Greg on the tyrolean over the Ausable River
Matt and I finally committed to heading out to Moss Cliff yesterday. It’s been on our radar for a year or so but the guidebook makes it clear that Moss Cliff is a big boy playground with the following description; “If you can lead 5.9-5.10 cracks, then Moss Cliff holds some of the best long crack climbing in the region, although there are no easy routes.” The prospect of heading to Moss Cliff was enough to cause more than just a little anxiety. However, after a strong weekend of climbing in the Gunks last weekend I was feeling confident.
We got to the parking area and headed for the tyrolean that crosses the river. Whoever setup that tyrolean used dynamic rope, the same stretchy rope we use in climbing to absorb the force of a fall, so it sags a lot. By the time you’re in the middle of the line, you’re almost in the water especially with the added weight of a pack full of gear. Once you cross the river, the adventure has only begun. The approach to the cliff is a bit of a sleeper. It’s only maybe 30 minutes, but it’s uphill the entire way and puts your calves to work. Thoroughly sweaty, we hit the base of the cliff and headed for Hard Times (5.9+), “a true Adirondack testpiece at the grade” as Lawyer and Hass write in the guidebook.
Matt in the pitch 3 chimney of Hard Times (5.9+)
The crux pitch of Hard Times begins with a chimney and then transitions out into a right-facing corner with an overhanging bulge (the crux) that then kicks back to off-vertical polished face/crack climbing that leads to a 7″ off-width. You can split the crux pitch into two sections by working left at the top of the chimney to a bolted anchor on a nice ledge for another route (Spirit of Adventure). We chose to do this, based on my relative inexperience in chimneys and that Matt had followed this climbing a month before and did not in anyway want to have to lead the crux. So Matt led the chimney and then I tackled the crux and “scary” climbing above the crux.
You have to traverse out right back into Hard Times from this interim anchor which is a little heady, but not exceedingly difficult (you can see the ledge in the picture and the overhanging bulge to the right). The crux of Hard Times is intimidating, but the gear is all there and you can spot all the moves before you attempt it. The polished face that follows the crux is a different story. You have to make committing moves above small gear (micro cams/small stoppers) on polished features with a lot of your weight on your feet. It’s definitely the psychological crux in my mind. After I got through that I took a long time to figure out how to climb the short off-width section of the climb, but finally got it and proceed to link together the second half of the third pitch and the final fourth pitch.
Greg follows on the last pitch of the day as twilight begins to settle
It took us a long time to do Hard Times, but it’s really hard climbing so it’s a little more reasonable to take 4.5 hours to do 4 pitches. Pleased with our success we decided to also do A Touch of Class and we would attempt to get the whole climb done in the quickly fading sunlight. We started around 4 or 4:30 and got through the climb in about 2.5 hours (three pitches) so we definitely sped up on this climb, but the climbing was less challenging than what we had previously done (still hard though).
We ended up running into Matt McCormick and Jean-Pierre Ouellet (aka Peewee) at the cliff and on the way out helped them setup a better tyrolean system, so there is now a much tighter piece of static line (much less stretch) in place. McCormick recently went on a blitz in the Adirondacks with 5.13c R and 5.12c PG first ascents to his name. Peewee has specialized in becoming one of the world’s best crack climbers with an impressive list of ascents of some of the world’s hardest cracks. It’s pretty unreal to hear these guys talk about the potential for new routes at the cliff; referring to 5.11 terrain as “easy”. It was cool to see that they were very real and down to earth people though. Which reminds you that in the end climbing is a pretty similar experience for everyone, whether you’re climbing moderate classics or elite testpieces.
All in all we had a solid day. Six of the seven pitches were 5.9 or 5.9+ and some of the climbing was straight up hard and sometimes mentally demanding. It really felt like the day was the culmination like all the hard work and training I’ve done this year. It’ll definitely be a highlight of this season.