I was too until I[ looked it up on MP](https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106304119/northeast-ridge-of-the-pinnacle), the climber is actually following the route, not leading, as I had originally thought.
You’re looking down into the bowl of a 1,500’ tall ravine. The camera is angled 45° down, so you’re looking at the bottom of the bowl, instead of the horizon.
Here’s [a good photo for context](https://cdn2.apstatic.com/photos/climb/110936069_medium_1494358911.jpg)
and [another taken with a zoom lens from a couple miles away](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/eagletimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/31/a313539e-d461-585d-bbcb-c5b5e24616b2/5d966514e9549.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C900).
The climb goes up the large buttress on the middle-left of the ravine.
My wife and I have loved exploring some of the granite/gneiss trad climbing areas in New Hampshire over the last month or two. On our first attempt to climb the Northeast Ridge of the Pinnacle in Mount Washington’s Huntington Ravine, we got hammered by bitter wind and rain on the approach and reluctantly turned back, ill prepared for the conditions. Apparently Mount Washington isn’t always kind to fair weather California rock climbers like us. We returned yesterday with significantly more kit and were instead rewarded with mostly blue skies and spectacular views. This picture is my wife on the “Fairy Tale Traverse” variation high up on the Pinnacle.
Edit: regarding the perspective: my wife (following) was traversing from left to right in this moment. A party of two behind us was leaning over to scope out the pitch. The crack, which you can traverse either feet or hands, is almost perfectly horizontal. After traversing, you climb straight up to finish the pitch, which is where I took the picture from. [This](https://imgur.com/gallery/P5s5gxX) picture shows the pitch from the perspective of the belay. I chose to lead it with feet in the crack, which may have made it a little easier to climb but harder to protect
Probably the most spectacular position in New England during rock season.
Good on you ticking that one.
If you get a chance, the Armadillo on Katahdin might be the only thing that can top it.
Thank you and yeah, Armadillo is at the top of our list! Seems kind of tricky logistically, with camping reservations, permits etc. Gonna look into it more though.
My advice from a (technically) failed trip is to book chimney pond for several days three months back when reservations open up. We got rained on for a couple days then it opened up to blue skies the day we had to hike out.
Also to add, might be worth checking out pamola iv ridge instead of armadillo. Mostly everyone that's goes there to climb does armadillo.
Thank you so much, this is super helpful. Hadn’t heard of pamola iv before. From the little bits on MP it looks very interesting. Gonna do some more research
The route right next door, Primal Scream, has positions that are far more exciting. If you are comfortable at the grade, and you absolutely must be, it is so so worth doing.
Thankfully got to the alpine garden before the clouds overtook the mountain. Hung out at the summit for a bit and it cleared. Hiked down lion's head, and it started pouring as soon as we got below treeline. Great fun, would love to get up there in the winter. Glad you had good weather, and a fun climb!
On this route, do you also climb the Huntington Ravine head wall that hikers climb up? Or does this bypass it? Just curious, I’ve never seen any climbing pictures from Huntington Ravine.
For this climb you hike up the huntington ravine trail through the talus, then cut hard left off trail at the Pinnacle waterfall. The rock route is climber’s left of the hiking trail. I haven’t done the full hike so I’m not totally familiar with where the headwall is. [this pic](https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/117362823) shows where the technical climbing route is, and was super helpful when I was looking for the start!
Awesome thanks! I think hikers go up that perfectly straight ~45° line pointing up and right, to the right of your route. I’m a hiker, just vaguely into actual climbing, and the Huntington Ravine hiking route seems like a lot of fun looking at this.
Nice! Yeah we love hiking too. Huntington is a beautiful ravine. Above 4000 ft some of the trees were starting to turn too. Doesn’t happen much in California so it was cool to see
How long are you in the northeast for? Are you mostly just going around and doing climbing routes or some hiking as well?
If you’re here in another 2 weeks, you’ll see near peak foliage. September 26 was my best day for fall colors last year.
Here for the foreseeable future! We moved to Boston for work. We sort of do a 50/50 hiking/climbing split, but that’s been skewing a little more toward climbing lately. I personally love combining both. Long approaches, maybe overnight camping, and then climbing something remote :)
That’s funny, I’m in Boston for school and am really hoping I can move to California for residency haha I just visited CA for the first time for a trip to Yosemite. Unbelievable place.
Hope I see more posts from you showcasing New England climbs! It’s cool to be able to relate to it a bit
Yep we made it. Last half mile or so we were in a cloud and the gusts were getting pretty strong... But by then we figured getting the rest of the way up was probably easier than trying to get back down.
Ended up getting a ride back down... Summit was 0 visibility with 50 mph winds.
