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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
Warning Access Issue: 2023 Seasonal Falcon Closure DetailsDrop down

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.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Starting the corner into the traverse
[Hide Photo] Starting the corner into the traverse
Following on the traverse pitch, Nov 2022
[Hide Photo] Following on the traverse pitch, Nov 2022
View of the traverse pitch from the belay.
[Hide Photo] View of the traverse pitch from the belay.
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] 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.
The nice direct line of the High Falls-Drifting Arrow linkup.  Much better finish than the real finish of high falls.
[Hide Photo] The nice direct line of the High Falls-Drifting Arrow linkup. Much better finish than the real finish of high falls.
The hand traverse of High Falls.  There are some delicate sloping feet.  The wall is slightly less than vertical.
[Hide Photo] The hand traverse of High Falls. There are some delicate sloping feet. The wall is slightly less than vertical.
Ryan on the crux traverse pitch of High Falls.
[Hide Photo] Ryan on the crux traverse pitch of High Falls.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Larry S
Easton, PA
  5.8+
[Hide Comment] The bottom between the ledge and the corner, and the top above the last ledge could use a little cleaning, but the middle bit is very high quality for a route at the gap. There is (currently) a shoebox size flake/block on the face at the start of the crux that you can really wrap your hand around, but be carefull, it's a bit loose. The traverse after the crux is not to be missed. Jun 25, 2012
Larry S
Easton, PA
  5.8+
[Hide Comment] The loose flake previously mentioned is now very loose. It is possible to do the move without it. Might need to get up there with a crowbar. Nov 2, 2014
Jamie Severini
Roosting Northeast
[Hide Comment] The loose block Larry mentioned is now gone, four years later. It was hanging on by a thread after encountering/ avoiding it a few times. Despite the Gap receiving little traffic it seemed unwise to let a 25lb block balance precariously directly over the practice face / trail. Hopefully this doesn't degrade the route from 8+, although there is now a much better foot placement moving up the corner. If you protect the base of the corner and step wide out right, you can make a few techy moves up the face to meet the hand traverse 8 ish feet out of the corner. I think this brings the rating into 9 but I don't have much reach and a few positive holds were found above my first face move, someone let me know what they think if you give it a go. Oct 30, 2018
Larry S
Easton, PA
  5.8+
[Hide Comment] If you're doing the drifting arrow linkup, a large cam (bd #4) is great to have after the D.A. crux. Jun 1, 2019
[Hide Comment] Definitely didn’t feel 5.8 especially considering the other 5.8+ routes at the gap. I’d recommend doing the drifting arrow linkup as the last corner is boring til you get the the webbed tree. Don’t attempt to go through final corner as I did and found it very hard and had to stem off tree. At top was very grassy no pro and lots of loose rock Oct 6, 2022
Eric Manning
Central NJ
 
[Hide Comment] Great climb! Start on top of practice face, climb to obvious roof system. The traverse is the best part. Great exposure, poor feet, but good hands. Good gear throughout. May want to bring doubles (or triples+) of #1 Cams. Went up face for the final pitch. Some grass pulling to top out. Nov 14, 2023
Payton Pan
Ogden
[Hide Comment] Just attempted the linkup to final pitch of Drifting Arrow, where a large (two body widths) block seems to be detached from the wall now. If pulled off, this wouldn't harm your belayer way off to the side, but would definetly cut your rope, so make sure your rope stays on top of this! I ended up backing off and finishing up the original dihedral, which was fun climbing until the grass-pulling topout. Jun 6, 2024