A very quick image gallery that documents a very quick trip Jenn and I took to the Adirondacks to practice and reinforce some of the learning from this summer's mountaineering course. Specifically, we wanted to practice pitched climbing. We chose a very easy climb with which to practice this - a short little 5.2 route on Notch Mountain Slabs in the Wilmington Notch area of the Adirondacks. We had originally intended to progress to other climbs, but given our late departure, we ran out of time. Still, it was a beautiful day for a drive and our short practice session was useful.
The Notch Mountain slabs are reached by parking at the Moss Cliff Parking area on Route 86, then taking the northern trail to Copperas Pond. We followed our guidebook's instructions carefully, hiking 10 minutes to the height of land, and then 'heading left'. From that point on, what we encountered on the ground did not match the book - so, after about 15 minutes of wandering around, we retraced our steps to the 10-minute point, then struck out in a new direction, one which I thought made more sense given the relationship of the cliffs we saw at the parking lot, the distance we'd travelled, and the readout on my GPS.
This turned out to be the right decision - after another 10-15 minutes of bushwacking, we happened upon the slab (and, to our surprise, a trio of people climbing on it - I had expected it to be empty!). The slab was indeed nice and easy. Perfect! just what we wanted for some ropework practice.
We decided to climb a very easy 5.2 slabby climb that had lots of place for protection. It didn't have a good ledge area for a mid-point belay, but given that the route was easy and not all that steep, we'd just invent a hanging belay station partway up.
Everything went well (except for perhaps the 4-sizes too big rock climbing shoes that Jenn had on) and after a while we were sitting at the top of climb, dangling our legs over a warm rock ledge, enjoying the beautiful warm late-summer day. We packed up and headed down shortly thereafter. Now that we were aware of the actual herdpath leading down to the trail, it took us only about 15 minutes in total to get from the cliffs down to the parking lot. Short and sweet! Now we have to come back and practice some longer stuff!
Interactive Trackmap - Notch Mountain Slabs - click map to expand
