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Old Broad's Birthday Bash

5.4, Trad, 450 ft (136 m), 3 pitches,  Avg: 1.4 from 5 votes
FA: Toni Steyerl and Ron Birk
New Hampshire > WM: Pinkham / P… > 11. Pine Mountain

Description

A fun easy route on the far right, good for beginner leaders or for an easy relaxing outing.

P1. Start up the pegmatite and veer left, following a left facing corner (slanting left). Then up the head wall (crux) and to a pine tree. To keep the grade low and more consistent on the route, you can circumvent the crux by going left for a move or two. Or go straight up (and a grade or two harder) for more interesting moves. 5.4 100'

P2. Go straight up (veering slightly right) to a small pine tree, through two fun decent size overlaps. 5.3 170'

P3. Go left and up over easy slab and finish up a clean beautiful low angle arete to a tree. 5.2 180'

From here you can scramble to the top of the cliff and take the Ledge Tr back out.

Location

Far right. From Hank Chinos, go right and steeply up for ~75'.

(2022 update - some blowdown near the cliff base may require dropping down a bit before scrambling back up. R. Hall ) 

Protection

Gear is good throughout the route.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Old Broad's Birthday Bash topo with belay spots. Photo by Robert Hall.
[Hide Photo] Old Broad's Birthday Bash topo with belay spots. Photo by Robert Hall.
P2 and belay.
[Hide Photo] P2 and belay.
P3, beginning.
[Hide Photo] P3, beginning.
P1 belay.
[Hide Photo] P1 belay.
Start of the climb. You can barely see the slanting left facing corner through the leaves.
[Hide Photo] Start of the climb. You can barely see the slanting left facing corner through the leaves.
P1 head wall.
[Hide Photo] P1 head wall.
Some choss on the cliff just below the white quartz belay at the top of P1. I came up from climber's right and avoided interacting with this.
[Hide Photo] Some choss on the cliff just below the white quartz belay at the top of P1. I came up from climber's right and avoided interacting with this.
P3, final low angle arete.
[Hide Photo] P3, final low angle arete.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

chinos Garlough
Ossipee, NH
[Hide Comment] Cool! the rock looked fun over there Aug 22, 2016
Chris Bahl
Boston, MA
 
[Hide Comment] pitch 1 is great - abundant pro, easy yet fun climbing with a mix of vertical and horizontal cracks. watch out - the belay tree at the top of the pitch is coming loose. the winds were pretty high today and the tree and much of its root system were lifting off the rock with each strong gust. we were afraid that it was going to come off while we were anchored to it.

pitch 2 is PG13. it's very easy climbing, but the pro is sparse and most of the placements that you do get are in hollow rock. beware rope drag. The belay tree at the top of this pitch is also not in great shape. We skipped the belay and simul-climbed to the top.

pitch 3 is also PG13, and it is entirely 3rd class

We had the whole crag to ourselves on a holiday weekend with great weather. Sep 7, 2020
dragons
New Paltz, NY
  5.2
[Hide Comment] For P1, I didn't really follow the left-facing corner beyond a couple of moves. I just kind of stepped up over it, and went straight for the headwall, since that seemed the obvious way to go. I didn't see any pro this way, until I got to the headwall (there's a ring piton at the base, and room for a cam), but the climbing was super easy. How far left are you supposed to climb the left-facing corner before turning to go up to the headwall? Is that much harder than going straight up off the start?

I thought the climb was fun and interesting. I've never climbed pegmatite before. My partner disagreed. He thought it was chossy and gravel filled. There were a few small, loose football-sized blocks on P2, and one on P1. Be careful to keep an eye on where your rope is going.

One more comment. After reaching the top, we had a major bushwhack involving some dirt climbing to get to the Ledges Trail. I'm guessing about 0.2 miles/20 minutes through woods and up some blocks and slabs. Did we miss a better exit? Sep 10, 2020
Robert Hall
North Conway, NH
[Hide Comment] Re' exit...I don't think so. I tried it once and eventually just gave up. Too much "class 4 bushwhacking". Gotta watch out for Ron...he's a bit of a 'tiger'. If you made it in "only" 20 min., then you picked a better line than we did . Sep 13, 2020
dragons
New Paltz, NY
  5.2
[Hide Comment] Thanks for the beta on the exit Bob - good to know :) Sep 25, 2020
Robert Hall
North Conway, NH
[Hide Comment] From the top of P3 one should be able to find a tree that gets one down to the top, bolted, rap anchor of Hank Chinos. From there 3 single rope raps with a 70 m ( first two maybe even with a 60m ) gets one down. See DESCENT for Hank Chinos. Sep 30, 2022