Going up tomorrow to Poke-O to get on these. Anyone have any helpful beta..gear, route finding, etc?

RangerRob

Warning -- beta follows...

The second pitch of Bloody Mary puzzled me for a long time. At the top of the layback, you can either move right into a left-facing corner that arches left, or do an unlikely move left onto the face and climb what appears to be an unprotected face. Moving right looks tempting, but I think going left is easier, as cracks magically appear for gear. There's an anchor just above this section (one can rappel to the ground with 2 ropes), but with sufficient gear, the pitch continues for a rope-stretching (and sustained) pitch. As 9's go, it's "full on", IMO.

Fastest Gun -- in my opinion, all 4 pitches are quality and totally worth doing. Good gear the whole way. The wide section on P1 is easier than it looks and protets with a large-ish cam (obvious from the ground).

Fastest gun is the best moderate route at poko, maybe in the adirondacks in my opinion. My beta is that if the last pitch roof is wet, (or even if it isn't) do the right hand finish out the roof--it's extremely well protected, much dryer, and not as hard as the guidebook says. The (often wet) section under the roof is no problem with a little water on it.

RangerRob,

Here's some good beta for Fastest Gun. Bring a little mini hex tool to retrieve my orange flexible friend on the 2nd to last pitch. It's on a real easy stretch close to top of pitch as of late last fall when we were there. I hate leaving gear more than anything so I doubt it will come out easily without the hex.

I guess you better race Kevin who is local if it's still there.

Good luck (oops your probably on the route now as I type)

I'll be at Poke-O tomorrow too. We're looking at Bloody Mary and Freedom Flight for some classic early season climbs. Fastest Gun is one of the best routes at Poke-O. Four nice long pitches. I'll see you there.

Bosco, Do I know you? I can't picture what you look like but I'll bet I've run into you at the cliff before.

Kev

Kevin,
Oh, yeah. We've met.