Occupy Wallface!

Fall Break! And the weather forecast is out of this world! Yeah, I just got back from three days at the Gunks, but so what? Off again to climb!

Early in the morning we all pile into Alex's minivan (except Emily who is driving from Boston). We drive to I-87 where we meet up with Emily and caravan to the Upper Works trailhead. It is absolutely packed with cars. We park on the side of the road nearly a quarter mile from the actual trailhead. Peak leaf season + Columbus Day weekend + Canadian Thanksgiving + an AMAZING forecast has the Dacks packed with people.

We load up outrageously heavy packs (climbing gear, backpacking gear, bear canisters and a bunch of luxuries) for the four mile hike to Wallface. The trail is muddy, but the hike is level and easy to follow. We reach the point where the southern Diagonal approach trail branches off and set our tents. Dinner is pasta with homemade herb bread and lots of wine, followed by hot chocolate with whipped cream.

Awake and out of camp relatively early. We all hike to the base of Wallface and find... lots of other parties. There are three parties ahead of us. Party #1 hiked in by headlamp and got on the climb before party #2 who had bivied at the base. Party #3 has been waiting for at least an hour and hasn't started climbing yet. Sigh. We aren't able to start climbing until 11am. Gonna be a long day. I am antsy. I don't particularly like being behind other parties and it is pretty clear that things won't be moving very fast. We make sure we have our headlamps. I will say this, while none of the parties moved very fast, none were outrageously slow either. So in the end... it was fine. I've been wanting to climb The Diagonal on Wallface since learning about New York's tallest cliff back when I first started climbing. We will wait.

I start climbing with Emily and Carolyn following. The first two pitches are blocky and wander. Not much good climbing. Pitches 3 and 4 go up the namesake ramp. It is fun! Feels more like fourth class than technical climbing. Pitch 5 involves relocating the belay along second class terrain to the base of Pitch 6. We eat our lunch and relax on this ledge. Party #1 is just starting to lead pitch 6. Everyone else is on the ledge. Eventually we get to climb the final two pitches which are the technical crux but are accurately graded at 5.8 and well protected. Then we do four double rope rappels to the ground. Final rappel is by headlamp. The hike back to camp is tedious and somewhat difficult in the dark. The full moon helps a bit, but it still takes a long time. We finish the day with chili, wine, and the rest of the whipped cream and hot chocolate.

Monday morning we sleep a bit late. Get up and set a toprope on James And The Giant Boulder (5.11b) which is only a few hundred yards from camp. The climb is in the guidebook, but apparently hasn't been climbed for years. Quite a few of the holds crumble when I touch them and one significant chunk breaks off with a gentle tug. My guess is that the route has seen more freeze/thaw cycles than ascents in the past decade.

After everyone has a turn at the route. We pack our stuff and hike out. The hike out is easy as pie. Except for the stream crossing, which goes poorly (don't worry, an SCA crew was installing a bridge as we boulder hopped, so it will be easier in the future). Back at the car we change into clean clothes and drive to the Moe's in Albany for dinner. Then Emily departs for Boston and the rest of us minivan it back to Ithaca.

The weather was just amazing. For a solid week. I had stunning weather in the Gunks, then drove to the Dacks and it only got better. Not a cloud in the sky, calm winds, highs near 80, lows around 40, moderate humidity. And because it is October, the bane of the Adirondacks -- the horrific bugs -- were completely absent. This is once in a decade kind of weather. One year ago Emily and I went to the Dacks around Fall Break. We setup our tent in 3" of slush and hiked through snow up to our knees on the top of Giant Mountain. This year, we almost ran out of sunscreen.