician with RPs and managed to finagle something marginal and another something marginal.

It was a funny day. We went up there looking to get away from the crowds (it was a Sunday, which is always a late start day for us because I usually don't get in until late on Saturdays and take a couple three beers to unwind!) and thought we'd head up there. There were at least 4 other parties there, and I think another one or two a couple pitches up on various things. It was like a 30-degree-saturday-afternoon-in-the-Canyon crowded... After noting parties starting up on Partition, Overture, Green Beer, and Butterflies are Free, we said hey, let's do Whoops. Eh. someone had gotten on it while we were walking back from Overture. So we said screw it, we'll sit and wait for Partition. So we did. And we sat too far away, because ten minutes later, after we saw the party on it a safe distance ahead, we walked over to find a couple racking up at the base.

Apparently the leader on Whoops was a new leader (?????) and was reaaally slow so we ended up climbing some grungy corner to the left of it and the right of Partition. It was pretty bad. The second pitch of Whoops started with that block pile and then didn't get a whole lot better in terms of bomber pro, as I recall... I seem to remember telling Joe that I was pretty unimpressed with his route, really!!!

I'll tell you what freaks me out: Seneca. Like the whole entire cliff. Seriously. Like if I rap from the top I'm going to lever it too much and send it all toppling over into the stream. Shudder.

I love Seneca!

so when's the deal w/ Silver Lake? i take it SL will not be in the book

It's not in the table of contents:

http://www.adirondackrock.com/TableOfContents.pdf

Appendix C

Correct -- Silver Lake is still off limits. I took aerial photos of the place, and there's about 4 Poke-Os worth of climbing, maybe more.

Regarding choss, the Adirondacks has more than it's share. However, it's not all bad. I have fond memories of climbing the second pitch of Weekend Warrior with Dennis Luther, and the choss added an extra element of adventure and fun. Watching Flex Luther boulder over an unprotected 5.10 bulge was a special treat.

...Or The Cooler at Poke-O, jungle pulling and runout jamming up a corner (that's right, the jam crack flares in the back and doesn't take pro), and a lichen-covered wall with a wedged death torpedo on P3. All very memorable, perhaps more so because of the choss.

It would be fun to create a list of the "BEST of the Choss", or the "Chossiest Routes You Want To Do." Certainly these two routes are on my list.

For research/history fans, I compiled a bibliography of Adirondack Rock Climbing. Very obscure stuff, and really hard to find.

http://www.AdirondackRock.com/bibliography.htm

Jim

Jim, Were you able to find out what year Weissner did the FA on the Noonmark Weissner route?
Sam

I never did find that out. Here are a few of the big Dacks mysteries:

* When did Wiessner climbed the Noonmark routes? The only evidence that he did these is documented in Healy's guides, but there is no other written account that backs this up.

* Who climbed the routes on Chapel Pond Slab, and when. All we know is that members of the ACC did these.

* When did Wiessner & Austin climb the Old Route on Hurricane?

* Who did the REAL first ascent of the Diagonal? Pitons were reported by every party.

* What route did Baldwin take up Wallface in 1920? This would be one of the earliest known roped climbed. Baldwin went on to climb in NH on Cannon with some well-known names (including, coincidentally, Betty Woolsey).

* Where are the 2 routes that Burton talks about on Wallface, done by Peter Gabriel (no, not the rock star)? This was pre-Diagonal times. Gabriel was a real star for the times with many FAs in Alaska with the likes of Bates and Washburn.

I dug pretty deep and talked to all the old timers that are still living, but came up empty handed on both counts. It will take more investigation. Perhaps the second edition...

Jim

did it ship did it ship anybody got it anybody got theirs did it ship ...

Havn't seen it yet, but my paypal account was charged yesterday, so they're probably on the way!

Mine ships/shipped today

Yeah, I got a shipping notice a few minutes ago. Awesome!

I can't wait to use mine this weekend. I just hope the weather cooperates. Of course, in the end we'll probably end up at the Web because it's so easy, and the guidebook won't get used, but oh well!

Ditto - I'm psyched! Hoping to put it to use for a couple of days during my U.S. visit this summer...

for anyone interested, rock & snow has these in stock as of this afternoon

just got mine! it's still warm and you can still smell the glue! and now...back to the glue.

