Moby Grape 

"alpine rock rack"? i was pleased to have a double set of cams, including blue aliens, and if you're not solid on straight-in hands and wide hands then youll want extra #2 and #3 camalots.

great route. every pitch was interesting and it was climbing all the way to the top. double ropes are great on this route.

I went lighter in Reppy's and found that there were many constrictions that would take big hexs.

Got on this one today after a couple years and man it was a blast! what a great route with memorable climbing on almost every pitch...

i had heard that there was a scramble off to the north after the Finger pitch... i had done the normal finish a couple times so i tryed the scramble today... got a little lost (and found a few nice pitches) but no easy scramble to the right... anyone know if it exists or if i was just sand bagged?

well :) today was my first experience of cannon and it was on this route... wow what an eye opening experience! WAY different than any trad i have done before and deffinately more heroing :) but all in all it was a blast :) despite how i may have sounded lee :) cant wait for my next cannon adventure.... and thats exactly what it was .... an adventure :)

Climbed this yesterday and Reppy's is my new favorite pitch. I felt like a single #3 Camalot would have been sufficient and the #3.5/4 was only really useful below the Finger. There's lots of small constrictions in Reppy's where other gear can be used.

There was some fresh rockfall just left of Reppy's. Art Mooney told my partner that it came off the original start in the last few days and may have altered that pitch significantly.

Climbed the Grape yesterday. It is an amazing route, and Reppy's is possibly my favorite pitch led to date! MG is the gift that keeps on giving! Highly recommended.

After exiting the P6 roof, aka "The Cave"; instead of heading up right to finish, finish on Kurt's Corner. The base of its left-facing dihedral will be directly overhead. It is clearly visible to the left of the finish marked in the very nice topo photo.

Just do it! As my partner said to me yesterday at the top after finishing it, "Such a great finish lifts the entire quality of an already high quality climb." I heartily agreed!

Amazing, I have moved this to #1, 5.8 on my list!

Wow. My first Alpine style experience and we had the entire line to ourselves over the October long weekend. Great climb with wild stuff almost the whole way. The step down to the hanging flake off the anchors on the Finger pitch was airy!

Only thing to add is that I'm a 5.8 crag leader and this was a climb a bit over my head. I had to give almost all pitches to my stronger partner for the sake of speed. If this is your limit you might consider doing it in the summer when the days are longer.

Re the Kurt's Corner finish: This was originally done by Phil Koch and partner (whose name I don't know) sometime in the 1970's. Phil took me up it in summer/fall of 1980, and told me about his first ascent of it (which was free), which had taken place some years prior. (I think the current guidebook lists the FA as latter 1980's? I don't have it on me as I write this.)

John -- Jon Sykes' guide notes Kurt Winkler and John Colebaugh 10/86 as the FA. I will point Jamie Cunningham to your post. Jon apparently doesn't do too much "web surfing". Jon is working on a new guide I believe to be called "Secrets of the Notches" to update development in Franconia Notch and the development of several areas up in Kinsman Notch over the last number of years. Would be an opportunity to correct the attribution as warranted based upon your comment. --- Bill

First pitch didn't go with only a single set of 1-3 C4s. figured it was a good sign of things to come, so saving the route until a few more mid sized C4s are purchased. Great first pitch though, hope the rest of the route is as quality!

This route has variety, is sustained, and is steep in a few spots.
I love it.
It's wild. Conditions can change your experience drastically...
for example, last saturday my partner and I got caught behind two groups of 3. We showed up at 10:30 because it had rained the night before and the notch was socked in. The first group of 3 had arrived at 7:30 and we saw them on the 3rd pitch (at the triangle) on the approach. By the time we were at the end of the 3rd pitch we had caught up to them! The last of their group was at the anchor and the second group of 3 was waiting.

Long story short, we ended up climbing the last pitch (including the cruxy-run-out-soaking-wet slab) in the pitch dark.
So did the pair behind us. Good for looking at the stars, not as good for climbing and finding the trail down.
(should have climbed the corner but my route description didn't show that)

Here's a picture of the log jam before the last pitch:

Night falls on the log jam. Submitted By: shaftoe on Aug 4, 2011

yuck! i hate waiting... i would have rapped and done a few other routes instead... glad you made it down safe!

Very nice. I finally finished yesterday on my 4th attempt (1st attempt bailed at the top of Reppy's due to a rescue happening above; 2nd attempt bailed due to thunderstorms at the top of the triangular roof; 3rd attempt bailed because my partner could not push the roof despite his best efforts).

Took a fall on pitch 5/6 (Jay, perhaps you could fix the description from "classic cannon rockaneering"... Jon Sykes' book gives a little better idea) at the fixed pink tricam before the weird move out of the cave and up over the bulge to the belay. Not knowing where the route led, I tried to follow some smudgy chalk lines that went up left from the cave up the dihedral slabby corner. My feet peeled, and I dropped down to the ledge 15 feet below, my left foot hitting the ledge and having just enough rope to absorb the impact of the rest of my body. I immediately got up and figured out the awkward exit out right of the cave. The final pitch and a half was nicer climbing than I anticipated.

Highly recommended, and definitely will repeat.

My partner and I climbed this route yesterday. We were expecting to rap down off the fourth pitch but were enjoying it too much to stop. This lead to an uncomfortable hike down in our climbing shoes but I'm glad I did the whole route.

We climbed the corner variation as described in the Northeast Select Climbs book by Lewis and Horowitz. The corner was good fun and I recommend it. Rather than heading right after the chimney/cave head straight up and set the belay just below a left facing corner. From here we headed up the corner and onto slabby terrain above.

Caution! I used all 70m of my rope and just barely got to a stance where I could put in a few marginal pieces and belay my partner up (right side of slab). I ran out probably 70ft of slab with only a dead tree as mental pro. Wet moss and slab made things even more spicy. Doing it again I would set a belay after the corner at the most convenient spot then do the run out on the slab. That would give enough rope to set a better belay.

Descent: If doing the corner variation you'll end up near some cables we thought were Old Man remnants. This turned out to be untrue. Walk more or less downhill and north. Aim for a rectangular foundation like structure you'll be able to see from where you topped out. There are some faint trails but you'll have to bushwhack a bit. In the process of heading towards this foundation structure you'll pick up on the well used standard descent trail and the waterslide which brings you to the actual Old Man remnants.

My partner and I split while on the descent trail so he could pick up our bags we left at the bottom. There was an obvious branch in the trail, but it dwindled quickly. To the right will bring you to the base of the cliff, but only after some easy 5th class downclimbing according to my partner.

Are all the anchors fixed on this route?

No, it is usually possible to rap off after the first 4 pitches without leaving gear. The rap station at the top of the Triangle Roof (4th) is a thread behind a piece of shit flake. You should plan on building all of your own anchors.

I'll second the 'climb the Kurt's Corner variation'. Very Beautiful dihedral. After the dihedral, head right to find some gear to belay off of.

I set up that rap in 2011 and it was not a shit flake. It fit in all the right places and is made of the highest quality pink Conway granite. Why the sling has stayed I don't know, it was booty. That fat rock horn lower right that is bigger and brownish is risky business to rappel off of or crap in my opinion. I believe size and thickness are not as important as physicality and rock composition.