Seneca: Retro TR.

[brooke]

Larry Lindeman has posted on rec.climbing a few times recently and
that got me to thinking about the last time I climbed with Larry. It
was also the last time I did any hard climbing. A lot of life happened
to me between then and now and not much of it involved climbing. I
have started climbing again but my recent outings have all involved
plastic and tape. Rather than bore you, gentle reader, with tales of
the tape, I will relive some of my burly days ...

WARNING! This post contains beta on specific climbs at Seneca Rocks:
Sunshine, Conn's East Direct, Castor, Pollux, Orangeade, and Crack of
Dawn. If you want to maintain the purity of your onsight attempt of
any of these climbs, DO NOT continue reading this post.

Goosebumps and a rush of excitement when catching sight of Seneca's
twin summits from US-33. Get the gear and hump double-time to the crag
-- hey, there are John and Darius just coming down from Ecstasy. What
good timing and look, there's Sunshine just asking to be lead. Do you
guys mind if I give it a go?

Okay, just try to catch my breath and wipe the sweat from my eyes
after churning up the west face approach trail. Hmmm. It looks kind of
thin ... but hey, there is a bolt up there. All I have to do is clip
that. Rack up with some thin stuff and start out. Frig, frig, frig a
couple of placements and I'm not going anywhere. I'm coming down.
Studying the face doesn't do much to illumiate things so I head up
again and get a little higher and frig, frig, frig some more gear.
Take! Take on this shit? It'll hold body-weight at least. Lower me
John.

I wipe some more sweat from my face. Thin, god it's thin. Nods all
around. Yup, it's thin all right. Let's try this again. Up, up. Less
frigging this time and I'm happy as a clam to finally clip that bolt.
Feels more secure but still tricky and then the roof/overlap and it's
cake. Style to the belay and feel like a hardman. John and Darius
boost my ego by grumbling about how thin it is as they follow.

Broadway. Run up Pollux. Quick and sweet but I've been on it before.
It was easier than the bouldery start of Castor -- which I did my
previous trip. But it's time for the payoff. Another thin rack.
Another thin crack but not quite as thin as Sunshine. Last time I was
on Orangeade, I hung and fell. I know I can do it. I can make the
moves. And that is one sweet crack. Tip-toe left from the belay and
get a piece into the crack. Make some delicate moves and get into a
place-and-go rhythm. Yeah, this time I know where the placements are
and I know when I'm entering the business district. If I can just get
that thin finger lock and move up to catch the big sloper with just
enough lip to make it positive. This is hard. There is that scoop over
to the right that is great for a foot. I saw it last time. I can make
the move if I use it. Fuck it, I'm outside and I'm gonna use anything
within reach. No. This crack deserves purity and I refrain ... and I'm
off. I can't believe it. I was there. If I'da used that scoop.

The summit is sweet. A rolling sidewalk on the top of a fin. I never
spend enough time up there since I'm always in a hurry to get to the
next pitch. I didn't drive eight hours for pretty scenery. Now that's
a shitty attitude.

Face of a Thousand Pitons. Cottonmouth or Crack of Dawn? Crack of Dawn
is just there and so sweet looking. The line is obvious and elegant.
Can't miss it. Cottonmouth looks devious. Crack of Dawn it is. Still,
I hem and haw and procrastinate and then just decide to do it. Larry
is up to second. Lucky Larry. Wanna lead the first pitch of
Marshall's? No? Okay, I'll do it. What is that pitch, like 30 feet?
It's hard and the climbing above is supposed to get harder. Larry
follows and hangs out at the semi-hanging stance. I look up and feel
intimidated and just go. Pick my way up Marshall's and stuff myself
inside the crack and calm down a little before the traverse into Crack
of Dawn proper. The traverse is well chalked and I figure that pulling
the little roof at the end of the traverse is the crux. I start the
traverse and balk and then motor. Throw a hand in the crack above the
roof and slot a #2 Camalot high. Pull the roof, wow that wasn't hard,
and slot another cam. Bam. There it is. The crux. The crack just fills
in and there is some king of shallow nook for a few fingers and then
the crack opens up a body length above. How about feet? Crappy rounded
nubbins.

Quit farting around and get this over with. God this is hard. There
must be some easier way but I'm in the shit now. My salvation is just
above where the crack opens again. That better be a killer finger lock
and holy fucking shit it is! Bam, bam, bam and I'm cruising up
moderate hand crack. Fucking-A. At the anchor and that was sooooo
fucking sweet I can't believe how sweet that was that was totally
sweet! Fucking-A! Did I mention how totally fucking sweet that was?
That was just fucking sweet.

Broadway again. Last day and we're leaving after this. Looks like
rain. Matt got talked into letting me try Orangeade again. Matt can't
figure out the start to Conn's East Direct. It's the crux and falling
there might kind of suck since you could roll down the ledge and off
Broadway -- if you don't have a belay anchor that is. Still it is kind
of hard on the lead head. He's not up to it and I bound up (done that
one before too which helps) to the belay ledge.

Orangeade redux, redux. I know the rack this time and take what I know
I'll place. Again. Move left and place-and-go. Hit the business
district and there is that damn scoop again. I use it. I sully the
purity of the crack and put my foot out there, place the gear, move up
and get that sloper with plenty of juice to pull on through. I'm at
the anchors and I got it. But I used that scoop and maybe I might have
got it if I hadn't used the scoop. We rapped and on the hike down it
started to rain. And I've never been back.

[Michael A. Riches]

in article 9474e650.02041...@posting.google.com, brooke at
bho...@earthlink.net wrote on 4/16/02 6:09 PM:

> WARNING! This post contains beta on specific climbs at Seneca Rocks:
> Sunshine, Conn's East Direct, Castor, Pollux, Orangeade, and Crack of
> Dawn. If you want to maintain the purity of your onsight attempt of
> any of these climbs, DO NOT continue reading this post.
>

Bwaaaa Haaaa Haaaa....Suuuuure....I deleted the post before I read it,
Yep...They'll definitely still be onsights....

Thanks Brooke, enjoyed your TR. It is safely locked away for this years
voting,

Ratzzz...(but since I can't read it, how can I judge it...??? Snicker,
snicker...)

[Larry Lindeman]

What Brooke fails to mention, IIRC, is that this trip was over Labor Day weeked.
He hadn't climbed all summer because he was busy taking classes. I hadn't
climbed all summer either, because, at the time, I was living in Columbus, Ohio,
where even the gym sucks. The two of us were trying to climb 5.10 at Seneca off
the couch.

Brooke led the climbs without a problem.

I would climb a few feet, hang, rinse and repeat. Living in Columbus sucks the
life out of you.

-Larry