The Newness
Its been a long, mostly uneventful summer here in western mass. I havent climbed a western mass boulder in ages.. I'll start by talking about a trip I took to smuggler's notch at the start of July.
Liam and I cruised up there for three days, to film and climb as many of the schist boulders as we could. This was my first trip to smuggler's notch, and I cant say I was either impressed or let down. The location of smugs is really nice, its on top of a hill, and wind blows through constantly, making it a very nice, bugless, summer destination. The downsides are the number and quality of problems. Its a rare case in my opinion, because the features and boulders themselves are really big and nice, but the problems just dont climb very well. The rock is extremely polished, making things feel much harder if there is even the slightest bit of humidity.
All in all I managed to climb a few boulders during my stay... but no where near the amount or number of tries it normally takes.
Liam and I cruised up there for three days, to film and climb as many of the schist boulders as we could. This was my first trip to smuggler's notch, and I cant say I was either impressed or let down. The location of smugs is really nice, its on top of a hill, and wind blows through constantly, making it a very nice, bugless, summer destination. The downsides are the number and quality of problems. Its a rare case in my opinion, because the features and boulders themselves are really big and nice, but the problems just dont climb very well. The rock is extremely polished, making things feel much harder if there is even the slightest bit of humidity.
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| Improbable Problem v6/7 |
The Roots v5 (flash) - considered 'the perfect highball' but is chossy, dirty, and contrived.
Boomerang v6 (flash) - 'classic' a one move lowball jump, with a dab crux.
Kosher Option v7/8 - one of my favorites at smugs, dyno variation to sharp v8.
Filet of Finger v8 - Crux pulling off the ground to bathang... sharp as hell
While you were Greening v6 (flash) - drop off in cave.
Impossible Problem v7 - sharp and awful.. 30+ tries.. classic?
Improbable Problem v6/7 - tiny arete slapping. Awkward.
The Fin v2 (flash) - sick highball arete.. best at smugs.
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| The Roots v5 |
Next I went up to the Adirondacks to hang at my buddy's cabin. We planned to get three days of climbing in.. but as soon as I got there it started pouring. We still had fun doing non-climbing things, but I would have liked to get a better taste of the climbing up there. During the one day of climbing we got, we went to Mackenzie Pond, near Lake Placid. The rock at Mac Pond is very similar to the rock at Pawtuckaway, large grain granite. The style this rock creates is very sharp, and is definitely some of my least favorite rock to climb on. Some problems were good though, during the day I climbed Cartwheel v9, Sandbagger v8, Flux Capacitor to the jug.. v7, and Great Roof of China v4. Though some problems are nice, I doubt I will ever return. Enjoy a few pics from Mackenzie pond.
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| Sharp, Lowball, Painful. Sandbagger v8 |
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| Nice rock on Cartwheel v9 |
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| Bottom of Flux Capacitor v8 |
Since ive been back, ive climbed a bit.. sent little, did a little developing, which will be the subject of my next post.
Kai
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