Spider's Web and the Upper
Washbowl are two of several crags located in the Chapel Pond Pass area, along
highway 73, between Lake Placid and Keene. Upper Washbowl sits high directly
above Chapel Pond and features a couple of wortwhile multi-pitch routes. Spider's
Web is a smaller cliff not far to the NW which features an amazing concentration
(unequaled in the Northeast) of difficult, steep, single-pitch crack routes.
Upper
Washbowl Cliff :
The Upper
Washbowl Cliff offers a couple of good multi-pitch moderates: "Hesitation"
and "Partition", as well as harder routes.
We leave
in no hurry; we are worried that the rock may still be wet from the last two
days of rain. We drive to Chapel Pond to take a look at the cliff. We don't
feel too motivated, but after noticing other climbers on the cliff, we decide
to go for it. It's almost noon. We make the short (20 minutes) but steep hike
to the wall. Finding no one on "Hesitation" (5.8, 4p), we decide to start
with that. It's supposed to be a Dacks classic. Even with today's lower temperature,
we sweat profusely on the approach. The humidity level has not dropped at
all.
We take
our time to get ready and dry a bit. I'm having a high gravity day, and find
myself hesitate (ha!) a lot on the wide crack. Eric gets impatient and we
end up having a typical wife and husband moment... To make things worse, another
party arrives at the base. Eric tells me to shut up and climb already. I finally
get myself together. The pitch is not that hard, at least until some wicked
moves a few feet below the roofs, at a dirty section of flared crack. Despite
my whining, I make it fine and belay Eric up.
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The
Uper Washbowl Cliff offers a couple of good multi-pitch moderates:
"Hesitation" and "Partition".
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Lucie
starting the first pitch of "Hesitation" (5.8).
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Turning
the small roof is the crux.
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Views
from the belay atop pitch 1.
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Eric
leading the traverse pitch (5.7 PG).
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The next
pitch is runout (5.7PG, 5.5R) and I gladly leave it to Eric to speed things
up and put some distance between us and the other climbing party. It's a horizontal
traverse from the belay (some pro) to the end of the roofs. One tricky move
up the overhang (tiny pro, not that good), then a solo up 5.5 face to a good
ledge and anchor.
I take
back the lead. The third pitch is mostly easy, not the cleanest, and brings
you to the base of an obvious dihedral.
The last
pitch is what you came for: a clean corner, with a section of chimney, a good
crack, and good edges on the right face.
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Pitch
3 (5.5) is easy but a bit dirty.
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Pitch
4 (5.6) is the best pitch on the route.
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A
steep and clean corner.
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Views
from the top of the Washbowl.
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"Partition"
is the clean, dark dihedral in the center of the photo.
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I top
out and bring Eric up. We unrope and change into approach shoes. We start
the walk off but decide to look for the "Partition" rappel (reputedly hard
to find)… and find it. So we rap off that pitch (the striking black dihedral
that is obvious from the road) onto the large sloping ledge below. The pitch
looks pretty striking. Now that we're here, we gotta climb it (approaching
this from below is done via the first pitch of the Wiesner route, an uninteresting
5.5 ramp).
I re-rack
and start climbing. Challenging climbing all along. Starts with a cruxy bulge
with thin hand cracks. Then a long stretch of straightforward yet sustained
dihedral with thin hand crack again (pro is mostly green and red Camalots,
not hand size). This leads to a small roof and the infamous squeeze above
it. I have trouble here. Getting up the squeeze is really awkward, and the
pro is difficult to place, in small cracks at the back of the slot. I take
a short fall, then hang a few times, between attempts at placing higher pro
(needed because of the small ledge/ramp below and the committing moves above).
I finally manage to get a green Alien placed behind a flake, high in the pod.
Once committed, I pull the moves just fine (severely steep face moves off
good holds to the lower angle crack above). I would call this 5.9, and the
squeeze moves are hard too.
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Lucie
leading the classic corner of "Partition" (5.8).
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Below
the squeeze.
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Eric leaves
the pack at the anchor on the ledge and follows. We then rap back to the ledge,
pick up the pack and the anchor, and continue to the rap tree at the edge.
We make the second rap to the ground, after trying to plug the pinch crack
below with a twig… there's another flared pinch to the right we cannot do
anything about. We'll see. I rap down, pulling the knot past the edge. Unfortunately,
I leave the rope running to the right of the flared pinch, instead of the
natural place between the two pinches. As soon as Eric starts pulling, the
ropes immediately slips into the pinch, and jams. The guidebook warns about
this, and they're right. Eric can pull the knot back up, but not down. The
pull rope is on top of the other and the tension of the pull gets them both
pinched into the flare. He tries to flick it a few times but it's hopeless.
We have a good bit of rope on the ground (the rap is about 120'), so Eric
ties into one of them and starts leading up. Somewhat dirty but not all that
bad 5.7/5.8 climbing or so. About 2/3 of the way up, and almost out of rope,
he decides to try and flick the ropes out again. Much closer now, he gets
them out first try, then pulls them down and threads one of them through an
existing sling around a tree 6' to his right. He raps off this and removes
his pro. We walk back to the base of Hesitation, pack up quickly, and leave.
Spider's
Web :
For steep,
hard crack climbing, head to Spider's Web. This small cliff is very close
to the Upper Washbowl Cliff and has the best single-pitch crack climbs in
the Dacks, and perhaps the highest concentration of such routes in the Northeast.
The climbs here dry very quickly as the cliff faces South and is exposed to
the wind.
We visited
Spider's Web twice. On the first visit, we climbed "Slim Pickins",
a beautiful, thin 5.9+ corner. Great climbing, quite technical, and not pumpy
at all. It helps to be tall in order to get the best pro: many placements
are almost out of reach far above good stances. If you're tall, you can just
slip a cam in on your toes then go for it. Shorter people may have to place
while pulling some harder moves. Next to "Slim Pickins" is another
great climb: "Esthesia", a steep 5.10a crack with a wide crux. Loved
this one too. Pure crack climbing and good pro all the way.
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Spider's
Web boasts some of the best pure crack climbing in the Dacks.
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Eric
on the classic dihedral of "Slim Pickins" (5.9+).
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On
"Esthesia" (5.10a), another great crack immediately
left of "Slim Pickins".
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Climber
on the classic "Drop, Fly or Die" (11a).
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Eric
leading "TR", a steep and pumpy 10a.
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On our
second visit, the rock was a bit wet in spots. We started with "TR"
(10a). Not the best warm up… steep and unrelenting. We then climbed "On
The Loose" (10a). A bit easier than "TR", but steeper (overhangs
5 ft in 90ft). Good hand jams all the way. We finished with "Dacker Cracker",
a short but spicy 10c at the left edge of the cliff. We did not feel strong
enough to attempt "Drop, Fly or Die" (11a), but it should not be
missed if you're up to it!
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Never
seen such a colourful lizard before.
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Eric
leading "On the Loose" (10a).
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Higher
on "On The Loose".
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You
bet it's overhanging!
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Packing
up at the base of "Dacker Cracker".
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