...Leaving Saturday :-)

Anyone have any favorite routes to suggest?

Ecstacy, West Pole, anything on Face of 1000 Pitons.

Alcoa Presents, The Burn, Madmen Only...

start on the west side with Green Wall* then take the rap right there down the east side. you'll rap down over Alcoa* presents to your right but before you do this go on down to the ground and do Solar which is 2 pitches and takes you to the same rap. you can then do the alcoa pitch (from the ledge) then rap down the west side back to your packs. the hike to the east side is rather long so I find going up the west first more efficient.

neat place, have fun!

Linkup "Front C" with "Critter Crack".

Your profile says you lead 5.9+. That being said, go lead Westpole and then do the direct finish. Rap down the other side and do Alcoa Presents. I also like Pleasant Overhangs, but do the 1st pitch of Thais Direct as an alternate beginning. The 1st pitch of P.O. is rotten, runout, and slippery when wet. Other favs of mine are Tomato, The Burn, Lichen or Leave It, Climbin' Punishment, Block Party, Ye Gods, Simple J. Malarkey with the alternate 3rd pitch (Muscle Beach), Marshalls Madness, and Sunshine. Sunshine is right next to The Burn, and it takes tiny gear. Hope this helps. It should keep you busy for a few days. ClimbinBob

Keep in mind the old school rating system is in effect at Seneca. That said, Bring on the Nubiles.

Just went for my first trip down there on Thursday. What a great place! very dramatic! we started off with Ecstasy. Fabulous, fabulous, fabulous, but someone was knocking toaster oven sized rocks off of the top by the rap tree, so we bailed from the hanging belay...wanted to do the last pitch though. Next we did Conn's East.....fun and interesting. We ended up doing the first pitch of Frosted Flake 5.9-. What a great and fun lead...great pro, and super cool moves. The only burn I saw down there was the east face of the South Peak....maybe 10 acres. I didn't see anything close to a hundred acre burn. However...a ripper was starting just north of Seneca Rocks as we left. Man it was running up the gully and putting up a pretty good column!

RangerRob

P.S. We also threw in a quick stop at the Delaware water Gap on the way down. Actually found a pretty good 5.4ish route there...go figure

Seneca never disappoints... as a bit of trivia, the south peak is supposed to be the only "summit" east of the Missississipi that can only be reached by 5th class climbing.

And don't go talking trash about the Gap!

Sorry this is coming too late for your departure, but I'm posting in case others have similar questions. I'd highly recommend Triple S (short for Shipley's Shivvering Shimmy), the dihedral between the Cockscomb and the Face of 1,000 Pitons. It's a sustained 5.8 with the crux (the 5.8-est of the 5.8...) where it's supposed to be; at the top. Just one pitch, although you can walk/scramble from the top on up to the "climber's summit" of Seneca, so called because every route to it involves some fifth-class climbing.

And a Seneca memory -- my used-to-be favorite was The Gendarme (5.4 on the east side, 5.8 on the west), a 30-foot pinnacle in the Gunsight Notch between the summits. The tradition was that the climb was not completed unless you stood up (leaning into the wind) on the rounded top -- this made more challenging by the fact that we often climbed it without clipping into protection, as we were worried that the precariously balanced landmark might decide to topple off the ridge with us attached into it! The Gendarme finally did fall off in the autumn of 1987 -- fortunately with no one attached, on, or under it.