Scott came up today, looking to get on some ice. He’s had a fair amount of time on fat stuff, so today I dragged him over to Providence for a bit of mixed action. Having never handled a cam before, this was bound to be an interesting excursion for us.
Lukasz rips up the first pitch
Seven of us meandered out to Crane Mountain’s Waterfall Wall for to poke at the ice Sunday. Among us was one relative newcomer and one absolute, never-ever. The weather was great, the climbing grand; this was the best climbing day I’ve had this year.
Mulling over options for today, Tom chose a drive up to Roaring Brook Falls. Something about prefering an hour drive and a 10-minute approach to a 10-minute drive and an hour approach. I warned him that RBF on a Saturday would not be a private venue – we would be queuing up – to no avail. Go figure, lazy bum. Of course, after a week of slogs to the Wild West, a short approach seemed like a nice idea to me…
Tom at the top of pitch 1
It went well. There was a crowd, but we were pretty close to the front of it. The sun was shining, and as usual RBF was out of the wind, alleviating the single-digit temperature and lending a great view during any pauses.
Interesting meeting: the two guys ahead of us mentioned that they’ve climbed the Waterfall Wall on Crane, used to climb it every year. Mike and Devon (sorry if I missspelled your names, guys) think it’s a great adventure day. Very, very cool to meet folks at Adirondack Ice Ground Zero kudoing my backyard!
Mike, Tom, & Devon at the top
RBF was in great shape for climbing, terrible shape for protecting, btw. Gorgeous cauliflowers, enough handholds to make single-tooling almost the better option, and a steep bit near the finish all composed of champagne-baroque glazing pasted to rock. Easy climbing, awful pro.
Despite the frigid conditions, after a day cooped up with chores and paperwork, I decided to race out to Crane’s Waterfall Wall and see how it looked. It looked…marvelous.
