Best Grade III/IV's In the Northeastern States

I'm new to the area and putting together a tick list for the season. 

I know the rocks are smaller here, but what are your favorite Grade III/IVs in the northeastern states? 

Spray me down, people. 

Diagonal on Wallface. It really feels like you're a long way from anywhere. 

What grades do you want to climb?

VMC Direct Direct on Cannon
The Prow on Cathedral

Luke Lalorwrote:

What grades do you want to climb?

VMC Direct Direct on Cannon
The Prow on Cathedral

Thanks! Anything easy-moderate, up to 5.11 probably.The Prow looks above my pay grade at the moment. But the VMC Direct Direct looks ideal. 

The Armadillo on Katahdin. 

FYI that VMC is totally in your face and a major sandbag, unless you've mastered the hard slab style -- not moderate at all

Fastest Gun at Poko.

I consider most of the full-length routes up Cannon to be IIIs or IVs. While none of the IVs likely fit your ‘easy to moderate’ criteria, the easier classics such as Moby Grape and Vertigo definitely fit. Just keep in mind that it is Cannon, so there is always the risk of something ( sometimes something very big!!!) falling on you, especially early in the season.

Over on Whitehorse routes in the Wonderwall and adjacent sections of the South Buttress are also good options and are IIIs if you do them from the bottom by linking into some of the lower pitch options. Wonderwall itself is very good, and  you can aid through the 12 section( pulling on the bolts) low down to keep it within your grade range.

Next door on Cathedral, routes such as Intimidation and Bicycle Route are IIIs, as is, I feel, Diedre.

Russ Keanewrote:

FYI that VMC is totally in your face and a major sandbag, unless you've mastered the hard slab style -- not moderate at all

It's pretty spooky in some spots also. Definitely a serious route. More serious than the grade would indicate, but the pitch breakdown on MP captures that nuance pretty well imo.

Alan Rubinwrote:

I consider most of the full-length routes up Cannon to be IIIs or IVs. While none of the IVs likely fit your ‘easy to moderate’ criteria, the easier classics such as Moby Grape and Vertigo definitely fit. Just keep in mind that it is Cannon, so there is always the risk of something ( sometimes something very big!!!) falling on you, especially early in the season.

Over on Whitehorse routes in the Wonderwall and adjacent sections of the South Buttress are also good options and are IIIs if you do them from the bottom by linking into some of the lower pitch options. Wonderwall itself is very good, and  you can aid through the 12 section( pulling on the bolts) low down to keep it within your grade range.

Next door on Cathedral, routes such as Intimidation and Bicycle Route are IIIs, as is, I feel, Diedre.

Thanks for the heads up. Luckily, my experience on bigger rock routes comes from The Diamond, Spearhead, Hallet etc. in RMNP. Nonetheless, I will wait for the freeze-thaw cycle to subside and tread with caution. 

A "gentle" route with great views, and a bit of history .... Northeast Ridge of the Pinnacle, (with the Fairy Tale Traverse finish), Mt Washington. 

Teddy Dondanvillewrote:

Thanks for the heads up. Luckily, my experience on bigger rock routes comes from The Diamond, Spearhead, Hallet etc. in RMNP. Nonetheless, I will wait for the freeze-thaw cycle to subside and tread with caution. 

The rock on all of those formations is much more solid than what you'll find on Cannon, and the climbing experience is a bit more tame. Cannon, in the central section, is as long or longer than them, as well. 

WF WF51wrote:

The rock on all of those formations is much more solid than what you'll find on Cannon, and the climbing experience is a bit more tame. Cannon, in the central section, is as long or longer than them, as well. 

Generally, yes, but much of the classic Northcutt-Carter on Hallett came down a number of years ago, so Cannon style major rockfalls can occur in Colorado as they can in any alpine environment.

 i would not consider anything on cathedral to be grade 111. we have started most of those routes 3rd shift @ 5pm and been comfortably done by dark. Two rappels gets you down the whole cliff  or you hitch a ride with tourists  or god forbid do the 10 min hike down in your rock shoes...  If you want big in the north east you want Cannon or Kahtadin.   based in albany you will want to hit up Poco, whatever the cliff is with Hard Times? forget the name of it and upper washbowl.   Upper washbowl is about the same size as cathedral but in a much better location. its not right in the middle of town.   Overture 9+

if you want out west big though you want Canon

if you want almost teton approaches with moderate climbing  Mt Washington is your game. 

if you are looking for real Teton approach then I suggest Kahtadin

Alan Rubinwrote:

Next door on Cathedral, routes such as Intimidation and Bicycle Route are IIIs, as is, I feel, Diedre.

Deidre, the three pitch route?

A lot of the link-ups on Cathedral would be III's - Rapid Transit, Missing Link to Camber/Reverse Camber.  Pendulum.  How about the Big Plum?

you can still hit the ground in two rappells from anywhere on cathedral.  If they dont even give WG a 3 i aint buying anything on cathedral being a real 3. 

Ease of descent isn’t necessarily a factor.  Matthes crest

Its a commitment grade . how can it be committing if its only 100m tall right in the middle of town?  you can call it whatever grade you want but it's still a joke. 

I agree with Nick - While I love the climbing on Cathedral, I don't think anything qualifies as Grade III. Unless you're doing a girdle traverse, as suggested by Eric. Or maybe some of the aid routes. But that's just semantics, all the routes suggested there are great and you should climb them. 

My favorite route in the north east that I'd consider Grade III is Lab Wall on Cannon. It's at the upper end of the grade range you suggested, but all the cruxes are well protected and probably can be french freed. It has some serious climbing at ~5.9 though. I think it's a better option than VMC DD if you want to climb to the top of the Big Wall section on Cannon. VMC DD is great for the first four pitches, but most people rap from there because of rock quality and lack of protection on some of the pitches above (a good chunk of pitch 6 fell off a few years ago, read the comments on the route). Lab Wall is reasonable rock and protection to the top. 

For Northeast Ridge of the Pinnacle, I'd suggest doing the direct variation. It's way more fun than the standard route and within your suggested grade range. 

Why do you think commitment is a factor in figuring out how long it should take you to do it?

Nation­al Climb­ing Clas­si­fi­ca­tion Sys­tem (USA):

NCCS grades are often called the “Com­mit­ment Grade”; they pri­mar­i­ly indi­cate the time invest­ment in a route for an “aver­age” climb­ing team.
Grade I: Less than half a day for the tech­ni­cal por­tion.
Grade II: Half a day for the tech­ni­cal por­tion.
Grade III: Most of a day for the tech­ni­cal por­tion.
Grade IV: A full day of tech­ni­cal climb­ing, gen­er­al­ly at least 5.7.
Grade V: Typ­i­cal­ly requires an overnight on the route.
Grade VI: Two or more days of hard tech­ni­cal climb­ing.