North Conway - Cathedral And Whitehorse

Thursday afternoon, I arrived in North Conway, New Hampshire. I stopped by International Mountain Equipment, one of the gear shops in town, to ask about free camping, then, after messing around in town a bit, and locating the EMS store where i was to meet Jan on Saturday morning, headed up to the White Mountains National Forest to find a campsite. It ended up being one of the prettier places I've stayed on my trip. It is also the first time I setup a tent. I didn't sleep in it, though. I just wanted to save the spot.

My campsite on the creek.

Friday, I sat in the park and read, hung out at the library mooching internet, did some shopping, and generally bummed around town. Saturday morning, I met up with Jan. If you rappel from routes at Cathedral or Whitehorse, you need two ropes, so Jan, impulsively, ran into EMS and bought a set of double (a.k.a. half) ropes. Half ropes are smaller in diameter, and, hence, lighter than single ropes, and you lead on a pair of them (tied into both), clipping gear alternately with one then the other (more or less). We then headed out to Cathedral Ledge, and climbed Thin Air, an area classic 5.6. I forgot to bring my camera up on this climb, but don't worry, I got plenty of pictures on everything else we did! I was actually a little underwhelmed with Thin Air. It was fun, but didn't really feel like a "classic" to me. After this, and a 5.8 pitch we did from the ledge above (Pine Tree Eliminate), we decided to try a 5.9 called Recompense. The final pitch of this climb is a phenomenal looking dihedral. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the final pitch. I led the first two pitches (5.6 and 5.7) and Jan was going to lead the last 2 (5.8+ and 5.9). When Jan started up the third pitch however, it looked dirty and vegetated and we weren't really sure of the route, and Jan, feeling a little intimidated, decided to back off. I didn't feel up to trying to fight my way up the crux pitches, so we rappelled from the bolted anchors at the top of the second pitch. Honestly, I never really felt 100% sure I was on route on the first two pitches. The climbing didn't seem to have much to do with what was described in the book. Sometimes, though, that's the way it goes. We did end up at a ledge with bolted anchors, as described, and we could see the perfect corner of the last pitch above us, so we assumed we were in the right place. I will have to go back another day to finish this one.

Jan following pitch 1 of Recompense.

Sunday morning, we headed to Whitehorse Ledge, the southern-most of the two large granite knobs above North Conway (the other being Cathedral).

Whitehorse Ledge from the road. I couldn't get a good shot of Cathedral.

Despite being right next to each other, Whitehorse and Cathedral feature climbs of very different character. Whitehorse is primarily long, featureless, friction slab climbing. Protection is...let us say...sparse, and, sometimes, questionable. No matter how bad the pro looks, though, when you get it you place it, because who knows how long it will be until you get another piece?

For our first climb at Whitehorse, we set out to do Sea of Holes (5.7). After 3 of 4 pitches, it started raining, and we had to rappel off. The rain only lasted an hour or so, though, and good sun had the slaps dry in no time, except for the bottom 30 feet or so, where the tree cover blocked the sun, and, in places, that was dry-ish too. We wanted to do 3 pitches of the Stadtmuller-Griffin Route (to the left of Sea of Holes), then finish the pitch we didn't get to do in the morning. The first pitch of S-G was very wet, however, but the SoH start was mostly dry, so Jan climbed the first pitch of SoH, then linked it over to the first belay on S-G, and from there we proceeded as planned.

Looking down the first pitch of Sea Of Holes. Note the lack of protection. The first pitch is a 45 meter, or so, 5.2 solo. There is no opportunity for gear, that I could see.

Looking out from the first or second belay on Sea Of Holes. Cathedral Ledge can be seen on the left.

Me at the first pitch belay.

Looking up at the final pitch of Sea of Holes. The 5.7 crux is pulling over the bulge to the left of the dihedral in the middle of the picture. It really looks impossible until you get up there, but is actually very doable and well-protected with a bolt (one of the few, outside of anchors, that I saw here).

Looking down on Sea of Holes (center) and Stadtmuller-Griffin (right). I just liked the patterns in the rock.

Monday, we got up early (ugh) to get some climbing in, while leaving Jan plenty of time to drive back to New Jersey. We went back to Cathedral Ledge, to climb Funhouse (5.7), and then topped out on Black Lung (5.8) and the second pitch of Upper Refuse (5.5). It was a fun morning and we were done by 1:00PM or so.

Me and Jan at a belay (on Funhouse, I think). You told me to smile. I aim to please. :-)

Me at the top of Upper Refuse. Jan takes nice pictures!

Jan at the top of Cathedral Ledge. In retrospect, I should have had him pose like he was throwing a rock. Alas, for lost opportunities. I wonder how many thousands of climbers have pictures of themselves posed like they are throwing a rock, next to this sign?

Tuesday, I had hoped to climb at Cannon Cliff, but it didn't work out, so, instead, I drove to Bangor, Maine. More on those adventures in the next installment....

Route List for May 23-25

• Thin Air (4 pitches, but we did it in 2, 5.6 Trad, but I may have made it 5.7 :->) (Onsight pitch 1-2, TR clean pitch 3-4)
• Pine Tree Eliminate (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
• Recompense Pitch 1-2 (5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
• Sea of Holes (4 pitches, 5.7 Trad) (Onsight pitches 1,3, and 4, TR clean pitch 2)
• Stadtmuller-Griffin Route Part of Pitch 1, pitches 2 and 3 (5.5-6 Trad) (Onsight pitch 2, TR clean pitch 1 and 3)
• Funhouse (2 pitches, 5.7 Trad) (Onsight Pitch 1, TR clean pitch 2)
• Black Lung (5.8 Trad) (TR clean)
• Upper Refuse Pitch 2 (5.5 Trad) (Onsight)