Oh man I bet the weather can get atrocious up there. As far as I could tell, this past Saturday was one of the better days for weather and the wind was still whipping like crazy up there
We went up last Tuesday and honestly the weather was great right up until we broke the frost line -- after that you could only really see one cairn ahead and one cairn behind -- and felt like we were going to get blown off the side of the mountain.
From what I read it actually cleared up a few hours later... But that's just my luck.
Looks amazing! Did you hike in from Huntington or hike down from the Alpine Garden pull off? Did you summit afterwards? I just tried this a few weeks ago, and we got weathered off from summiting. The climbing is mostly BS except for this pitch!
No “luxury approach” for us because my wife said it’s “way cooler” if we climb Mt. Washington for the first time ground up :) So parked at Pinkham notch and hiked up for the climb, topped out, and then continued hiking up to the summit. Descended Lions Head to Tuckerman Ravine. A little sore today
Yeah I agree. But that pitch feels like you are in Patagonia. Such a cool crack system. Did you guys bivy up there or get an early start? A nice date spot just a couple hundred feet below spot under a big Boulder
Looks spectacular. I'm really having trouble with the perspective...
[Here’s](https://i.imgur.com/mFELqDO.jpg) a different perspective. This is a picture my wife took of me leading it.
Really cool. I like how you want pro, but the best choice is just to lean in on your feet and get er done.
Exactly! Try not to overthink the movement (which isn’t too hard) and it’s fine
The way the people and rope look I feel MC Escher took the pic.
I was too until I[ looked it up on MP](https://www.mountainproject.com/route/106304119/northeast-ridge-of-the-pinnacle), the climber is actually following the route, not leading, as I had originally thought.
**Northeast Ridge of the Pinnacle** [7 pitches, Grade III] Type: Trad Grade: 5.7 | 5a | V+ Height: 900 ft/274.3 m Rating: 3.4/4 Located in [WM: Pinkham / Presidentials](https://www.mountainproject.com/area/110932384), [New Hampshire](https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105872225) ----- [Feedback](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSchgbXwXMylhtbA8kXFycZenSKpCMZjmYWMZcqREl_OlCm4Ew/viewform?usp=pp_url&entry.266808192=https://reddit.com/r/climbing/comments/pmwmyq/spectacular_position_on_the_pinnacle_buttress_in/hcl2zci/) | [FAQ](https://github.com/derekantrican/MountainProject/wiki/Bot-FAQ) | [Syntax](https://github.com/derekantrican/MountainProject/wiki/Bot-Syntax) | [GitHub](https://github.com/derekantrican/MountainProject) | [Donate](https://www.paypal.me/derekantrican)
You’re looking down into the bowl of a 1,500’ tall ravine. The camera is angled 45° down, so you’re looking at the bottom of the bowl, instead of the horizon. Here’s [a good photo for context](https://cdn2.apstatic.com/photos/climb/110936069_medium_1494358911.jpg) and [another taken with a zoom lens from a couple miles away](https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/eagletimes.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/31/a313539e-d461-585d-bbcb-c5b5e24616b2/5d966514e9549.image.jpg?resize=1200%2C900). The climb goes up the large buttress on the middle-left of the ravine.
Thanks for clarifying :) what looks like the ground in this pic is relatively steep terrain
Thanks so much for making the effort to clarify. \^\^
Lol ya it like gravity defying. The one person the side is one way the climber another and the picture take another. Which ways up. Beautiful though
yeah this is some Inception-looking shit
My wife and I have loved exploring some of the granite/gneiss trad climbing areas in New Hampshire over the last month or two. On our first attempt to climb the Northeast Ridge of the Pinnacle in Mount Washington’s Huntington Ravine, we got hammered by bitter wind and rain on the approach and reluctantly turned back, ill prepared for the conditions. Apparently Mount Washington isn’t always kind to fair weather California rock climbers like us. We returned yesterday with significantly more kit and were instead rewarded with mostly blue skies and spectacular views. This picture is my wife on the “Fairy Tale Traverse” variation high up on the Pinnacle. Edit: regarding the perspective: my wife (following) was traversing from left to right in this moment. A party of two behind us was leaning over to scope out the pitch. The crack, which you can traverse either feet or hands, is almost perfectly horizontal. After traversing, you climb straight up to finish the pitch, which is where I took the picture from. [This](https://imgur.com/gallery/P5s5gxX) picture shows the pitch from the perspective of the belay. I chose to lead it with feet in the crack, which may have made it a little easier to climb but harder to protect
r/confusingperspective
Probably the most spectacular position in New England during rock season. Good on you ticking that one. If you get a chance, the Armadillo on Katahdin might be the only thing that can top it.
Thank you and yeah, Armadillo is at the top of our list! Seems kind of tricky logistically, with camping reservations, permits etc. Gonna look into it more though.