Might be the most dense guide I've ever picked up in terms of weight to size. Lots to do up there. Can't wait.

And if anyone needs a house to rent whilst exploring the High Peaks rock routes, let me know.

yeah its tough being special, mine was autographed

Quick take on it:

The effort and time put into this guide by Hass and Lawyer is truly evident. 1st rate and extremely detailed and organized. This thing reads like a master encyclopedia on routes in all area’s of the Dacks. (Index is by route name, so if you know the name you don’t have to know what cliff its on)

It IS the fattest and largest guide book in the NorthEast, (and would give even the largest of guides anywhere else a run for the money) Hardly any filler anywhere, just routes, pages and pages of them. In fact 670 pages. Maybe only 30 of them bouldering.

The ratings seem to be aligned on a few routes to more with Yosemite standards then the old school Dacks sandbags.

Only one eyebrow raiser in casual arm chair climbing mode, is the numerous “G” gear rated routes. (my *rough* guess it seems like over 60% of the routes get the nod for “G”.) Although Lawyer and Hass do mark where a route is “G” at the grade and R – X elsewhere.

Examples:
Such as Teddy’s Trauma 5.7- G (5.4 R) or Space Walk 5.9 G (5.7 X)

Well the legacy of confusion and mystery of climbing in the Adirondacks for the most part seem to be abated, but even armed with this mega detailed guide, the Adirondacks will still be able to deliver a true adventure in all sense of the word. Plus this thing is soooo heavy you may end of leaving it at the car most times and relying on a few photo copies or scribbled notes to make you way up through the tangled confusion of cliffs and awesome wilderness.

Note that the author's have made all of the topo's included in the book available for download - a great gesture which I hope isn't abused. Not to mention the books use of GPS coords and a downloadable KML for use with g-maps/earth. Incredible job guys!

Props to the fellas.

Mine was waiting when I got home last night. Not bad for an overseas order. On first flip-through it looks awesome!

Only the multipitch cliff topos, shakesalot, but cool either way. Elvis, if you want me to autograph p 290 of yours let me know

Excellent... will def increase the value - then I'll sell it on eBay

The back and front covers are starting to flake and peel lamination along the edges. And that was only a 30 minute ride on Metro North.

The content is great but I'm wondering how well the covers are going to hold out.

Maybe if you weren't sweating so much while reading all the route descriptions...

Try keeping a towel or chalk bag handy!

Here's another little goodie -- an index of people.

http://www.adirondackrock.com/goodies/PeopleIndex.pdf

Obviously it's the caustic air of those Metro North trains. (I rode New Haven to Stamford for about a year.)

It was in my pack the whole time...

It looks like a poor job of lamination. If you take the back of your fingernail and run it across the cover with a little pressure, the lamination will come away from the paper, taking some of the underlying image with it. Not that we can do much about it, but I don't think it's going to last too long.

kewl - some familiar names in there to be sure

Mostly a bump for what appears to be a great guide. I can't wait to use it!

It's very good... But there is ONE HUGE problem with it!

And that is choosing which area or climb to do! There are simply too many!

My two cents much better than the old guide book used it this past weekend and thought it was the cats meowwwww

There is a rumor that it's getting reprinted already. So I guess the first edition sure didn't last too long!

Edit - oops, I should have read a little more, apparently others are having the same problem with the lamination


My original, hasty post:
Anybody else have problems with the cover finish "cracking"? The cover is bent from being open, but there seems to be a clear coating on it that isn't holding up well at all. Hopefully it won't end up flaking off.

Just took my first trip to the Dacks last weekend, and while the rain really sucked, the area itself was amazing. The new guidebook got us to some crags that dry out quickly and that we were actually able to climb comforably on.

As for the guidebook, if I can offer one piece of advice for the second edition (or for the website): overview maps of each of the 11 regions (or maybe just for Lake Champlain, Chapel Pond, Keene, Wilmington Notch and High Peaks?). Cliffs within 10 mins of each other ended up 100 pages apart in the book (i.e., Beer Walls vs. Deadwater), which made it difficult for us newcomers to find other (possibly drier) options nearby. The main overview map in the beginning of the book doesn't really help as the cluster of red dots around Keene/Keene Valley is indistinguishable.

