EXPLORERAdirondack !16

BY PHIL BROWNEXPLORER STAFF

This story starts in 1896. That year, onAug. 20, Newell Martin and a com-panion, Milford Hathaway, ascended

the vast rock cirque on the South Face ofGothics—no ropes, no helmets, no pitons,nothing at all to protect them from a deadlyfall. Martin’s notes constitute one of the ear-liest accounts of a rock climb in the UnitedStates.

Ed Palen, owner of the Rock and River guide service inKeene, rates Martin’s ascent about 5.4 in difficulty, on thetraditional rock-climbing scale of 5.0 to 5.10 (the scalenow goes higher). In climbers’ parlance, it is a fifth-classroute, one that most people today would not do withoutspecial equipment.

“It’s probably the first recorded fifth-class ascent in thiscountry,” Palen said. “You can’t really say it was the firsttechnical climb, because they didn’t use a rope.”

Martin, a lawyer and Yale graduate, was one of the pre-mier Adirondack hikers of his generation. In 1875, heclimbed the trailless Sawteeth Mountain at the foot ofLower Ausable Lake. In 1894, when he was 40, he set arecord by climbing six High Peaks, including Mount

Marcy, in one day, bushwhacking much of the way. Thatrecord, incidentally, was broken 36 years later by a coupleof other strong hikers—Bob and George Marshall, the firstto climb all 46 High Peaks (no, not in one day).

On Gothics, Martin and Hathaway ascended via a verti-cal crack in the cliff, wedging in the toe of a boot, straight-ening that leg, wedging in the toe of the other boot,straightening that leg, and so on. Whenthey reached the end of the crack, itappeared they had no place to go. Theymust have been about 400 feet up.

“Luckily I saw a foothold projectingon the cliff to our left,” Martin wrote.“By standing on my right foot andspreading myself against the rock andstretching my left leg I could just get myleft toe on this foothold. It was disagree-able to do this, as there was no handholdand the only comfort to be had lay inpressing as close against the cliff as pos-sible. I am used to high places, but Ifound it well not to look down whilemaking this traverse. As soon as I got myleft foot firmly on the foothold I drewmy right leg after me and soon foundmyself, with a little climbing, on a comfortable projec-tion six inches wide on which I could stand against thecliff.”

Sound like fun? I thought so, too. In early September, I

asked Nyle Baker, my daughter’s boyfriend, to accompa-ny me to the South Face. If possible, we would duplicateMartin’s climb—with ropes and protective gear, of course.

We arrived at St. Huberts just before 8 a.m. In the park-ing lot, we met two middle-aged guys who asked wherewe were going. We told them. The ensuing conversationwent something like this:

“A friend of mine climbed the FingerSlide on the North Face a few weeksago,” one said.

“Really?” I replied. “I did that myselfrecently.”

“My friend wrote an article about thetrip. It was in the Albany Times Union.”

“You mean Alan Wechsler?” I answered,astonished. “That was me he was with.”

“Wait a minute. Are you Phil Brown?”“Yes.”“Do you know who I am?”“Jim Close?”“That’s right. Glad to finally meet

you.”I knew Jim was a hiking buddy of

Alan’s. Readers of the Adirondack Explor-er may remember Close as the veteran

hiker who wrote a Viewpoint article criticizing theAdirondack Forty-Sixers for not taking a stand against acharity trail run in the Giant Mountain Wilderness. Thearticle sparked an exchange of letters between the

One for the history booksClimbers try to duplicate 1896 ascent of Gothics

Explorer Editor Phil Brown ascends the South Face of Gothics, with Pyramid Peak in the background.

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Newell Martin

November/December 2006 17

Forty-Sixers and Close. Eventually, he was kickedoff the board of the Adirondack Forty-Sixers ConservationTrust.

On this morning, Jim and his friend, Dave Wilber, wereheading to Sawteeth. They said they would accompany usas far as the col between that mountain and Pyramid Peak.Nyle and I would then continue alone up Pyramid, wherewe would eat lunch and get a good gander at our intendedroute.

Walking up the dirt road to Lower Ausable Lake, I men-tioned that many people regard the view from Pyramid asthe best in the Adirondacks. Although Jim has climbed allthe High Peaks, he had never been up Pyramid, which isconsidered part of Gothics, so he and Dave decided to gothere as well.

The prospect from Pyramid We arrived on Pyramid a little before noon. The day was

gorgeous, the vista spectacular. We had an unobstructedview of Upper Ausable Lake, the rock walls on Basin and,spread out in front of us, the awesome South Face of Goth-

ics. As we ate our sandwiches, I read aloud from Martin’snotes (which were published in 1932 in High Spots, amagazine of the Adirondack Mountain Club), and we triedto pick out the route he described.

Looking at the vast expanse of rock, I was a bit intimi-dated. We’d be six miles from the nearest public road.What if we got hurt? Given the late hour, I also wonderedif we had time to do this. After all, we still had to bush-whack to the base of the cliff. Jim seemed concerned, too.He gave us his phone number and told us to call after wefinished the climb. With that we parted, Jim and Daveheading back to the Sawteeth col, Nyle and I descendingto the Gothics col.

