2025 Road Trip - June 27

We drove two hours from Montpelier, Vermont to Cathedral Ledge in New Hampshire and climbed three challenging routes today. We chose to make it a cragging day instead of a long multi-pitch day out of concern that the weather might turn bad sooner rather than later (there is rain in the forecast for the evening of June 27 and all day/evening on June 28). We spent our time at the North End which has a comically short approach.

Staring up the second half of They Died Laughing

They Died Laughing (5.9) - Tons of gear. Mostly finger jams and hand jams. Some corner action near the top. It was my lead, and I fell halfway up onto a black totem. I pulled myself back on and climbed to the top. After Wes had climbed it, I climbed it again (cleanly this time) on the pre-placed gear.

The Slot (5.10b) - Wes led this and fell on his first attempt at the crux halfway up. I followed and fell at roughly the same place. I completed the route and came back down so that Wes could take another shot at the route, which he did cleanly this time. I tried to follow it again and again fell in the exact same spot when my foot slipped on the polished rock. Wes kindly lowered me back down to the start so I could make one final attempt and I did it cleanly. Three times is the charm! This climb is almost exclusively finger locks and thin feet. I really had to trust my feet and put as much pressure as possible on them. Many of the finger slots/pods are very good, but some are pretty useless. Trying to apply pressure on the feet while using these almost-useless finger locks didn't work well. On my final attempt I bypassed these and tried instead to reach higher for better jams.

Bird's Nest (5.9) - My lead. Lots of finger pockets. The bottom was harder than the top. Wes says I should have used the face more for my feet and I was making it more difficult for myself than it needed to be. Full value 5.9.

2025 Road Trip - June 26

A short rest before heading up the pitch four hand crack

The weather held out for us in the morning today. It was spitting in the early afternoon, so we decided to drive east into Vermont rather than continue climbing. But it never really started to rain. Temperatures have cooled way off, with highs in the 70's. Our objective this morning was Gamesmanship, another awesome four-pitch climb at Poke-O-Moonshine. Pitch 1 and pitch 4 on this climb both were great, with an off-width on P1 and a splitter hand crack on P4. We climbed far more quickly than we had the previous day.

Gamesmanship (5.8+)

Pitch 1 - Wes's lead. Very tricky start. Fist jams and off-width.

Pitch 2 - My lead. Chossy blocks and cracks.

Pitch 3 - Wes's lead. Very easy climbing through blocky terrain.

Pitch 4 - My lead. Splitter hand crack for 100 feet. Just stellar!

I brought Wes up to the top of pitch 4, and he traversed directly over to the rap slings at the top of the central rappels (same rappels as yesterday).

Kenton starting up the pitch four hand crack

2025 Road Trip - June 25

Yesterday (June 24, 2025) we made the drive all the way from North Carolina up to Lake George, where we spent the night. This morning we made our way casually the rest of the way up to Poke-O-Moonshine wall. What an incredible spot! The weather held out for us - no rain today, and the temps were about 10 degrees cooler than the scorching heat wave that had taken hold until last night. Our objective was The Fastest Gun, a spectacular four-pitch "5.10a". Each pitch on this climb gave full value, from the off-width on P1, to the parallel cracks on P2, the slab on P3, and the challenging roof and corners on P4. I did not climb quickly.

The Fastest Gun (5.10a)

Pitch 1 - Wes's lead. A flake to an offwidth. The offwidth was small enough that I felt secure with my whole arm inside. There were footholds on the outer wall for my left foot which helped make upwards progress. This was followed by jams and laybacks.

Pitch 2 - My lead. Two parallel cracks led to a small roof and easier climbing. Thin fingers and hands.

Above the small roof on pitch 2

Pitch 3 - Wes's lead. A hard slab climb with a very tenuous move near the start protected by a bolt. I was able to do to the move by smearing my foot in the tiny corner below the bolt.

Pitch 4 - My lead. And incredibly strenuous move off the belay to clear a roof and move left. There just were no feet, and the smears felt slippery, too. But the hands were good. I ended up hanging on gear before conquering the move. This was followed by endless moves up a left-facing corner (hands and thin fingers), where I again was forced to pull on gear (black totem?) near the top - here there just weren't any hands at all, just tenuous friction for the feet. A traverse way out left under a large roof was followed by more corner climbing with thin fingers.

At the top we hiked left to the central rappel station and reached the ground in two long rappels (with a short 4th class downclimb).

Finally through the crux near the start of pitch 4 of The Fastest Gun

June 2025 Roadtrip - Day 1 - Moore's Wall

I'm starting a week-and-a-half long road trip from Atlanta up to New York and New Hampshire to try to find some cooler temps for climbing in late June.

June 23, 2025

Climbing at Moore's wall with Wes

Do or Dive (5.10a) - My lead. #6 stopper in diagonal right crack above mini roof crux. Even hot and humid it felt easier than P5 on Groover.

Quaker State (5.11a) - Wes led. Thin features on positive holds. Crux is two-thirds of the way up.