That being said, the book is remarkable in its detail and once we decided on a particular cliff, the directions were accurate and straightforward. The topos and/or descriptions of the routes were great as well. It's always fun reading the history of the development of the cliffs.

Thanks to the authors for their hard work.

Chapter overview maps have been requested before, and I think it's a really good idea. We'll see what can be done here. Perhaps something can be put online to supplement the other area maps in the book. The 2"-high overview map in each chapter head serves no purpose other than to orient you where the chapter fits in the overall park. The scatter plot on page 5 is for showing roughly how climbing is distributed within the park, not for actual cliff identification.

As for putting cliffs next to each other, well, in a way they are, but even so it's simply not possible to get every cliff next to every other cliff. For Chapel Pond Pass, we organized cliffs by parking area for exactly the purpose you mentioned -- so you can find other cliffs without having to move your car. As for them being 100 pages apart...well, there's a lot of cliffs and routes. Bummer that. :-)

Jim

Is this what you are looking for? It's a multi-page PDF, with one page for each section of the park, with all (or nearly all) of the cliffs labeled.

Also, you might want to check out this cool use of Google maps. This isn't anything new, and is described on the book web site.

Jim

So, however long it's been since the book came out, I just want to observe that I think I've seen fewer people climbing than I have in the past. This is probably a combination of other people going to new places, as well as going to new places myself. Sure, I'd probably have gotten to them eventually, but it's been a lot more enticing with the guidebook.

Went up to the Courthouse on Sunday and I totally recommend it, especially if you can get up there in the next week or so, because the trees are TOTALLY peaking and it's a really amazing year for color. Owl's Head would be another awesome place to go. I wish I wasn't trapped down here in the finger lakes

I can recommend Owl's Head as an AWESOME fall location! Thanks to Strat... Who took a group of us there one year...

Funny how life situations and perspectives differ. I've been trying to plan a trip there for 2 years

I assume you mean stuck in the "I'm studying 23 hours a day and there is no climbing nearby" sense of stuck.

TS

Studying? Who's studying?
I just can't afford the gas every weekend (ever?!) now that I'm on a strict, limited budget of entirely borrowed money.

The time honored buildering activity used to be a prominent part of campus life. Not the same, but fun nonetheless.
I quess the gunks are as close as anything else to you. How about catching rides with the outing club? I assume you are at Cornell, and see them in the West Trapps lot quite often.

Wow! The pdf is great. It'll be put to good use this weekend...thanks!

Aya,

While it's been my impression for most of the summer that the new guide has helped spread people out, I had an experience of unprecedented crowding one day earlier this season at Spider's Web (something like 14 people) and then I saw it again this Sunday at Moss Cliff. Don Mellor was one of about 9-10 people - and one dog - who showed up. And while I don't have much experience at that crag, he said it was the greatest number of people there that he'd ever seen. Sure was more than the two others I'd seen on a previous trip.

But those were just two days. Most of the rest of the year, it's been pretty quite where we've climbed, and I agree that exploring a wider variety of areas has likely contributed to those solitary days (and the discovery of some very good lines.) My thanks to Jim and Jeremy.

Those region maps are great. (So is the whole guidebook.)


[quote=Jim Lawyer]Is this what you are looking for? It's a multi-page PDF, with one page for each section of the park, with all (or nearly all) of the cliffs labeled.

Dude. How'd the dog get to Moss Cliff?

I'm thinking HALO...

I mean really... how else would a dog get there?

We took a dog up Pegasus in April. Just threw it into a pack...seemed no worse for the wear. I suppose this won't work with every dog, though.

So, speaking of climbs which fell down, has anyone done the new cracks that are where Green Beer used to be? I feel like the left one in the corner (which finishes on the remainder of Green Beer) has to have been done.

Speaking of pegasus - I've heard on one of your posts (somewhere) that the climb had some serious rockfall last winter. How much harder is it now?

Thanks!
G

My recollection is that it's in the .9 range, with the poor gear. Crimpy too.
Jim