The bushwhack from the col took about 45 minutes. Wefollowed a wooded gully, rappelling once off a tree.Finally we reached the base of the cirque. Standing in tallgrass, we looked up at a world reduced to just two ele-ments: white rock and blue sky. Occasionally, puffyclouds scudded into view and just as suddenly vanishedbeyond the cliff.

Martin and Hathaway had found a crack in the middle of

the cliff—“in a sort of groin” where two faces meet. Nyleand I made our way to the start of this crack, put on ourclimbing harnesses and tied in to opposite ends of a 230-foot rope. Nyle, the more experienced climber, ascendedfirst. I was the belayer, feeding him rope as needed.

We reached the end of the crack in three stages, or“pitches.” As Nyle went up each pitch, he wedged protec-tive gear—nuts or cams tethered to snap-lock carabin-ers—into the crack. He threaded the rope through the cara-biners. If he fell, the gear would prevent him from plum-meting to the bottom—assuming the gear held and assum-ing I held my end of the rope. (The belay device acts as abrake.) At the end of each pitch, Nyle belayed me fromabove. As I climbed, I removed the gear, and when Ireached Nyle, we started over. During the climb, we sawthree pitons in the crack. Obviously, we were not the onlyones to come this way since 1896.

The ascent was fairly easy. I never felt in great danger,

Hikers wanting to climb Gothics or Saw-teeth can choose one of a variety of loopsfrom the Ausable Club in St. Huberts. Allstart at the gatehouse, from where a dirtroad leads to Lower Ausable Lake.The dis-tances include the 1.4-mile round trip fromthe public parking lot to the gatehouse.

SAWTEETH. Follow the dirt road 3.3 miles to thedam at the foot of the lake. Cross the dam and followthe Alfred W.Weld Trail 1.7 miles to a junction in thesaddle between Sawteeth and Pyramid Peak (a second-ary summit of Gothics).Turn left and ascend 0.5 milesto the 4,100-foot summit. Sawteeth has open views ofthe Great Range. Continue over the summit and returnto the lake via the Scenic Trail, which offers great viewsof both Upper and Lower Ausable lakes and nearbypeaks. Distance: 13.1 miles.

GOTHICS. Follow the directions above to the sad-dle between Sawteeth and Pyramid.Turn right to climb0.6 miles on the Weld Trail to the top of Pyramid,which boasts one of the finest views in the Adiron-dacks. Continue 0.4 miles to the 4,736-foot summit ofGothics for more spectacular vistas. Return to the LakeRoad via the Beaver Meadow Trail. Distance: 12.4 miles.

SAWTEETH AND GOTHICS. Follow directionsabove to the dam. Ascend Sawteeth by the Scenic Trail.The summit is 6.9 miles from the lot. Descend 0.5miles to the saddle and then climb over Pyramid toGothics. Return to the Lake Road via the Beaver Mead-ow Trail. Distance: 14.2 miles.

GOTHICS,ARMSTRONG, UPPER WOLF JAW.Take the Weld Trail, described above, over Pyramid andon to Gothics.The summit is 6.6 miles from the lot.From Gothics, take the Range Trail 3.0 miles over twoother High Peaks,Armstrong and Upper Wolf Jaw, to

Wolf Jaws Notch. Return to the Lake Road via theWedge Trail. Distance: 13.0 miles.

SAWTEETH, GOTHICS, ARMSTRONG,UPPER WOLF JAW. The hardest loop combinesstretches of the third and fourth hikes describedabove. It takes in five High Peaks. Distance: 14.8 miles.

DIRECTIONS: Hikers crossing the Ausable Clubproperty should park in the public lot, located just offNY 73—5.6 miles north of the junction of NY 73 andNY 9 in Underwood and 3.3 miles south of the HighPeaks sign in Keene Valley hamlet.Turn west onto a dirtroad, which begins directly across the highway from thelot for the Roaring Brook Trail to Giant Mountain.Look for the lot on the left just after making the turn.After parking, walk up the dirt road 0.5 miles to theLake Road and turn left.You’ll reach the gatehouse inanother 0.2 miles.

GOTHICS, Page 63!!Map by Nancy Bernstein

November/December 2006 63

but one incident did give me pause. As I was going up thefirst pitch, the slack end of the rope slid down the clifffrom Nyle’s belay perch. Normally this would not be a bigdeal. But as Nyle was climbing the next pitch, the ropesuddenly became taut, preventing him from advancing.The rope had got stuck in the crack a hundred feet belowme. Thanks to Nyle’s shouted instructions, I was able torappel down the cliff to free it.

