Snowy Mountain, Adirondacks, New York - Vertebrae climb... also Camping there?

Hi, first time poster here, but love the Mountain project. Thanks in advance for any advice I receive here.

I've spied the Snowy Mt Summit Wall - https://www.mountainproject.com/area/106523335/snowy-mt - and am looking to bring a group of friends sometime this summer to climb what seems like a handful of fantastic routes.  I'm esp interested in the Vertebrae climb, which seems to have some really unique features.  I have noticed from several posts and ticks that the bolts on this climb are less-than-ideal, and it could use some cleaning from the moss as well.  So i'm posting today to find out what goes into this? I have no experience in bolting or cleaning but totally willing to help and learn.  I also understand that its better to contact the local climbers/maintainers of an area rather than just going in and re-bolting something myself (even if i did know what i'm doing).  Can someone point me in the right direction here, who do i contact about climbs in the Adirondacks?

Also, we are considering camping on the mountain in order to have a full day of climbing there, can anyone speak to the camping conditions / space on Snowy Mountain?

Best wishes always,

Brett

It's been a few years since I was up there, but IIRC the bolts are fine; no need to worry about them. Other recollections:

The second pitch of Vertebrae does like to grow moss. Bring a brush. Also be careful of vegetation for the last step or two at the top of the first pitch.

Bring a 4" cam to anchor to at the base. It's a down-sloping grassy ledge with 300 ft under neath you. NOT a place for kids or dogs.

There's a good size flat spot on the left of the trail right where you leave the trail to scramble over (and down a bit) to the base of the face. Assuming you can get 150 ft off the trail, that's a legal camping spot. I'd imagine there are other flat spots closer to the road if you head into the bouldering area.

Oh yeah, that grassy ledge....

An alternative to camping on the mountain is to car camp at one of nearby DEC campgrounds - Lewey Lake or Indian Lake. It's not far from the Snowy Mountain trailhead and if nonclimbers want to come along they can canoe and kayak.

Thanks for the replies! My concern about the bolts comes from these two more recent comments/ticks:

"My partner and I went to climb this route this past weekend. The hanger on the first bolt spun as soon as we touched it and the bolts themselves were rusty. The bolt above it appeared in similar condition. Some maintenance should be done on this route before it is safe to climb again, in my opinion. Looks like an awesome line! Jun 15, 2020"

and

Aug 14, 2022 · 1 pitch. Lead / Fell/Hung. P1 onsight, P2 fell a few times at one spot but with the right beta it went no problem. climb was mossy, made it more difficult than 5.9; would be 4 stars if cleaned and rebolted. 3:1 assisted claire through a few difficult sections of each pitch. approach was a little exposed. bolts were a little rusty but most still seemed solid. topped out by slinging trees in the woods above the fixed anchor for P2. definitely need at least a 70 to consider rapping down

I know a bit of rust and a bolt that needs to be tightened is not the end of the world... but I'm going to be taking some other folks up there and would ideally like to be as safe as possible.  Let me know if you think there's anything we can do about it, i'll gladly spend a day or so up there beforehand and pay for whatever is needed (bolts, etc.).

Otherwise Re: camping, the goal is to get a full day of climbing with a handful of folks, and avoid 5+ hours of hiking within the same day (aka there and back to a nearby camping spot). @Gunkiemike, how many tents do you thing could occupy that spot?  Is there room on the summit as well?

Thanks again!

-Brett

I don't recall enough detail to say how many tents you could fit there. And camping at the summit isn't an option: trees are tight IIRC and you'd be too close to the trail i.e. not legal.

Awesome, I think i'll try to scout it out sometime before taking a group up there.  Thanks again!

I'll be going up to do some of these climbes soon! I'll bring a wire brush - any suggestions on what kind of brush i should use (or avoid) to not damage anything?  A quick search tells me the Adirondacks are Gneiss ...

Don’t know specifically about Snowy, but the most common rock in the ADK is anorthosite

Alan Rubin wrote:

Don’t know specifically about Snowy, but the most common rock in the ADK is anorthosite

Most of the rock outside of the high peaks is made up of non-anorthositic gneisses. However, Snowy is indeed in a small pocket of anorthosite. It is my understanding that local practice is to use wire brushes everywhere.

My tag along brush is brass bristles. But even steel bristles don't seem to damage ADK rock. So maybe any old BBQ grill brush.

Nice thanks! I got a set of brass and steel brushes. I’ll be nice to the rocks!

Side note: where do you find the rock makeup info? That’s all super interesting.

There’s a geology section with a nice map in the Lawyer/Haas guidebook

a small wench fixes the spinning hanger issue. 

Thanks everyone for your tips! My climbing partner Greg and I went out earlier this week and had a blast.  We did every climb on the upper pitches but Redneck on a rope, so we owe that on our next trip.  Did vertebrae, while super heady for me (not very experienced with friction moves), I got through it and those vertebrae features were really cool! I brought a brush and cleaned quite a few holds off, but to do the whole climb would take a full day.  The top little section right before the anchors needs the most cleaning, its a bit sketch with a ton of moss and with the position of the anchor I was just a bit short to get the chains without traversing around it on the Right. Again, someone more comfortable with slab friction moves might feel otherwise.

We also noticed 2 uncharted bolt lines inbetween Redneck and Vertabrae, we didn't try them but they looked like they were in the 5.11 range.  Anyone know more about these lines? The dead end line (far L) also looked like it had some additional bolts above what the book says.

The climber path was not so easy to find, because the main marked trail sorta sprawls out near the steeper sections its easy to be on one of the off-shoots and miss it. I would guess its about 5 or so minutes of walking down from the obvious clearing on the summit (on the Right going down, or the Left going up).  There were no blue blazes on the climber path (or we didnt find them), like the book mentions.  Getting to the grassy ledge is a bit of an adventure in itself and i'm pretty sure we never did it the same way twice.  Otherwise we ran out of time to get to the lower slabs, no clear path that we could see, but would certainly be doable.

Camping-wise we were able to fit 2 small tents easily around the spot where the climber-path starts, and used the area right around the cairn for cooking.  Otherwise we also noticed that there was more camping space past the clearing near the summit (unmarked path continues there), a bit further away from the climber-path.  It was well over 150 ft away from the marked trail, as far as I know thats legal.

Those are my findings... amazing location and fantastic climbing!

-Brett

Glad to hear that you had a good time.