High Slab Climbing

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(Part 4, final part of the September 1981 ADK saga.)
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The next day I climbed Mt. Colden’s north face as an easy free-solo rock climb (or “slide”/”slab” climb) in hiking boots with no rock gear. It is not too technical, but is very high, the entire face being somewhere under 1,000 feet high.
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You start by going up a waterfall gully (geologically called a trapdike) on the left of the face, which is an easy rock climb if not too wet. At a certain point, you escape the gully to the right when you can climb out onto the slab. This slab is a long, huge, moderately steep and very exposed friction climb to the top, with no real foot- or hand-holds, and very little places to put climbing anchors even if you had them. You just rely on balance and friction techniques – and dry rock.
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(This Colden’s north face is also one of the classic Adirondack ice and snow climbs in winter, if the snow on the slab is consolidated enough. One climbs up the now-frozen waterfall/trapdike and then out onto the moderate snow climb of the slab. I have never got the chance to do this as an ice climb, as it was never in good condition when I was ready for it, but it is still at the top of my list.)
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The rock slab was not too bad for me. The exposure was not freaking me out as I moved up, as I had been climbing a lot of rock that year. I was hundreds of feet up, at the top of the slab section and very close to the summit, when I came to the little 12-foot wall at the top of the slab that blocked the way to the wooded summit.
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But there was a thin layer of morning ice glaze on this wall, right where I did not need it, and I was a bit concerned about what to do. Down-climbing was out of the question, and there did not appear to be any escape off the slab to the right or left. I could not even rest comfortably on the slanting slab, and my legs were starting to cramp up badly. I consulted the climbing guidebook and realized that I had no choice but to go up the icy wall.
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It was a bit dicey. If you fall off this short wall, you land on the upper reaches of the steeply-sloping slab with nothing to grab, so you are looking at a long, sliding, bouncing and accelerating skid of hundreds and hundreds of feet down into the trees below. Not pretty. My concern was getting close to real fear as my leg muscles started to cramp into knots.
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I actually remember very little about the specific climbing moves that got me up that last short iced wall. All I remember about that spot was the battle to control my fear and to think, to look carefully at the ground I must climb, and to act decisively. But I somehow did gain the summit of Colden, which is somewhat disappointing as a summit because it has trees that obscure any 360-degree view.
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I descended the west ridge, picked up my gear and very humbly limped down the valley trails back to the roadhead.
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-Zenwind.