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4th of July Weekend Crowds

Gunkiemike · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2009 · Points: 3,492

So go slab (friction) climbing. And I don't mean Little Finger at Rogers Rock.

Lynn Evenson · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2015 · Points: 60

Thinkin my back yard with its chairs and beers is lookin real good...

Travis Dustin · · Mexico Maine · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 1,665

Anyone been to Rumney this weekend? How crowded was it? I'm thinking of going tomorrow.

rocknice2 · · Montreal, QC · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 3,847

Keene Valley and Cascade Pass had very light traffic. Even less than your average weekend.

Kes Yogeswaran · · Arlington, MA · Joined Aug 2014 · Points: 5

Rumney seemed to have lighter traffic than normal on the 4th

Dan Flynn · · Northeast mostly · Joined May 2009 · Points: 5,065

Cannon was nearly empty yesterday, except for wg. We had moby grape to ourselves in the afternoon.

Nick Goldsmith · · Pomfret VT · Joined Aug 2009 · Points: 440

one other truck @ Wheeler but seems like that is all there ever is these days post pin on the great corner.....

Travis Dustin · · Mexico Maine · Joined Jan 2012 · Points: 1,665

Rumney wasn't as busy as expected on Sunday!!! It did take 2 hours to get to tilton driving south on 93 due to a nasty accident though.

Lothian Buss · · Durango, CO · Joined Jul 2014 · Points: 15

Went up to crane mountain in the Adirondacks. It was very quiet there, but probably always is. Sounds like in years to come, go climbing on the 4th!

Kevin Heckeler · · Las Vegas, NV · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 1,616
Jim Lawyer wrote:Crowds in the Dacks? Seriously? There's more than 3100+ routes here (not counting the 140+ new routes since the beginning of last summer).
How many 'classics' are 5.8 or easier? There's a lot of us (majority?) that don't lead 5.10 trad. That causes congestion on busier days. I would probably feel the same if I could climb just about anything in the park, but I'm unfortunately limited to what I'm limited to.
Kevin Heckeler · · Las Vegas, NV · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 1,616
Lothian Buss wrote:Went up to crane mountain in the Adirondacks. It was very quiet there, but probably always is. Sounds like in years to come, go climbing on the 4th!
Crane is typically quiet, that's one of the reasons to climb there.

Beware of drawing assumptions based on posts on mountain project. Only a tiny percentage of the climbing community is active here. To get actual/accurate numbers you would need to seek out climbers and poll them.
Bill Kirby · · Keene New York · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 480
Kevin Heckeler wrote: How many 'classics' are 5.8 or easier? There's a lot of us (majority?) that don't lead 5.10 trad. That causes congestion on busier days. I would probably feel the same if I could climb just about anything in the park, but I'm unfortunately limited to what I'm limited to.
There's a lot of good routes sub 5.8! I would name a few but I don't wanna see your punk ass out there!! Haha.. Classic? I don't know what that even means but check out Contos. A 5.3 thats never busy and many climbing the 5.8 next door said was fun for the grade. You just talked about Crane. How many empty easy routes are up there? Make some friends or get out and explore. Nobody's going to hold your hand here and blow up their spots. You going to tell me in December it's too crowded cause you don't lead WI5?

You're a stronger leader than me and I'm always going something different.I'm starting to think you like to argue about whatever. You Irish?
Kevin Heckeler · · Las Vegas, NV · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 1,616
Bill Kirby wrote: There's a lot of good routes sub 5.8! I would name a few but I don't wanna see your punk ass out there!! Haha.. Classic? I don't know what that even means but check out Contos. A 5.3 thats never busy and many climbing the 5.8 next door said was fun for the grade. You just talked about Crane. How many empty easy routes are up there? Make some friends or get out and explore. Nobody's going to hold your hand here and blow up their spots. You going to tell me in December it's too crowded cause you don't lead WI5? You're a stronger leader than me and I'm always going something different.I'm starting to think you like to argue about whatever. You Irish?
Huh? You realize I've been climbing for a while, right? Been to just about every area within 20 minutes of the car? Look at my tick list if you don't want to be presumptuous [granted it's not 100% since I only became a member here in 2010]. And yes, there's plenty of moderates on Crane. It sounds like you need some more time with the guide, not me.

Jim knows exactly what I'm talking about.

Contos is fine for what it is, but it certainly isn't on par with any of the quality (bolted) stuff to the right. I would rather stay home than drive up to the high peaks to climb Contos as a consolation prize. That is a defining element of a classic - if all you climbed that day, would this one climb make it worth the trip? Something truly classic would be yes. Even if you relax the quality requirement to 4/5 stars there just aren't that many in the park, and of those only a certain percent at or below 5.8 . Sure, we all have our favorite 2 or 3 star climbs but the undoubtedly awesome classics are fewer. Hence the lines that form on the busiest weekends.

