Adirondack Rock Climbing an Unknown Adirondack Adventure

Unknown Adirondack Adventure

By: Richard Wilson

Exploring and reviving the Adirondacks!

Looking out across the lake, granite outcroppings long ago explored by Fritz Weisner dot my view and in the distance Vermont’s Camel’s Hump stands proud and tall against the blue bird skies.  Gazing across this land where adventure and excitement once reigned supreme; where northeastern American alpinism experienced its adolescence, I am excited by a prospective and opportunity this climber never thought would be feasible in his life time.

In an era of “sprad climbing”, of bolt protected cruxes and headpoints, a pessimistic person might say that the adventure, excitement and exhilaration of traditional, ground up ascents is no longer an attainable goal for the modern climber, especially one who lives in the northeast.  Thankfully, on Earth Day of 2009 my eyes were opened to the fact that this is simply a falsity.  Past the small Adirondack towns of Wilmington and Ausable Forks, awaiting those who maintain the vision and possess the desire for true traditional ascents, stand the granite playgrounds of Potter and Silver Lake Mountain. These Adirondack hillsides are home to awe-inspiring outcroppings of the noblest of Adirondack granite, bisected by peaceful ponds, marshes and forests.  No trucks tear below the cliff faces and in these beautiful and bounteous granite lands awaits an adventure one might not have foreseen.  These granite monoliths, numbering approximately fifteen that are at least two hundred feet tall, harbor dihedrals and crack systems yearning to be climbed, patiently awaiting jams and cams, beckoning inspired adventure and for the first time legally available to climbers for exploration.

Since the day that the above passages where written I have experienced aspects of climbing that I have never before been a part of in my climbing career.  I have aid climbed first ascents in sideways downpours. I have felt the ground shake as torso size boulders toppled to the ground having been trundled from their peaceful residences in cracks. And I have rubbed my knuckles raw, not from hand jams, but from lichen removal with stiff wire brushes so that the rubber on my climbing shoes might adhere to the rock as I would expect it to.  During this time I also took a whipper at the crux of a line during its primary first free ascent attempt.  A week later I yelled in jubilation from the top after cleanly establishing the first free ascent of Handlebarbarism (5.10b).  I have belayed other first free ascents and watched as climbers left the ground to travel into a vertical world unknown.

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To say the least, it has been an exciting time of new alpine experiences and I am hooked!   Thankfully, those of you who have fallen victim to the same affliction as I need look no further than the unlikely Adirondacks to be home to our addiction fixes of new traditional lines and the resurrection of lines long since forgotten.  So long as you bring with you an old rope, thick kneed pants, lots of gear and a sense of adventure you will have years of fun and adventure awaiting you at Potter and Silver Lake Mountains.  I’ll see you there.

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Information on access to these areas

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