Stab in the Dark (5.10+) - My lead. Bouldery start. I wasted a lot of time placing pro after this (pink tricam and 0.4 Totem under the mini roof), so had to hang on the rope. Moving around the arete, reach high and place a #10 nut in the vertical crack. You can put your entire arm into the crack/hole above this piece (I still had to hang on the rope again after pumping out placing gear). Strenuous moves getting up thru this vertical crack system. 0.75 in the horizontal out left. Then easier climbing with thin/sparse pro to the top.

Nutsweat from below

Nutsweat (5.9+) - Wes led. Starts with large blocky climbing. Moves into a right-facing corner. Finishes with a mini roof. Large holds the whole way. Incredible exposure and views.

View from the top of Nutsweat

Laurel Knob with Derek

 June 20, 2025

I drove up to Highlands, picked up Derek from his hotel, and we made our way to Laurel Knob. We were a bit concerned that it might be too wet to climb, so we were pleased when we arrived to find that most of the climbs were dry. This was only my second time making the hike out to this incredible cliff, and the first one had been a (soggy) bust. We were surprised on the hike out there at the condition of the trail - it doesn't seem like that many people are traveling on this trail these days, and we found ourselves nearly bushwacking on a few occasions.

Our plan was to climb the original Groover line. Derek had been trying to talk me into climbing this for years, and the day had finally arrived when his schedule, mine, and the weather all came together at the same time to make it a possibility.

Groover (5.8+) - We swung leads. I led the first pitch, stopping at the tree at the top. This gave me an opportunity to get my lead-head dialed in for slab climbing, not a style I get to explore very often nor one with which I feel entirely comfortable. I looked around for a set of bolts that Derek told me should be just a bit higher, but I couldn't find them. So, I anchored to the tree and brought him up. My biggest issue here was the ants which kept trying to crawl onto my legs - they have taken up residence in the tree roots. Derek led P2, moving right of the tree into a left-facing corner/crack and up to the main Groover feature. I led P3, following the crack/corner on my left as it arched gradually up and to the right. Over the bulge, I climbed a few more feet before building an anchor under the shadow of the wall on the left. Derek came up, we swapped gear, and he moved up another 20-30 feet to place a high (#4?) piece, clipping it into one of the two (double) ropes we were climbing with. This enabled him to be on toprope for beginning of P4, a downclimb and traverse over the to right, a somewhat dicey sequence following a quartz dike around the corner, down a slope, across one water groove, and up into another water groove before finally finding some decent gear. I led P5 and it sure did push me. There was water running down the groove between my legs the entire time, which meant that no matter how much I wanted to get my legs directly beneath my center of gravity, instead they were always stemming out on tenuous smears and vertical edges at the mouth of the water groove. I was very pleased to find three bolts on this pitch, because it would have felt nearly suicidal without them. Gradually making my way up, making small, careful movements with only friction to hold my feet on the wall in many places, I passed all three bolts and made the crux move. I had reached the thank-God finger pockets and was preparing to readjust my stance and just a bit higher when my foot slipped and I took a tumble. What a disappointment! No clean send today. But at least I wasn't hurt. I got back up, placed two cams in a shallow horizontal crack on the right, and continued on to the tree at the top. Derek led the final pitch and pulled me up to a pair of bolts.

Kenton negotiating P5

We spent a good bit of time trying to decide where we were supposed to descend from here. We thought maybe we were supposed to hike out right to find a different set of bolts, but we were unable to find them. So, Derek made a rappel with a large pendulum to the right to the Forbidden Fruit anchors/belay. I had thought it would be relatively straightforward to continue the rappel from here, but I was mistaken. I made the rap and found the next station relatively easily on the right. Derek went next. But on the fourth rappel I was supposed to bypass the first set of anchors I saw (Forbidden Fruit P4 anchors) and stop at the second set. Well, I only saw one set of anchors. After messing around for a while trying to get back up to these anchors on rappel (and worrying about all the scraping of the rap ropes against the rocks while I was doing this), I ended up tying myself into a single bolt below, and Derek came down. He rigged the rappel 30 feet above me and went down, thinking he would make it to the tree ledge. Well, he passed by the next set of anchors (only about 120 feet below) but didn't make it to the tree ledge. So, we were in reversed roles - he anchored himself to some cams on a ledge, I rappelled down to the rings he had skipped and rigged another rappel there. After a few more shenanigans, we realized that the ropes from here were finally reaching all the way to the base of the climb, and we made it down.

Then there was the final hike out. I had not realized how much downhill we had done on the way in, so I was not so happy to find myself hiking back up again with tired, sore, legs nearly to the top of the Knob. I was seriously dehydrated at this point and losing energy. Getting back to the car, we started driving to Derek's hotel when my entire body cramped up from exercise and dehydration! I found myself pulling over in a parking lot, jumping out of the car, and writhing on the ground while Derek went looking for salt tabs for me to chew on. With the cramps subsiding, I was able to drive back to Atlanta, but I ended up drinking almost a gallon of Gatorade on the drive before my system felt it had enough fluid and electrolytes. Lesson learned: even in the shade, I need more than 2 L of water on a hotter day, and even when the humidity is high. 

Eating salt tabs and waiting for full-body cramps to subside