Michael Schneider

Climbs, Boulders & Top Ropes

 

 

I was splitting my time between NY and NJ when I took a Bell Labs employee to a bunch of climbing areas.  He was compiling information for a NJ rock climbing guide.  Years before that, he and I had been climbing regulars, sharing ropes at Watchung. We climbed and shared notes.  I told him about, gave him directions to, or went with him to, many hard to find, out of the way climbs.  I showed him many of my routes.  I put him on the sharp end ­at, (among other areas) Hibernia Right (my name for the cliffs: Green Pond East). After that, he took credit for climbs I had shown him, listed other areas without credit and dismissed Green Pond (some of the best climbing in New Jersey) as being a small cliff that was falling down.  The  guidebook does mention 30 routes (with no information), which, other than the Delaware Water Gap, is more routes than any climbing area in NJ, back then and now.

 

I had been developing Green Pond with an eye to running my climbing programs so being left out of the guidebook meant that I had the escarpment almost completely to myself for decades. The nature of my explorations, a search for safe, fun climbing, led me to all of the separate cliff bands.  For many years I was guiding three days a week for a program of teenagers. They were full of energy and in need of a challenge.  These students took to the rock like goats. The kids strengths, particularly Blue Gus, led me to focus on the far end of the cliff.  

 

From far off, this section of cliff has shortest profile and least vertical gain of any of the cliff sections. Up-close the zone is home to an area of instant classics.  Roofs, overhangs and corners of solid rock that gave constant challenges at every level of difficulty.  Given the long approach, loose rock, and that the rock leans in such a way that many falls end in a crash into some corner or ledge (both on lead and on top rope).  I was glad that since the late 70's, I had always kept a bare bones rescue cash half way up the cliff on a large ledge with a pine tree, at the far end of the escarpment.

 

In the 1970’s I found Bills Army Navy store in Millburn NJ. The store was a treasure trove of WWI & WWII Climbing gear. The Army navy store was dying out, replaced by the clean and orderly outdoor stores of today. The bulky obsolete gear and braided rope could be had for next to nothing. I bought it in bulk, Too heavy to carry steel carabineers, different types of pitons (soft iron flat pins, ring pins and V rings that looked like tent stakes), as well as, the three most desirable diameters of braided gold line rope. The use of this very old wave gear was not acceptable to the forward thinking climbers of the day, like the Bell Labs guys.  To me, it was the best stuff to use in my exploration and development of the cliffs.  It worked, it was the right price, and it could be left stashed in the case of an emergency.  Having just an extra rope might be critical in providing a quick rescue, avoiding the need to spend time trying to gather rescue equipment (ropes) from far-flung fire departments.  One had to be careful back then, the Local fire/rescue departments had almost no climbing specific supplies, and now, there is often no cell phone reception in the area.