Originally planned as a Luke-and-Sophie fall hike outing, a last minute change of plans turned today into another climbing practice. We planned to return to the Notch Mountain Slabs, and try some slightly longer and harder routes to practice basic multi-pitched climbing techniques. (we were here two weeks ago - click here to go to that image gallery).

Just as we arrived at the Moss Cliff parking lot at Wilmington Notch, we were flagged down by a Ford Taurus with New Jersey plates. Strangely, the driver rolls down the window and calls me by my name! Hmm... I'm starting to suspect a web connection! Sure enough, the couple who jump out of the car are apparently big fans of my website and when they saw us driving the other way in the S2000 they were positive they knew who we were, so they zoomed up and caught us. Kind of flattering!

The couple turned out to be Lori and Steve, on vacation from Chattanooga, Tennesee. They were visiting the Adirondacks for a few days and had planned a long hike up Marcy and Haystack. Unfortunately, though, Lori was feeling under the weather today, so they opted for a more sedate hike (up Cascade Mountain, it turned out). We chatted in the sunny parking lot for quite a long time - almost an hour.

It was the strangest thing to meet people who I didn't know at all and yet who knew so much about me and what I had done. I guess that's the result of such a public accounting of what I do in my life (i.e. via alavigne.net).

After exchanging phone numbers and e-mail addresses, we made tentative plans to meet up after our hike and climb, and have dinner together in Lake Placid.

Now that we knew the way (from the visit up to these slabs two weeks ago), it took us no time at all to reach the base of the slabs. The main slab had been taken over by a family with lots of kids, so we decided to head a short extra distance to some slabs with solitude.

I was having a slightly hard time mapping my climbing guidebook to the routes on the wall. On my first attempt, I ended up obviously off route, on a slimy wet slab that I could only ascend by hauling on some bushes growing in a nearby crack. I decided it would be best to bail off of that and head a little further over, where things looked cleaner. We ended up climbing a roughly 5.4/5.5 climb up a slab, over short vertical step, and up a bit more slab. It ended up being good practice for me with placing protection, setting up belay stations, and in general getting a good feel for the logistics and mechanics of multi-pitch climbing. All of this is very useful for becoming quick and efficient in any future moderate alpine mountaineering we might do.

After the hike, we headed into Lake Placid where we were able to meet up with Lori and Steve, who'd just finished their climb of Cascade Mountain. We chose a rustic little restaurant in the heart of very bustling Lake Placid and had a delightful dinner, talking about everything and anything (but mostly mountain stuff, of course...). We promised to work to try and cross paths again, and we were off back to Ottawa. Nice meeting you guys!