That episode wasted precious time. It was almost 5 p.m.when we finished the third pitch. We no longer werefocused on repeating history; we just wanted to get off thecliff and onto a trail as soon as possible. We changed intoour hiking boots for the last pitch, traversing to the left andangling upward to the edge of the woods. We pushed andcrawled through the krummholz for 20 minutes, comingout on the Great Range Trail at 6:20 p.m. and reaching thesummit of Gothics a few minutes later.

Nyle used his cell phone to call Jim. No answer. Nyleleft a message that we had completed the climb and wereOK. With less than an hour of daylight remaining, we fleddown the mountain, hopping over roots and rocks in thegray gloom. This was probably the hairiest part of ouradventure, but we reached the Ausable Club gatehousesafe and sound just before 9 p.m. As Nyle examined theregister, he noted that Jim and Dave never signed out. Thethought crossed our mind: Did they have an accident?When we got to the parking lot, we were relieved to seethat their car was gone.

News from JimThe following afternoon I received an e-mail from Jim

with the title “Chopper Rescue on Sawteeth.” It turns outthat Jim did have an accident: Coming down the ScenicTrail on Sawteeth, while still high on the 4,100-foot moun-tain, he snagged his left foot under a root. When he fell, hisankle twisted and broke, creating searing pain. “When Iwas able to get myself under control, I gingerly stood upand could feel things moving around down there thatshouldn’t be moving around,” Jim wrote.

It was 2:45 p.m. They still had about 2,000 feet ofdescent to reach Lower Ausable Lake. Luckily, Dave hadan ankle brace in his pack. Jim put on the brace and hob-bled along, but progress was slow. At 3:30 p.m., Dave wentahead to get help. Jim resumed the descent on his own,hoping he would meet a rescue team coming up the trail.

“Those hours turned out to be the most excruciating,

painful hours I have ever experienced,” he said. “I contin-ued to hobble down the mountain, dangerously (includinga ladder descent), sweating profusely and becoming dehy-drated. …

“Several times I just thought about quitting—particular-ly where there was an open ledge. But I kept going.Around 6 p.m., as I was approaching (with great relief)Lower Ausable Lake, which had seemed as far away as themoon initially, I heard a chopper in the distance. …

“You can’t possibly imagine the wave of emotion that Ifelt knowing that someone was out there trying to rescueme. Let’s just say that I lost it, albeit momentarily. Thechopper came closer and closer, and I could tell that it wasup above me, circling the upper reaches of the mountain.‘Damn it, I’m down here!’ I felt myself saying. But Iknew they could not possibly know that, nor see me

through the trees.”Jim soon made it to the lakeshore. “Several minutes

later, a family came by in a guideboat, heading towards theboathouse. They were the first people I had seen sinceDave left me at 3:30 p.m. I yelled at them, ‘That chopper’slooking for me! Wave your shirts at them!’ Together wewaved shirts, but to no avail.”

Eventually, the helicopter disappeared. The family, with

an Ausable Club guide, rescued Jim by boat. “My dreamof being in a guideboat on Lower Ausable Lake had cometrue,” he wrote, “but at a price.”

A club employee drove Jim to the gatehouse at the startof the Lake Road, where two forest rangers were waiting.One of the rangers, Charlie Platt, told him he would havebeen better off if he had stayed put after the fall. The heli-copter had dropped Platt onto one of the mountain ledgesto look for the injured hiker. “If only I had known …” Jimsaid in his e-mail.

Dave drove Jim to a hospital in Saratoga Springs. Twodays later, Jim underwent surgery. He expected to be oncrutches for about six weeks. He said he felt thankfultoward everyone who helped him.

Jim Close is one of the few hikers to have climbed the100 highest peaks in the Adirondacks. He has traversed farmore difficult terrain than the trail on Sawteeth, yet it wasthere that he broke a bone. “The lesson is that an accidentcan happen when you least expect it,” he said. !

RESOURCESNewell Martin’s 1896 notes,titled “Washing a Shirt onthe Gothic,” can be found inthe January 1932 issue ofHigh Spots, a magazine ofthe Adirondack MountainClub, and in Spinach andZwieback, a 1993 collectionof Martin’s writings.Copiesof the book can be pur-chased from Merritt Book-store in Millbrook, N.Y.(845-677-5857).

Don Mellor’s guidebook Climbing in the Adirondacks($24.95) contains a photo and a brief overview ofthe South Face of Gothics but does not describespecific routes.

Adirondack Rock and River, a guide service inKeene, leads climbers up the South Face.There are two bolted routes, rang-ing in difficulty from 5.9 to 5.10,touted as among the best inthe Adirondacks, and a slabroute rated about 5.5.The crackclimbed by Martin is rated 5.4.Phone 518-576-2041 or visitwww.rockandriver.com.

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Jim Close, center, on Pyramid Peak a few hours before his accident. Also shown are Phil Brown,contemplating his peanut-butter sandwich, and Dave Wilber, Close’s hiking partner.

The arrow points to the crack climbed by Newell Martin in August 1896.

“My dream of being in a guideboat on Lower

Ausable Lake had cometrue, but at a price.”

– Jim Close