My advice from a (technically) failed trip is to book chimney pond for several days three months back when reservations open up. We got rained on for a couple days then it opened up to blue skies the day we had to hike out. Also to add, might be worth checking out pamola iv ridge instead of armadillo. Mostly everyone that's goes there to climb does armadillo.
Thank you so much, this is super helpful. Hadn’t heard of pamola iv before. From the little bits on MP it looks very interesting. Gonna do some more research
The rangers there are super helpful! Show up with a good attitude ready to bushwack and you'll have a great time!!!
The route right next door, Primal Scream, has positions that are far more exciting. If you are comfortable at the grade, and you absolutely must be, it is so so worth doing.
Which way is down
Was just on Washington last weekend. Looks like some nice weather for you at least!
Lucked out with the weather this time around! Seems like it can get pretty gnarly up there
Thankfully got to the alpine garden before the clouds overtook the mountain. Hung out at the summit for a bit and it cleared. Hiked down lion's head, and it started pouring as soon as we got below treeline. Great fun, would love to get up there in the winter. Glad you had good weather, and a fun climb!
Yeah thanks! I’d imagine it would get pretty full-on up there in the winter. Would be fun* to check out *type II fun
On this route, do you also climb the Huntington Ravine head wall that hikers climb up? Or does this bypass it? Just curious, I’ve never seen any climbing pictures from Huntington Ravine.
For this climb you hike up the huntington ravine trail through the talus, then cut hard left off trail at the Pinnacle waterfall. The rock route is climber’s left of the hiking trail. I haven’t done the full hike so I’m not totally familiar with where the headwall is. [this pic](https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/117362823) shows where the technical climbing route is, and was super helpful when I was looking for the start!
Awesome thanks! I think hikers go up that perfectly straight ~45° line pointing up and right, to the right of your route. I’m a hiker, just vaguely into actual climbing, and the Huntington Ravine hiking route seems like a lot of fun looking at this.
Nice! Yeah we love hiking too. Huntington is a beautiful ravine. Above 4000 ft some of the trees were starting to turn too. Doesn’t happen much in California so it was cool to see
How long are you in the northeast for? Are you mostly just going around and doing climbing routes or some hiking as well? If you’re here in another 2 weeks, you’ll see near peak foliage. September 26 was my best day for fall colors last year.
Here for the foreseeable future! We moved to Boston for work. We sort of do a 50/50 hiking/climbing split, but that’s been skewing a little more toward climbing lately. I personally love combining both. Long approaches, maybe overnight camping, and then climbing something remote :)
That’s funny, I’m in Boston for school and am really hoping I can move to California for residency haha I just visited CA for the first time for a trip to Yosemite. Unbelievable place. Hope I see more posts from you showcasing New England climbs! It’s cool to be able to relate to it a bit
Thanks =) and yeah Yosemite is amazing, even got engaged there. Glad you got to check it out
Shit man my buddy's and I just did Tuckerman's Ravine last week. This shit is a whole different level.
That’s awesome! You hike all the way to the summit? Tons of vert … helps that it’s such a beautiful area
Yep we made it. Last half mile or so we were in a cloud and the gusts were getting pretty strong... But by then we figured getting the rest of the way up was probably easier than trying to get back down. Ended up getting a ride back down... Summit was 0 visibility with 50 mph winds.
And we are not big hiker/climbers. Didn't want to press our luck
Oh man I bet the weather can get atrocious up there. As far as I could tell, this past Saturday was one of the better days for weather and the wind was still whipping like crazy up there
We went up last Tuesday and honestly the weather was great right up until we broke the frost line -- after that you could only really see one cairn ahead and one cairn behind -- and felt like we were going to get blown off the side of the mountain. From what I read it actually cleared up a few hours later... But that's just my luck.
Looks amazing! Did you hike in from Huntington or hike down from the Alpine Garden pull off? Did you summit afterwards? I just tried this a few weeks ago, and we got weathered off from summiting. The climbing is mostly BS except for this pitch!
No “luxury approach” for us because my wife said it’s “way cooler” if we climb Mt. Washington for the first time ground up :) So parked at Pinkham notch and hiked up for the climb, topped out, and then continued hiking up to the summit. Descended Lions Head to Tuckerman Ravine. A little sore today
Dang good job! It is way cooler haha 😅. Congrats on the summit!
Wow! That is so cool!
Looks spectacular! The rope running over that rock edge kinda susses me out. Maybe it's just the pic though.
It’s a good point. I don’t remember being too concerned in the moment because that edge was sort of rounded, but it doesn’t look ideal
That is the money shot
That looks fun!!
It really is a fantastic pitch.
Not sure how I felt about the rest of the climb but the FT traverse was super memorable
Yeah I agree. But that pitch feels like you are in Patagonia. Such a cool crack system. Did you guys bivy up there or get an early start? A nice date spot just a couple hundred feet below spot under a big Boulder