Roger's Rock "Little Finger" Climb & Rain Bail (Part 1)

Question: Is it ever a great idea to be suspended 300 feet above a 200 foot deep lake on a slab of granite's tiny foothold with two other guys you hardly know, trusting your lives to $40 worth of hardware in a torrential downpour ?

Answer: Absolutely.

This trip report begins 35 to 40 years ago with me as a boy vacationing on Lake George and seeing Roger's Rock rising defiantly out of the lake. I am quite sure I never saw climbers on it, maybe I was told people do climb it, but ever since I first saw it I've wanted to climb it.

Fast forward to a year ago where I post here in "Trips & Events" Roger's Rock, Lake George: Need a Lead. 151 views and I get a PM from some newish member, J.Dub, who happens to live in the next town over. He and a friend climb and "definately want to do Roger's" . Well, we do finally get together for some very local outings, summer turns to fall and winter and we end up doing some ice climbing and a few more local climbs.

Things look good: J.Dub has more experience, gear and is a better climber than me and his friend Paul is more experienced, has more gear and is a better climber than him ! So I'm in good shape ! I have the boat we all need for the "approach" to Roger's !

Plans are batted around and we all decide the August 1st weekend will work. I'll take my family, with the boat, camping at Roger's Rock Campground and J. Dub and Paul will join us for an overnight Saturday and the climb on Sunday. Weather will have to work for us, as the schedule is set.

Me and mine drive up friday afternoon, set up camp and enjoy a starry night and a beautiful, sunny day on Lake George on Saturday. J.Dub and Paul arrive at our site in time for dinner Saturday night. Campfire, drinks and the passing of the guitar ensue.

Sunday at 6:30 we begin to stir. Breakfast, gear check, and the quick drive from our site to the boat launch and we are boating our approach to the climb. My wife and boys came with us to drop us at the cliff and return for us later. The rock pretty much extends straight down into the lake with a couple of mossed and treed out-croppings to set up in.

By about 9:30 Paul set off on the first lead under grey skies. Paul would lead the first pitch and I would belay him. I would then climb next attached to his rope, belayed by him and drag up the second rope, which J.Dub would then be belayed from and clean the pro as he ascended. My major responsibilities were to listen well to the instructions, belay and re-clip the pro from the first rope to the second as I ascended.

Roger's Rock climbing is a bit of a spectator sport. Boats come by, take pictures, tool around a while and then move on. As I climbed one pitch, a tourist in a rented pontoon boat was heard screaming "THEY'RE CRAZY...THEY'RE CRAZY !!!" As J.Dub climbed, a boat of 20 somethings slowed and one shouted out the "Tarzan" yell several times until I acknowledged their presence with a wave.

The first pitch was nearly the full length of the 60m rope, about 180'. J.Dub's Part Deux of this report will describe more of the details of the climb, hopefully, as I was pretty much the client on this one. J.Dub would lead the second pitch, which was about another 120', again I seconded (nice lead J.Dub, nice follow by me !) and Paul would third and clean. We really started to scramble now as the clouds darkened. At 300' we all stood crammed on a couple of footholds, clipped in and attached to the wall. Paul was about to set off on the third and final pitch when I felt some spit from above. I didn't mention it and hoped it would pass, but within minutes we were attached to the side of the cliff in a downpour. The "Little Finger" crack we had just come up quickly became a ribbon thin waterfall. Unspoken was the more serious concern regarding lightning, though no thunder was heard. As quickly as could safely be accomplished, Paul and J.Dub organized and orchestrated the ropes and protection for the raps down. Paul went down first to a fixed rap station directly below, again I followed and J. Dub went third.

By now my wife and boys were circling in the boat in the water below. They had spent the morning on the boat but were now getting wet and rightfully concerned and wondering about why we were still on the rock and how soon we would be off it.

Before too long the second rap was completed by all three and we were laughing and High Fiving at the base. My wife nosed the boat into the rock and we all quickly jumped aboard for the quick ride back to the campground.
J.Dub teased me that my childhood dream to climb Roger's Rock had turned into a wet one ! We all three agreed it was now a grudge match where we'd have to return soon to properly finish. I was very happy with what we all had accomplished.

Within hours we were all packed, showered, fed and in traffic heading back home.

It was an excellent Trip. Many thanks to J.Dub and Paul. Quite an experience.

Slideshow of the pics so far.

One of the reasons we're all smiling like idiots in these photos is that I was doing the "self portrait" mode of upside down and backwards camera photography and kept pushing the Power Off button instead of the Shutter.

Let me be the first to congratulate all of you on a great climb and TR. Do you know the full height of it?

Chip...Slabs are not fun to out on in the rain... We did Chapel Pond in the rain once... well we started out in gray weather... We should get together soon... I need a solid/regular climbing partner too...

