Region: Upstate New York
Grades: 5.10’s
Style: On-sights
Spider’s Web
It had been many years since I had been up at The Web (too many) and even more years since free climbing there. My last visit was way back in 2018 while I was nurturing an injury and wasn’t ready for free climbing but still wanted to get on a rope so I went to The Web to aid Zabba (5.13a or C1 in my case). And then the last time I free climbed here would’ve been back in college in the early 2000’s. I’m not sure why I haven’t gone here more often in recent years given my love for crack climbing. I guess the approach wasn’t ideal for small kids and it also seems like there’s a never-ending list of crags to visit in the ‘Dacks and I just like exploring new places. In any case, a desire to get into the Bugaboos has motivated me to train my crack endurance more and The Web is likely the best place out East to do that so I should be frequenting this place more often in the near future.
Esthesia (5.10a)
After setting up a top-rope on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood (5.8) this climb opened up. It was a busy day at The Web so you have to take things as they come available. My guide book (J. Lawyer & J. Haas) gave this 4/5 stars and it deserves every one. I had forgotten my larger cams in the car so was quite fortunate to run into a friend (thank you Mike!) who lent me his. Initially I thought I’d just run out the wide section but after doing the climb I have to admit I felt the larger pieces were more than just a convenience! The sustained crack climbing, committing laybacking, and steep setting of this climb were awesome!
TR (5.10a)
I spent most of the day top-roping harder climbs and decided to do this as a final warm down. I actually wanted to lead Drop, Fly, or Die (5.11a) but by the time I got to it I was more tired than I realized (my hand immediately cramped at the first jam) so I backed off and decided to end the day with this instead. My guidebook gave this 5/5 stars but I actually preferred Esthesia over this one. TR is not the purest of cracks and climbs rather like a juggy gym climb. But given the state of my hands to jamming it was the perfect way to end the day.
Owls Head
I had never been to Owls Head but heard about it several times in the context of being an easy hike for kids. Then while chatting around the camp fire at Keene Farm (the ACC hut location in the Adirondacks) somebody mentioned it was also a popular top-rope area. My family spent the previous day mostly lounging as I climbed at Spider’s Web so this sounded like a good option to get them on some climbs. The timing was also good at it was a Monday (holiday) and it turns out access to this location is restricted during weekends.
Bitter Breeze (5.11? R)
TLDR
This is the most direct continuation of Breeze Crack to the top of the cliff. It looked to me like this climb had never been done before, given the lichen everywhere and lack of any reference to it, so I gave it a name. But people have been climbing in the ‘Dacks for ages so who knows. In any case, continue straight up from the ledge above Breeze Crack aiming for the obvious hand crack near the top, which is guarded below by a blank section of wall. Two horizontal cracks nearer the bottom of the face provide good protection but I suspect this won’t stop you from hitting the ledge once you get to the hand crack. Maybe convince your belayer to jump back if you fall before getting gear in the hand crack, although this could be difficult to pull off as the belayer can’t see you from most stances below! If I ever do this climb again it’ll be on top-rope. I’d also be curious to know how the difficulty feels when not worried about hitting the deck or with less lichen (i.e. could very well be a 5.10).
Backstory
Ok, the “plan” was to start the day with a quick lead up Breeze Crack (5.7) and then I’d set up a top-rope. Breeze Crack is near the end (or downhill side) of the cliff and although it’s one of the harder top-rope options (most of the crack climbs are 5.6) it looked like one of the more attractive options, plus a guide had already thrown some ropes on uphill climbs for his clients.
Well, this plan went sideways pretty quickly when I arrived at the “top” of the climb and realized I was only half-way up the cliff. Sure, I could setup an anchor on the ledge but why not climb to the top while I have all this gear on me? Plus, it’ll give others the option to try more climbing while tied in. The reasoning was sound but the terrain ahead questionable. To my left and right the upper cliff offered greater weaknesses, but the ideal location for a top-rope would be straight up. In any case, all options were coated in lichen so nothing seemed very well travelled. Looking straight up, the face in front of me provided two nice horizontal cracks to gain some distance from the ledge followed by a very blank looking section of face or steep slab broken only by a hand crack near the top. That hand crack, all alone in the otherwise blank section of wall, seemed to call out to me. It’s always hard to gauge the reach or wing span you’ll actually get when observing things from below but it seemed reasonable to think that if I could get my feet on the upper horizontal maybe I could reach the hand crack or, at most, do a single move to get one hand into it. So off I went, notifying my wife that I was going to keep climbing as she was wondering what all the delay was about.
Getting to the upper horizontal was straight forward and it offered good pro. But the face above was indeed quite blank so getting my feet into it such that I could stand up to reach the hand crack was not as trivial as I had hoped for but I think remained in the 5.10+ range. Now with my feet at my gear I looked up and found the hand crack still well out of range and a lot of lichen covered blankness surrounding me! I would have to pull off a minimum of two moves to reach the crack and I suspected that would also put me at risk of hitting the ledge below should I fall at or around the crack. I spent an awfully long time standing on that horizontal trying to weigh out the risk while also trying to find a sequence and rubbing lichen off potential smears with the sole of my shoes. I found a right hand crimp on a thin sheet of rock that seemed more detached than attached to the wall. Would that even hold may weight? I found a shitty half-crimp for my left and what looked liked a potential higher left crimp out of reach above. If that crimp was good, would it get me to the crack? Also, the left smear seemed decent after wiping the lichen off it, but the one I cleaned higher up for my right foot looked pretty borderline. I wasn’t convinced it would hold if I fully committed to it. I juggled around on the first couple movements to test the friction and the crimps and jungled around with thoughts in my head when my focus (or rather hesitation) was broken from a shout below: “what’s going on? you’re taking forever!”. Turns out, that was just the nudge I needed.
So I crimped down hard, smeared the left foot, then lifted and committed my weight to the shitty right smear. It’s holding! Don’t stay here too long! With a gentle lift I reached the higher left crimp and, thank god, it was better than the last two and provided the control I needed to plunge my right hand into the crack which was now just within reach. I envisioned that crack to be The Hail Mary hold and all to be over at this point. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that simple. The inside of the crack was raw sharp rock and the shape didn’t provide a restful jam. Also, committing to the jam forced me to swing my feet under it where, apparently, there was nothing for my feet other than a flat lichen covered wall. So my foresight of a pleasant jam and a comfortable gear placement was replaced with fear of hitting the ledge if I don’t get some gear in ASAP before either my feet slip or my jam fails. Luckily I eyed the correct sized cam and got the rope clipped, just before a foot slipped on the lichen. Luckily at this point both hand were now free and two jams in the jaws of this raw crack were enough to recover my stance and, soon after, regain my composure as I topped out the cliff.
