Gothics always inspires. It challenges hikers and climbers of nearly any level and draws me back at least a couple times per year. The north face shown in this video once intimidated me when I saw it from the Orebed Trail, now it's an annual retreat. I feel only relaxation and freedom once I start moving upward.

Cascade Ice Dance is a Don Mellor first ascent from awhile back. It offers aesthetic and interesting climbing and a mixed start if the ice doesn't touch down as with our trip. Devin Farkas, Kennedy Quigg and I tackled it before heading downstream to another climb. This was well worth the effort.

Two ice climbing routes, possibly the best ice ever I've climbed, went up with friends Laura Duncan (first woman to add a route in the remote Panther Gorge) and Brent Elliot. Both are located in a deep fracture on Mt. Marcy in Panther Gorge. Read the full account with route details, photos and video here: https://www.summitpost.org/scylla-and-charybdis-in-panther-gorge/1016838

Khyber's Slide on Upper Wolfjaw Mountain. Hunting early season ice with Dan Plumley and Loren Swears. The pitches run up to WI3 grade ice.

http://www.summitpost.org/marcy-s-great-chimney-aka-empty-tomb-all-ryle…

Three rock climbs on Mt. Marcy. Full details above.

One of the best kept backcountry secrets is a large vertical trap dike capped with a diagonal car-sized capstone on Mt. Marcy. It is set in a northeastern facing cliff deep in Panther Gorge and looks like a pencil-thin shadow from the summit of Mt. Haystack. This is Marcy’s Great Chimney.

http://www.summitpost.org/panther-gorge-mt-marcy-anorthofright-5-9/1005…

A long multi-pitch rock climb up the overhangs and obvious white streak of Mt. Marcy's white scar. Steven St. Pierre and I added this route to Marcy on August 27. 2017. ...another 20 hour day in Panther Gorge, but well worth the effort. Follow the link above for a full report and photographs.

Copy/past URL for a full description: http://www.summitpost.org/panther-gorge-panther-s-pinnacle/1007725

Nice day for a walk

Marcy's Great Chimney (aka Empty Tomb) & All Ryled Up-2017 June 15. (First ascent by Kevin and Jaryn DeShane) Mt. Marcy is home to a large vertical trap dike/chimney though it only looks like a pencil thin shadow from Mt. Haystack. Jaryn Deshane and I spent last Thursday on an intriguing climb, one that has taken 4 years to come to fruition. I didn't expect the route to be as clean or as varied. A couple sections had slightly overhanging trap rock..what a surprise.

Warm weather, 72 Fahrenheit at our house, was followed by a couple inches of rain. Then it cooled. The unseasonable weather created a veneer of hard crust and depleted the snowpack by roughly two feet. The conditions were ideal for a visit to the gorge. Veteran Alan Wechsler was on board to go hunt some ice. We watched the forecast during the week preceding March 10; predicted temperatures for the weekend dropped daily and, with wind-chill, settled at about -40 at the elevation where the climbs are located. We moved the climb to Friday so we’d be racing the oncoming cold weather.