Mudrat
Member
Well, it's been awhile since I posted and figured this might be a good one...
Partner: Alan Wechsler
Duration/Mileage: 17.5 hours (4:15 a.m.-9:45 p.m.), about 17.5 with meandering
Temperature: 10-20 Fahrenheit
Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/7KBbg53VjQdaqEy79
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIX3NiU-ek
Previous Trips:
Warm weather, 72 Fahrenheit at our house, was followed by a couple inches of rain. Then it cooled. The unseasonable weather created a veneer of hard crust and depleted the snowpack by roughly two feet. The conditions were ideal for a visit to the gorge. Veteran Alan Wechsler was on board to go hunt some ice. We watched the forecast during the week preceding March 10; predicted temperatures for the weekend dropped daily and, with wind-chill, settled at about -40 at the elevation where the climbs are located. We moved the climb to Friday so we’d be racing the oncoming cold weather. There always seems to be a caveat. At least we wouldn’t find the route melting out from under us from the heat like several weeks before when we were on Mt. Marcy’s slabs!
Alan spent the night at my house. We awoke at 3:15 a.m. and were walking an hour later. I contemplated crossing Johns Brook at Bushnell Falls while my body plodded on; something I was concerned about much of the week. Had it refrozen after being open earlier in the week? I didn’t feel on top of my game for various reasons preceding the hike, but that’s how it rolls sometimes—you push through and pray for the best. Alan began fighting a large blister about 20 minutes’ walk from the trailhead. Would we even make it as far as the crossing? So many things were amiss that I wondered if the day wasn’t meant to be.
Alan tried a variety of blister remedies before a 3 inch square of mole-skin did the trick. We later found the crossing at the falls was well frozen—I’d worried about nothing again. Persistence and a rock-hard trail eventually got us to the jump-off point for the bushwhack. The snowpack was two feet lower than in February and a bullet crust enabled us to walk down the center of the drainage without snowshoes, a narrow sloped glen that descended into an arena of possibilities. It was time to explore.
BULLET CRUST!!
We sought a moderate multi-pitch ice line—I had a couple new ones in mind, but the options on the first three cliffs of Marcy were thin. Even Agharta, the largest of the routes, was depleted though still apparently climbable. We spent about an hour and a half walking to the Agharta Wall then contemplating whether options to the south were worth the trek. There were many possibilities, but nothing seemed certain and we wanted to exit by dark.
Partner: Alan Wechsler
Duration/Mileage: 17.5 hours (4:15 a.m.-9:45 p.m.), about 17.5 with meandering
Temperature: 10-20 Fahrenheit
Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/7KBbg53VjQdaqEy79
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIX3NiU-ek
Previous Trips:
- Grand Central Slide (w/Mark Lowell)
- Grand Central Slide Descent, up the Margin Slide & Skylight Bushwhack (w/Greg Kadlecik)
- Marcy to Haystack Bushwhack with Great Range Traverse-Great DeRanged Traverse(w/Greg Kadlecik)
- Marcy East Face Circumnavigation (w/Ranger Scott van Laer)-2013 Aug 24
- Marcy (East Face) Ranger on the Rock-East Face Slab (w/Anthony Seidita)-2013 Sep 6
- Haystack Slides and Haycrack Route-Day 3 of 4 days in the gorge (w/Anthony Seidita)-2014 May 1
- Haystack (V Wall) All Things Holy (w/Adam Crofoot)-2014 Jul 12
- Marcy (Agharta Wall) & Haystack (Free-Standing Pillar) Wreck of the Lichen Fitzgerald & For Whom the Lichen Tolls (w/Adam Crofoot)-2014 Aug 16
- Marcy (Agharta Wall) CrazyDog’s Halo & Watery Grave (w/Adam Crofoot)-2014 Sep 27
- A Snowy Panther Gorge Bushwhack (w/Adam Crofoot)-2014 Dec
- Marcy: A New Ice Route – Pi Day (w/Adam Crofoot & Anthony Seidita)-2015 Mar 14
- Haystack: 3 New Routes in a New Area (the Ramp Wall) (w/Allison Rooney and Adam Crofoot)-2015 May 30