Nice pics too!

Roger's Rock "Little Finger" Climb & Rain Bail (Part 2)

"Wow, this really sucks!"

Cold, soaked and shivering on a small ledge 300' up, I watched Chip get smaller and smaller as he rapped down to the middle of Roger's Slide. Paul was already tied in at the anchor, having rapped first. After "Off rappel!" drifted upward through the rain, I got on rappel and dismantled the belay anchor, leaving only our emergency bail anchor connecting me to the cliff. Two nuts, 3' of tied webbing and a rap ring -- plenty strong and set well, and the logical part of me knew that the anchor was solid. However, that didn't keep my stomach from doing a couple backflips as I slowly lowered down, doing my best to be smooth and not bounce. A short while later, I was tied-in to a lovely, totally truck two-bolt anchor, at which point I finally realized I could exhale. I even managed to crack a smile for Chip as he took our picture. One more rap to go, from a solid anchor...the rain is letting up a little bit. "I guess this doesn't suck quite so much," I thought.

Until the rope got stuck.


BACKSTORY
About a year ago, Chip had posted a request for a lead climber to go with him to climb Roger's Slide (a.k.a. Roger's Rock) a giant slab that rises straight out of the northwestern side of Lake George. I had started lead climbing last summer and got in touch with him about the possibility of attempting Little Finger (5.5 G, 490'), which is the easiest route on the slab and well within both of our abilities. We weren't able to get the trip scheduled last year, but we committed to making it happen in '09, putting the August trip on the calendar in March, I think. My regular partner Paul, who's been climbing for like 30+ years, and I would swing leads, putting Chip in the middle and giving him lots of belay practice. As the date neared, all three of us became increasingly excited about the trip, and hopeful that the incessant rain we've been having wouldn't force us to scrub.

THE TRIP
Chip and his family arrived at campground at the Roger's Rock State Park on Friday evening, and Paul and I drove up Saturday afternoon. As we motored up the Thruway in the MINI (yes, SWMBO let me drive it! ) we discussed our previous week's trip to Chapel Slab in the Adirondack High Peaks region, where we climbed the Regular Route (5.5 PG, 775') . The 90'-100' runout climbing with no protection notwithstanding, that climb went swimmingly. Literally. (We jumped into Chapel Pond after the decent to wash off before heading into L.P. for dinner. ) It was a good warm up for Roger's Rock the following week and we figured that Little Finger should take us about four hours total (3 pitches of climbing and two rappels).

The Lake George forecast called for partly cloudy skies Saturday night and Sunday morning, with scattered thunderstorms on tap for after 4:00ish on Sunday. As such, we planned to get an early start to the climb on Sunday and be finished well before the rain. What's that old saw about "the best laid plans"....?

We used Chip's ski boat to approach the climb, which is only accessible via the water. The plan was for his wife Diane and his boys Grant and Ben to drop us off and then take the boat back and hang out at the campground beach while we climbed. Pick-up time was set for 12:30. We racked up and Paul started P1 at around 9:30, which would likely mean that the family would get to watch us rappel. Cool!

THE CLIMB
Paul led the first pitch and belayed Chip up to the anchor. As I cleaned P1, I noted that, while the angle of the face was noticeably steeper than Chapel Slab, the namesake finger crack offered a LOT more in the way of protectability. An hour after we began, I started leading P2, with things going according to plan.

Well, it took me much longer to lead the second pitch (at least it seemed like a long time to me) as I protected the hell out of it. A veritable potpourri of small nuts and cams were employed as I stitched that pitch up something good! There were some balancy moves that didn't have great hands, but I was able to finish the pitch without any falls and set up an anchor. As I belayed Chip up, I noticed that it had clouded-up considerably from when we started, and the clouds were starting to darken. "Crap," I thought, "that's just what we need. To get rained on while trying to climb P3. Glad it won't be MY lead."

Turns out that we didn't even get that far, since, when Paul arrived at the belay and I was handing over gear, it started to sprinkle. Then, in about thirty seconds -- IT POURED!!

This. Is. Not. Good.



THE BAIL
We made the collective decision to get the heck out of Dodge ASAP...not that there was really any other choice to make. Paul set up the bail anchor quickly while Chip tied the ropes together, and Paul rappelled first. Now, rappelling is my least favorite part of climbing, because you're totally dependent on the gear. The fact that most climbing accidents happen on rappel doesn't make me love it any more, either.

And the decision of whether to rap first or last has it's own considerations. On a multi-pitch rappel, the first guy has to find and/or build the anchor at the bottom of the rap. For this reason, I like Paul (a.k.a. "Mr. Experience") to go first. However, the first guy has the benefit of having the bail anchor backed-up by the belay anchor, so if the rap anchor fails, the belay anchor saves the day. The last guy to rap takes down the belay anchor before leaving, relying solely on the bail anchor. I figured this was the lesser of two evils, as I could monitor the rappel anchor for any sign of movement during Paul's and Chip's rappels.

