Adirondack High Peaks Climbing Access

The NY State DEC has closed the Eastern High Peaks Wilderness, Giant Mountain Wilderness and Dix Mountain Wilderness until further notice, through Labor Day weekend at a minimum. Also Route 73 from I-87 to Keene is closed due to multiple washouts of the road making access to much of the climbing nearly non-existent. The Towns of Keene and Keene Valley were severely damaged from Tropical Storm Irene.

Some friends and I are supposed to be climbing in the dacks this weekend but the damage looks devastating. Does anyone know if there are area's that are still open and if there is any camping available? Ie. is it worth going?
All the best to those in the area!

Bota, there are plenty of areas that are still accessible. I'm pretty sure that Poko is open and lots of areas in the southern Adks are accessible. Lake George area, Crane mnt, Caroga lake area etc. A great opportunity to explore some other areas outside of the high peaks.

It looks like most of the state campgrounds in the eastern ADKs are closed too. I looked specifically at Rogers Rock (closed), and there's quite a list. Lewey Lake is open, so maybe hit Snowy Mt one day?

Any chance Spider's Web or Beer Wall is still accessible?

I'm pretty sure everything west of malfunction junction is going to be closed for a while.

Thanks! I figure as much.

Poko is accessible from the south on route 9 though there are signs saying road closed. The campground got hammered, most of the big pines were uprooted or shattered. Lots of debris at the cliff but manageable.

I read one small article that Lake George got hammered also, but to be honest I've only been following the High Peaks (for other reasons). Crane Mountain and the southern Adirondacks are supposed to have some stellar stuff. There have been tons of updates to the Lawyer/Haas guidebook online in the Southern Adirondacks. There is a climbing fest happening in the Southern area in two weeks and they are listing all the places that will be featured, so my guess is that those areas are pretty good.

The Moss Cliff tyrollean is down. Fording the river is highly not recommend due to the current water level. Silver Lake seems to have escaped most of the blowdown damage and the bugs are almost nonexistent. This area is also a good alternative to the closed High Peaks areas.

My partner and I just spent the last week driving around the Adirondacks trying to find stuff to climb.

For those interested, this is the main washout on NY-73, just north of Chapel Pond, as of August 31. I think it will be a while before they get that one fixed.

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Poke-O campground ranger cabin as of yesterday...

ho. ly. shit.

ho. ly. shit.

Greg Kuchyt wrote:http://www.brendanwiltse.com/Photography_Site/My_Albums/Pages/JBL_-_Hurricane_Irene.html#0 More photos...