Alpine training and spring climbing in the Adirondacks
Dan is headed out to Washington soon for some alpine climbing in the Cascades (Rainier's Kautz route) and after we climbed several backcountry ice and backcountry/alpine routes this winter, he's been putting in solid time fitness training at home too.
But there's no substitute for actual time in the mountains, so he came up for a weekend of spring climbing. Saturday was cold and wet, but that didn't stop us from putting on the mountain boots and heading up the Eagle Slide (1300', 5.0, +/- 3300', 8 mi.) It was just about as cold and slick as we'd want to climb it, but it defintely added a real 'alpine' challenge and kept our attention the whole way. (Many thanks to Jan at the Mountaineer for the excellent bootfitting- Dan's new La Sportiva Trango Evos fit perfectly and he definitely put them right to the test that day!)
Our positive energy paid off too- Sunday was (finally) an absolutely stellar spring day- so we kept working the legs on a climb of Chapel Pond Slab's Empress Route (700' 5.6) and then hiked up to Owl's Head for an afternoon crack climbing session on a few short but sweet moderate cracks up there.
So are the Adirondacks good training for the Cascades or are the Cascades good training for the Adirondacks? The answer is 'Yes'...it's all good!