The rappel anchor was solid and the first set of raps were uneventful, albeit wet, as water was now streaming down the face of the rock. We all got down to the final rappel anchor and were looking forward to finishing one more rap and getting down to terra firma.

Which brings us back to the stuck rope.

Several minutes of Paul and I trying to do "the flip" to get the rope off the flake didn't produce any results. I suggested to Paul that he traverse right about 10' to get a better angle, and when he did he was able to gently pull the rope out from behind the flake. Things were looking up once again!

I rapped first this time (almost giddy to be rappelling off such a solid anchor) and made it to the base of the climb without issue. Chip and Paul followed and we were soon all smiling and ready to give each other high-fives, but I suggested we wait until we pulled the ropes. Fate smiled on us as 400' feet worth of soaking wet kernmantle piled up at our feet. High-fives exchanged, gear stuffed into packs, now the only remaining challenge was getting back to camp.

Our extraction team (Diane and the boys) had been circling the base of the cliff for the last 15 or so minutes and now they came in to fetch us. Diane nosed the Bayliner in slowly, Chip grabbed the bow line and I lept into the boat, moving directly to stern. Paul entered next, staying up front to help Chip get in, which, in hindsight, was a good idea. Chip had his pack on and the climbing rope draped around the back of his neck, which evidently got caught on the bow of the boat as he jumped in, flipping him over onto his back in between the bow seats and knocking Paul off balance on top of him. All I know is that when I turned round to see what the ruckus was, Paul and Chip looked like a couple on their honeymoon, the ropes, backpacks and climbing gear notwithstanding. (Not that there's anything wrong with that!)

Diane punched the throttle and we pulled away from the cliff into the safety of the open waters of Lake George. Chip and Paul and I just looked at each other and laughed at our adventure. As we headed back to the boat launch, we pointed out to Chip's boys the tiny dot of yellow webbing where we built the bail anchor. I don't know if they think their father is cool...or completely nuts...but the guy definitely kept his cool in a somewhat stressful situation, so they should be proud of him.

KEY PIECE OF GEAR
Definitely the bail anchor. Having the open webbing and rap ring clipped onto my gear loop made our exit from the climb relatively straightforward (and a lot less expensive that it otherwise might have been).


Of course, now we have "unfinished bidness" with Roger's Rock, which (naturally) means that we'll be back to finish Little Finger in the summer of 2010.

Right, Chip...?


Trip photo album here.

Thanks, J.Dub ! Excellent reportage ! I had almost forgotten my entanglement with Paul in the bow, the jerk didn't even give me his phone number .

Special Kudos to J.Dub for keeping his cool on the rap off the top in the rain on the bail gear. I would happily have donated a few more pieces of pro for that effort. I was nervous on my rap and the gear was like quadruple redundant at that point.

J.Dub said:

Of course, now we have "unfinished bidness" with Roger's Rock, which (naturally) means that we'll be back to finish Little Finger in the summer of 2010.

Right, Chip...?

Click to expand...

2010 ? What's going on this month ?

Paradox said:

Do you know the full height of it?

Click to expand...

The full "Little Finger" route would have been close to 500'. We got just north of 300'. The "summit" of Roger's is off to the left of this route at about 700' above the lake.

Sounds like a really nice climb,,,,,good judge to rap down and bail...not fun slab climbing in the rain!!

Looks like a new climb added to my list!!!

Thanks for sharing your adventure. How did the rest of the route look from your high point?

Cool looking rock!
Nice pics - You can instantly notice when the rain event happened and the slab all of a sudden had a shine to it - gives me shivers!

cbcbd said:

Cool looking rock!
Nice pics - You can instantly notice when the rain event happened and the slab all of a sudden had a shine to it - gives me shivers!

Click to expand...

Doug, if you view this pic of Paul in the first rap you can use the enlarge "magnifying glass" on the right and see the waterfall next to him that is the crack we just came up.

jfb, the rest of the route went up and over or around a bulge just above where we stopped, so we couldn't really see much of the rest of the route.

Chip said:

Doug, if you view this pic of Paul in the first rap you can use the enlarge "magnifying glass" on the right and see the waterfall next to him that is the crack we just came up.

Click to expand...

Nice! That's the perfect situation where you can drink right from the rock face.

I added Paul and J Dubs pics to mine for a more complete album, if anyone is interested. Thanks for looking.

Awesome job and good decision! It looks like a super fun climb! One of these days I hope to make it out there! Your pics and TR are great!