How I spent my long weekend, or An Epic

[dagibbs]

Last weekend K8, Jonathan, Celine and I decided to go climbing in the Adirondacks. There is a lot of beautiful climbing in the Keene Valley area. Our plans were to head out early Saturday morning, get down there around mid-day, set up camp at the Alpine Club of Canada camp site at Keene farm, then have a relaxing day afternoon of climbing Saturday. Sunday we would climb Gothic Arch, a 6-pitch 5.6 slab climb up the south face of The Gothics. Then Monday, we'd break camp, and climb something close to the road with an easy approach and drive home.

Saturday went just as planned -- up early, meet up and load up at Jonathan's and on the road by about 7:15am. Pleasant drive down, amusement at the border guarders (K8 has a "golden ticket" -- that is, a US passsport.) Find the camp site, setup, drive back to the pull out and hike in to the beer walls. We lost the trail and did a bit of bushwhacking -- but not a problem. We even ran into another crowd of Ottawa folks (Glauco, Bertrand, Craig and a 4th who I didn't previously know and whose name I have forgotten.) Then a pleasant dinner, a beer (for the other 3) and to bed.

Sunday was The Gothics. It is a 4800' peak, and the climb on the south face we were doing (Gothic Arch) was a 6-pitch 800' climb, no pitch harder than 5.6. The guide book listed the approach as "3.5 hours, difficult". Jonathan figured they'd given a conservative estimate -- and that it might only be 3 hours in; I was less optimistic and thought probably 4-4.5 hours. So we got up a little after 7am, made breakfast, packed lunch, chose gear, packed up, etc and were on the road by about 9:45am, found the parking and started hiking by about 10:30am. I figured 4.5 hours in, climbing by 3pm, 5-6 hours climbing the cliff, and we might be hiking out in the dark -- but along a trail with headlamps, not too bad. The hike in goes about 3.5 miles up (continually up, though not steeply, a gain of about 800') a road, then leaves the road and becomes a trail. The trail starts at Lower Ausable Lake (about 2000') and climbs up over Pyramid Peak (4500') and then down into a col. We bushwhacked down a ravine (about 200' vertical), including some 4th class bits (that we rappelled down), then found the base of our climb. That was about 4:30pm. So, it took us about 6 hours to do the 3.5 hour hike in.

At this point, up the cliff really is our way out -- we're in an interior valley, and civilization is back over the ridge and down. So, I start leading up the climb -- and it is gorgeous climbing. A bit run-out in places, but beautiful rock, interesting moves, and just good climbing. I'm about 4 pitches up, and have done about 650' of climbing and the sun has gone down at the start of the 4th pitch and it is starting to get noticeably dark by the end of the 4th pitch, and the other pair is about a pitch behind me. So, we start talking about how to bail. The last 2 pitches are shorter than the others -- only about 150' total, but they're a lot steeper. I consider climbing them, and leaving a top-rope for the others, but as soon as I actually take a look at them, I decide no way do I want to try and climb (and route find) up that section in the dark. So... we can traverse to the side of the cliff, where there are trees, and maybe scramble up that. I lead that traverse (maybe 80') in the fading then dark -- placing gear as much by feel as site. (Celine, my 2nd, forgot to pack her headlamp, and she wanted the headlamp for cleaning.) That was one of the most... interesting leads I have ever done! Once I'm across, K8 and Jonathan have caught up to Celine at the last belay -- though K8 took a lead fall on no gear on the way up; luckily on quite non-steep rock, and she managed to catch herself with a fist-jam under an overlap she was falling beside.

I bring Celine, then K8 across the traverse, them just unclipping, then reclipping the gear, so the next person can just follow easily. Jonathan comes last, cleaning the gear. In the middle of cleaning one of my pieces, he knocks his headlamp off. We watch it skitter down the face a 100' or so. He ends up leaving that piece behind, and finishes the traverse.

So, we're all sitting in some trees, on steep terrain, probably about 200' of bushwhacking through dense, steep, brush from the trail. It is about 10pm, full dark, and we have 2 headlamps for the 4 of us. We're dress for hiking and climbing on a sunny hot mid-summer day. I was wearing the most clothing, with a very light long-sleeved shirt and pants. (I like those for protection from the sun, scrapes on the rock, and from branches when bushwhacking.) Everyone else was in longish shorts and tank tops. We had no food by this point, little water, and no preparation for spending the night. But, the idea of bushwhacking up this very steep terrain, possibly with sections of open rock, with enough light was even worse. So, we decided to bivouac (bivy) for the night.

We found the largest open space we could, tied in to the trees and started huddling together. After a bit, and getting colder, especially as the wind blew, Jonathan figured that covering us with cut pine boughs would help. So, he cut a bunch of them, and threw them over us. This did help, but of course the terrain was steep enough that every time we shifted they would slide off us and often out of reach, so the layer slowly diminished over the night. And the ground was both steep and uneven, so there was no such thing as a comfortable position. We huddle closer and closer as the night wore on, shivering more when the wind blew, as it did more and more towards the end of the night. About the most reassuring thing was that every time we looked up, we could still clearly see stars in the night sky. (This meant it wouldn't cloud over and rain on us.)

It finally got light, so we started packing up -- coiling rope, collecting gear, etc. Then we had to get out. The only food we had left was a large chocolate bar, which we split before heading out. I led the way most of the way through the bushwhack, pushing through generally dense scrub, and accross a couple bits of slab, until we found the trail. We were almost at Gothics peak (our original goal) so all of us but Celine dumped our packs, and did finish the summit. Then we had to hike back out -- down into the col, up to Pyramid peak, then all the way back down again. We were exhausted, both from lack of sleep and lack of food. So, we moved slowly and carefully the whole way. Jonathan had a pumped water-filter with him, so we were able to replenish water a couple times along the way, else it would have been far worse. We finally made it back to the car around 1pm.

We grabbed some food in the car, slowly carefully only eating a bit at a time so as to not make ourselves sick, then went to a restaurant for a meal. Back to the camp site, a quick nap (about 45 minutes), then tear down, pack up, and head back to Canada. I was finally home by about 9pm and after a quick shower, fell into bed exhausted.