BTW, you're telling me about a climb I submitted, left out apparently because no one else thought it worthy.

mountainproject.com/v/conto…

An ADK line is much different from a Gunks line. At the Gunks, you either accept your fate and wait, or keep walking until you land on something open (which means you could walk for quite a while). In the ADKs there isn't always a plan B climb next door. Areas are spread out and/or have a limited number of moderate routes. [Quadrophenia being a prior example]

Barkeater is probably one of the better areas with moderates that doesn't always get overrun [it can get busy though since there's a guiding business at the trailhead].
Bill Kirby · · Keene New York · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 480

Huh back? What does your years of climbing have to do with anything? I could have 15 years under my belt and get on here and whine about crowds on moderates. Just cause you been going out climbing for however long doesn't mean you made friends who know the area or have explored. More time with the guide? Huh back? I've paged through my book plenty.. That's why I'm not the one who can't get away from crowds.

Deflate your chest, Contos is an example. I wasn't telling you to go climb it for the first time. I'm saying nobody's on it. It's fun for the grade. You say easy.. Contos is easy and empty. You could hit the Sword and Rockahilic for plan B most busy weekends. Tilman's and Tanger face for plan B. Real busy? Tongue Mountain, anything other than Little Finger on Rogers Slab. I could go on but this busy weekend you talk about.. I never see it so.

Barkeater.. Now you're talking. No ADks aren't the Gunks. Isn't that a good thing?

Kevin Heckeler · · Las Vegas, NV · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 1,616
Kevin Heckeler wrote:In the ADKs there isn't always a plan B climb next door. Areas are spread out and/or have a limited number of moderate routes. [Quadrophenia being a prior example]
.
Kevin Heckeler · · Las Vegas, NV · Joined Jul 2010 · Points: 1,616

Remember this all got started when people suggested hiking a bit further would ensure you wouldn't see many people/risk not getting on the climb you want. I agreed and defended the point. I'm not the one being argumentative.

It seems that mountain project members can either show up anytime and get on the climbs they want or happily settle for anything nearby that's open. That's fine, but not everyone is content with that. Some people only get to the ADKs on occasion and don't want to climb the mediocre routes in their one or two times/year [on a long holiday weekend there's many more of these climbers than usual]. I'm getting that way in my one or two times a week (assuming weather cooperates). Life's too short to climb just anything.

A climber's ability only further narrows the pool of desirable climbs. People do have standards. We're allowed to. I've done enough shitty climbs to appreciate (and even seek out) the good ones.

MaxSuffering · · KVNY · Joined Jul 2012 · Points: 0
Lothian Buss wrote:Went up to crane mountain in the Adirondacks. It was very quiet there, but probably always is. Sounds like in years to come, go climbing on the 4th!
Glad to hear it, and glad you didn't let the naysayers turn you off of coming up here to climb. Crane is a really cool place with some great climbing across the grades, I need to spend more time down there.

"Beware of drawing assumptions based on posts on Mountain Project." I couldn't agree more!

How many classic routes are 5.8 and under? I count 232 (not including the ones put up last summer) three, four and five-star routes 5.8+ and under in the current guidebooks. I'm sure they were all packed this weekend, other than the ones I did, because I'm apparently magic when it comes to finding open routes. My total time waiting in line this weekend: zero minutes, and I even spent a good part of one day at the Beer Walls of all places.

Some people get out and get after it. Some people sit and complain that the routes are too hard, the approaches are too long, the blackflies are too bad, there's going to be too many people, Jim only gives the route two stars, their underwear's too tight... whatever.

If you can "only" climb 5.8 your options are going to be limited in lots of areas, not just the Adirondacks. Sounds like a good opportunity to set some goals and figure out how to attain them, maybe do some training, maybe find a way to climb more and improve. Trust me there's lots of folks who climb harder than 5.8 who are hardly exceptional athletes, just regular guys and gals doing what they enjoy. I've always said that being a solid 5.10 leader is attainable for the vast majority of people who are really motivated to make it happen and put the time in. Of course sitting around pissing and whining and bullshitting yourself that you don't care about climbing harder is WAY easier.
beensandbagged · · smallest state · Joined Oct 2013 · Points: 0

I will chime in here, I just returned from the Daks (for me a 5 hour drive) Thursday thru Monday climbed three days saw one other person at the crags we visited. Did some great routes, got our asses kicked on another great route (find the retreat gear and it is yours) and happily got sandbagged (our opinion) on another quality route,that we did finish) Can't beat the park. We use to (a while back) call it the Rockyrondacks and it has lived up to its nickname. All the routes we did or didn't do are in the guidebook and have stars.

Luc-514 · · Montreal, QC · Joined Nov 2006 · Points: 12,506

Great way to aboard good times in a great environment

Jim Lawyer · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2006 · Points: 6,116
Kevin Heckeler wrote: Jim knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Really???
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Northeastern States
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