Grab Your Bug Spray and Get Out There

A review of the new Adirondack rock climbing guidebook

by Aya Alt

I'm not much of one for wordy reviews, and so, having gotten my hands on a copy of the new rock climbing guide, Adirondack Rock by Jim Lawyer and Jeremy Haas, rather than maunder on about what a monumental task it was to take on writing a guide for a six million acre park and so on, I'm going to try to just stick to the points pertinent to the book as a guide. Don't get me wrong, however: the amount of time, care and thought that was put into the book is evident on every page.

As far as climbing guidebooks go, the bare necessities that should be covered are:

- An introduction with local practices/ethics, rules/regulations, and the grading system used in the book

- Directions to the climbing

- The climbing:
            The routes/grades
            Approaches/descents
            What to rack
            Maps/topos
            Lodging/camping/food options
            Rainy/rest day options

These, at the very least, will ensure that visitors will have the tools the need to get to climbing of some sort of another. Adirondack Rock certainly covers these basics, and then some. A lot more some. For example, some highlights from the introduction that even veteran 'Dacks climbers might find helpful:

- Directions on accessing the park from various major cities, and more importantly, how to travel within the park (has anyone else every tried to go east-west through it? Because I have, and it can really stink!)

- Where to try climbing when it's buggy (and what time of year there's a possibility that it might not be buggy, but let's be honest here. It's the Adirondacks. It's always buggy. Seen those springtails on the snow in the winter? At least we don't have chiggers!)

- The geology of the park (I am definitely going to ask a question about the Grenville Orogeny the next time I host a pubquiz night)

- A chronology of major events in climbing in the area

Of course, the real core of the book is its route descriptions. Consider the size of the park, and consider the size of the previous rock guide to the park (Mellor's Climbing in the Adirondacks). Now consider that this new guide has over twice as many routes as the previous guide (including a whole bunch of bouldering areas). No mean feat, fitting it into a one inch thick book of 672 pages!

The climbing is divided into 11 distinct regions (Lake Champlain, Chapel Pond Pass, Keene, Wilmington Notch, High Peaks, Lake George, Indian Lake, Southern Mountains, Old Forge, Cranberry Lake and Northern
Mountains) making it easy to flip to the appropriate section of the book to find the climbs you want. Each of the regions has as introductory paragraph or two and specific information regarding its season, access, directions, amenities and diversions (swimming holes, anyone?). With each region, each cliff has its own description, with a sometimes quite lengthy history preceding the topos and route descriptions, the latter of which have short descriptions offering additional insight and a human element to the routes. For example, the description of the route Air Male at Poke-O's Luther Wall offers: "It may be short, but it packs a punch; another difficult, crimpy face climb. Named for the hidden 'mail' slot, and for the airtime taken by all the male climbers at the crux clip. Once a toprope problem called Wounded Knee." Each cliff is given a star rating denoting quality, and each climb within a cliff is given a star rating, making it easier to plan a classic trip.

The route topos are all clearly labeled and easy to understand (which is not always easy; consider, for example, the tangled mess of routes that Pitchoff Chimney Cliff comprises), and the accompanying cliff photos are outstanding. Unfortunately, as beautiful as the topos and route descriptions are, the book is a slightly heavy to carry up on multi-pitch climbs. Fortunately, Jim and Jeremy considered this, and have made topos of all of the multi-pitch routes freely available on their website (http://www.AdirondackRock.com/goodies.htm). Print them out and take them with you. Genius!

Further evidence of their genius comes in the form of a table listing the distribution of routes by grade at each cliff  at the beginning of each cliff description; for example, by noting that at the King Wall there are only five routes graded 5.9 and below while there are ten routes 5.10 and above, as a Dacks 5.9 leader, I can see that I might have more fun tackling the Creature Wall (ten routes 5.9 and below, four routes 5.10 and above) without having to thumb through all the route descriptions at the cliffs and tallying the grades myself.

The descriptions for accessing the cliffs are quite concise and helpful, offering estimated approach times and difficulty, good descriptions including driving distances from major intersections in the area and landmarks to look for on the approaches, and for the technologically inclined, GPS coordinates. The nature of the Adirondacks is that apart from some of the popular roadside locations, a lot of the cliffs are not necessarily climbed too often. Therefore, descriptions of the sort that one might find in guides to other areas do not necessarily work, since rocks fall, trees blow over, rap slings rot and herd paths may change or even disappear entirely from year to year. As a result, though one of the frequent concerns voiced by climbers prior to the publication of the book was that detailed approach instructions would ruin the sense of adventure so integral to the Adirondack experience, ultimately, even armed with GPS coordinates and a topographical map of the region surrounding the cliff, climbers venturing beyond the Beer Walls or the Spiders Web are likely to experience plenty of adventure (or difficulties, whatever you wish to call them!)

Finally, the guide will absolutely get you psyched to climb new rock every time you go out. There are beautiful black and white photos (168 of them!) throughout the book that provide inspiring visual clues as to the type of climbing to expect at each area. There is also a color photo gallery in the middle of the book, and essays by various Adirondack climbers scattered throughout. Not least of all are the area and route descriptions themselves: often offering stories highlighting the efforts of first ascentionists and frequently mentioning when areas have potential for more route development (and with so many routes being put up so recently), there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to complain that the Adirondacks are getting too crowded and climbed out. Get yourself a copy of the book, grab yourself some bug spray, and get out there!

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The book is at the printer, due on March 28. You can reserve your copy now and be guaranteed to receive it the moment it's off the press. Billing occurs when the book is shipped to you.