High Falls
5.8+,
Trad, 210 ft (64 m), 3 pitches,
Avg: 3 from 5
votes
FA: Hugh Dougher, Henry McMahon 1978
Pennsylvania
> Northeast Ridge…
> Delaware Water…
> Mt Minsi
> c. The Practice Face
Access Issue: 2023 Seasonal Falcon Closure
Details
A temporary closure of Mt. Minsi within Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DEWA) to climbing and hiking will be in effect starting February 14, 2023 to protect nesting peregrine falcons.
The closure is: "The cliffs at Mount Minsi from Point of Gap parking lot to Arrow Island parking lot, from the west shoulder of Route 611 to the top of the ridge, in the Pennsylvania District, will be closed to rock climbing and hiking through approximately early August to prevent human disturbance to nesting peregrine falcons."
Official designated trails are not affected by this closure, meaning hikers can still use Arrow Island Trail and the Appalachian Trail. Official trails and maps are located on the park website at:
nps.gov/dewa/planyourvisit/… Closure signage will be posted near the parking areas.
Description
P1 - Move easily up the bottom of the practice wall, thru a short hand crack an past a single pointless bolt to the ledge. Optional belay from here, but it's a straight shot to the next belay.
This pitch is often skipped, you can traverse in via the catwalk ledge from the base of Pussytoes. You can also do this to drop a TR on P1.
P2 - Follow the path of least resistance up the face above to gain the large left facing corner. Either go left of the rotting tree up a small right facing corner then traverse right into the bigger corner further up, or go right of the tree and up some lichen covered rock directly to the bottom of the big corner. Stem up clean rock in the corner to a small belay ledge atop the corner below a long roof.
P3 - Traverse 15 feet right till the roof overhead ends, then move up the face and right facing corner (crux, well protected) to the next roof. Traverse right under this roof with great gear until you can pull up a weakness at it's right end. An optional semi hanging belay here (V1) with your feet in a wide horizontal crack lets you see the second thru the crux and keeps rope drag manageable, otherwise continue up 20 feet to and pull a notch onto a ledge on the right w/ an old tree anchor and belay there. Rope drag will be bad if you opt for the ledge.
P4 - From this final ledge, move up the corner or face to the left of the corner to the top and belay off some trees
V1 - Drifting Arrow Link-Up - from the semi hanging belay, diagonal right up the face to a small ledge and pull the thought provoking crux moves on
Drifting Arrow . Makes the route really worthwhile, protects well throughout.
Location
The climb begins about 30 feet left of the top of the trail from the cold air cave, below an obvious hand-crack.
To descend, traverse carefully to the left corner of the buttress to a smallish tree with two rap-bolts by it's base. There is a tree with slings and rings about 20 feet above this rap station if you need to protect this approach. Rappel on a single 60m rope to a second set of rap-bolts hidden next to the second large tree below.
Protection
Standard rack up to BD #3, some doubles in the .5-#1 sizes usefull. Tricams handy too if you're into that. If doing the drifting-arrow linkup, a #4 bd cam protects the moves after the D.A. crux well, but you can live w/o it.
[Hide Photo] View of the traverse pitch from the belay.
[Hide Photo] High Falls-Drifting Arrow Linkup from the optional semi-hanging belay at the end of the high falls traverse. Moves fairly easily up to a small ledge with a roof pull right above it.
[Hide Photo] The nice direct line of the High Falls-Drifting Arrow linkup. Much better finish than the real finish of high falls.
[Hide Photo] The hand traverse of High Falls. There are some delicate sloping feet. The wall is slightly less than vertical.
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