| Summary | None |
| Owner | Eric Gilbertson |
| Creation Date | 2013-07-23 22:53:26 UTC-0400 |
| Description | Katie Stanchak, Eric Gilbertson
July 21, 2013 We biked up to Roaring Brook Sunday morning to avoid needing to wait in line at the gate, and then hiked up to Chimney Pond, arriving at 8am. We checked in with the rangers and they gave us some advice about the Chimney climb. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any picture or trip report of anyone climbing the chimney in the summer, except that it's supposedly one pitch of "5.5" climbing. We bushwacked up to the base of the chimney, taking the left gulley at the bottom. The right gulley is called the "false chimney." After some fun 3rd class scrambling we finally reached the crux climbing part: a small-house-sized chock stone jammed 50ft up between the walls of the chimney blocking our progress. The ranger told us to ignore the fixed nut on the left wall, and ignore the fixed piton on the right wall, and instead climb diagonally up right, then cut left. I led a short pitch up diagonally right, then another pitch diagonally left as we were told, but then reached more difficult, wet terrain well above the chockstone. There was an anchor here with at least three generations of old webbing and four beaners clipped on. Obviously several other parties had come to this spot and retreated. We chose to do the same, and I backed up the anchor with a few nuts before we rappelled off. It was late in the day so we decided to head back to Chimney Pond. If you climb here, I would advise climbing to the left of the chockstone where you see the fixed nut. Doesn't look like "5.5" to me, but probably the easiest way around. |