Andy enjoying some nice mid-morning bouldering
I haven’t written in about two weeks unfortunately, but funny thing about rain every weekend, it tends to thwart weekend adventures. Fortunately I’ve been able to dip my toes into the adventurous deep end this past week. Two trips here are worth noting, one being a morning bouldering trip, and the other a little bit of climbing reconnaissance.
Green Lake
Despite rainy weekends (the last being a lovely trip up to Lauren’s camp), I was able to get a little bit of mid-week climbing in. Luckily my buddy Andy works nights, so I knew who to get a hold of to get out for a mid-week morning climb. Andy hadn’t been to the spot that I suggested when we agreed on a morning, so once again I was able to play guide as well. This is what I thought at least but when we got out there I remembered how undeveloped this place really was, so we were close to being on the same page this time.
The spot was Green Lake in Maine and I admittedly chose this place because there is a lot of potential here for further development and on this trip, that was my goal. I was planning on a general area in this overall location where I would try for my own first ascent. First things first though it was warm up time, so Andy and I busted out the guide book and looked for some nice V1s to get the blood flowing. Approaching the closest boulder cluster to the parking spot we found the lovely “Origins” boulder to get started. I started by climbing a nice V1 while giving Andy some beta and chalking the holds after. Andy saw my moves, stepped up, made a move, and sliced his finger on the first crimpy pinch of the problem. Good thing every responsible climber carries a roll of athletic tape…….right? A tissue was all we could muster so Andy shrugged and we continued climbing, in true spirit. After projecting a V4 for a while (and both finishing it) we decided to take a walk in the woods in search of a few more V1s that seemed to lay at the bottom of a hill about 200 feet away. This walk in the woods ended up being just that since we walked farther than 200 feet without finding the boulders we were looking for. We knew the boulders were there but we decided that it was first ascent time, so we made our way over to one of the more undeveloped sections of this location.
After some searching around the larger boulders that lay in a clearing, we stumbled on a short arete on one of the smallest of these boulders, and we knew this was it. We immediately found some awesome crimps in great position, with a juggy hold near the top out. After a few goes (and some awkward feet) I was able to send and top out making the first ascent of “Out on a Limb,” named for the tree that serves as your final obstacle on the top out.
“Out on a Limb”, V1+
After the first ascent we bushwhacked around a little more to look for some of the “projects” that were listed in the area. We found a few of them (all being very hard) and decided after a few hours that we were cut up, bit up, and pumped out, so time to go home!
All in all this was a great trip and I always enjoy hanging out with Andy. We will hopefully be exploring some of the other areas near us soon, so get ready for some more first ascent goodness! 🙂
Approach to “Daggett Rock”
Daggett Rock
So this rainy weekend I decided to go home to see my folks, do some cooking, and get a little bit of overdue exploring around home in while Lauren went up to her camp to spend some quality time with her folks (it’s amazing how much you can miss someone after one weekend!). While I didn’t necessarily intend to climb it, I brought my shoes and my bouldering mat to “Daggett Rock,” which is in Phillips, ME. I was told that this rock was massive all around, and it was about 25ft high. After visiting it today my jaw immediately dropped, this rock is huge! I would say that at the higher points this rock is much higher than 25ft, and has many interesting and unique features.
Looking through the split in the middle
The rock itself is actually split into three pieces where looking at it from the trail that brings you there from the road, one of the largest boulders is straight ahead, the smaller of the three to the right of that, and the boulder furthest back is about as big as the first. When approaching the boulder I immediately noticed some awesome features. I’m not sure if I would actually boulder this rock on some of the higher parts, but I was able to find a few cracks that seem like they would eat up trad gear pretty well. If someone was motivated (and aesthetic value pending) it would be awesome to see a few bolts go up on some parts of these boulders. In most parts it seems like it would be fairly easy to walk off, or at least a few trees that could be rappelled from.
A nice crack on the smallest boulder
All in all, while I don’t have any actual climbing stories here yet stay posted for some, because come fall Brad, Lauren and I will definitely be making a trip here to see what we can do. Just knowing that something like this exists out on a small path in the middle of nowhere is satisfaction enough! 🙂
To sunnier days!
Keep on the sunny side!
Sunny Side Out 