- Marcy (Panther Den) Cat on a Wet Tin Roof (w/Bill Schneider)-2015 Jun 14
- Rumours of War: Opening a New Area—the Huge Scoop (w/Hunter Lombardi)-2015 Jul 11
- Marcy (Feline Wall) Kitten's Got Claws (w/Justin Thalheimer)-2015 Aug 1
- Not Every Trip to the Gorge is Perfect –No Route, but a Good Day (w/Bill Schneider)-2015 Aug 16
- Marcy (Huge Scoop) The Pride (w/Bill Schneider and Adam Crofoot)-2015 Aug 30
- Marcy (Feline Wall) Promised Land (w/Dan Plumley)-2015 Sept 19
- Tour de Gorge (w/Adam Crofoot & Allison Rooney)-2015 Nov 21
- Marcy (Panther Den) Ice Route: By Tooth and Claw (WI4) (w/Bill Schneider & Devin Farkas)-2016 Jan 30
- Haystack Ice Climbs-Orson's Tower (WI3+) and Fly By (WI3) (w/Nolan Huther)-2016 March 5
- Marcy (Agharta & Panther Den Walls)-Pioneer Anomaly & Belshazzar's Fate (w/Adam Crofoot & Alan Wechsler)-2016 May 28
- Marcy (Huge Scoop)-Predatory Instincts (w/Bill Schneider & Nolan Huther)-2016 June 4
- Marcy (Feline Wall)-Galaxy of Tears (w/Dustin Ulrich)-2016 June 17
- Marcy (Panther Den)-One for the Boys (w/Bill Schneider, Adam Crofoot & Allison Rooney) 2016 June 25
- Marcy (Agharta Wall)-Tail of Redemption (w/Bill Schneider & John Pikus) 2016 July 30
- Marcy (Panther Den Wall)-Climb After Slime & You Moss Be Kidding Me! (w/Alan Wechsler) 2016 August 6
- Marcy (East Face)-Revelations (w/Nolan Huther & Loren Swears) 2016 August 27
- Haystack (V Wall)-Psalm 23 & Windjammer (w/John Pikus & Jaryn DeShane) 2016 September 17.
- Haystack (North End)-Kitty Cake (WI2) & 2nd ascent of By Tooth and Claw (Marcy) (w/Doug Ferguson & Walker Wolf Bockley) 2017 January 14.
- Marcy (Feline Wall)-Chimaera (WI3-) (w/Matt Dobbs & Jace Mullen) 2017 February 18.
Warm weather, 72 Fahrenheit at our house, was followed by a couple inches of rain. Then it cooled. The unseasonable weather created a veneer of hard crust and depleted the snowpack by roughly two feet. The conditions were ideal for a visit to the gorge. Veteran Alan Wechsler was on board to go hunt some ice. We watched the forecast during the week preceding March 10; predicted temperatures for the weekend dropped daily and, with wind-chill, settled at about -40 at the elevation where the climbs are located. We moved the climb to Friday so we’d be racing the oncoming cold weather. There always seems to be a caveat. At least we wouldn’t find the route melting out from under us from the heat like several weeks before when we were on Mt. Marcy’s slabs!
Alan spent the night at my house. We awoke at 3:15 a.m. and were walking an hour later. I contemplated crossing Johns Brook at Bushnell Falls while my body plodded on; something I was concerned about much of the week. Had it refrozen after being open earlier in the week? I didn’t feel on top of my game for various reasons preceding the hike, but that’s how it rolls sometimes—you push through and pray for the best. Alan began fighting a large blister about 20 minutes’ walk from the trailhead. Would we even make it as far as the crossing? So many things were amiss that I wondered if the day wasn’t meant to be.
Alan tried a variety of blister remedies before a 3 inch square of mole-skin did the trick. We later found the crossing at the falls was well frozen—I’d worried about nothing again. Persistence and a rock-hard trail eventually got us to the jump-off point for the bushwhack. The snowpack was two feet lower than in February and a bullet crust enabled us to walk down the center of the drainage without snowshoes, a narrow sloped glen that descended into an arena of possibilities. It was time to explore.
BULLET CRUST!!
We sought a moderate multi-pitch ice line—I had a couple new ones in mind, but the options on the first three cliffs of Marcy were thin. Even Agharta, the largest of the routes, was depleted though still apparently climbable. We spent about an hour and a half walking to the Agharta Wall then contemplating whether options to the south were worth the trek. There were many possibilities, but nothing seemed certain and we wanted to exit by dark.