The Aesthetic Voyager: Epinephrine

I don't know where to begin - do I try to describe the sheer size of this climb or how I am perfectly sized to shimmy my way up the chimney pitches? Or perhaps I should start with the kindred sense of camaraderie among the four of us climbing together. I still don't know, but speechless seems like an appropriate beginning, as this was our initial reaction after climbing this route.

First light on the rock. (Photo by Adam)

Our alarm sounded at 3:45 AM, the noise barely penetrating the thick night sky, which still hung low in the canyon. I was already awake - excitement coursing through me like caffeine. We were getting ready to climb Epinephrine, a 2240' climb up Black Velvet Peak. Having a hard time picturing exactly how big this looks? You know Half Dome in Yosemite? It's taller than that! We have had our eye on this climb for quite some time now, so when we ran into a couple of my friends from the Adirondacks and they asked us to climb it with them, it was easy to say yes! So, there we were, hiking into the canyon by headlamp - ready to start the climb at first light.

Me in the chimney. (Photo by Adam)

After a first short pitch of sporty face climbing you start up three glorious pitches of chimney climbing - something we had never done before! And let me tell you, as I watched Dustin, Jack, and then Adam slowly and awkwardly fight their way up the rock, my hands started to sweat. (Props to Adam for leading all the pitches except the first!) Cursing and yelling could be heard the whole way up.

Dustin in the chimney. (Photo by Adam)

But to everyone's surprise, I am perfectly sized for those chimneys, and quietly scooted right through them. After you top out on the last chimney pitch you are standing on top of a large tower. From here we continued up on some high quality face climbing until we were just below the summit. At this point it was a couple 4th class pitches and scrambling until the summit of Black Velvet Peak.

Jack, Dustin, myself, and Adam standing on the summit of Black Velvet Peak after climbing Epinephrine.

We reached the summit at 5:40 PM - just under 7 hours of continuous climbing - and couldn't be more psyched! We hung around the summit just long enough to snap a few pictures and switch from climbing shoes to hiking shoes, at which point we started the 2 hour hike down the side of the Peak and back to the car. Despite being tired and hungry, everyone wore grin to grin smiles the whole way down. As we reached the car (just before 8:00 PM) the sun was just setting - we couldn't have asked for better timing. The whole day was a huge success and easily the most epic climb any of us have done thus far.

Here are some more pictures from the day...