Gone 'til November

Gone ’til November is named as such for a few reasons; this year was the first Fall I've spent entirely here on the East Coast in almost 20 years, and the season was an amazingly beautiful stunner so I wanted to theme the route name as such. The leaves lasted all the way into November as well (weren't gone 'til November), providing a magnificent few days for us to find and get this route done. I also grew up on The Fugees and Wyclef and have always loved the namesake song (spelled slightly differently), so once the theme was set the name choice seemed pretty obvious. As for the climb itself, it isn’t too much to look at but I think it climbs very nicely.

After a brief top-rope session from the Baptism by Fire anchors and some text messages to the appropriate knowledgeable parties to make sure it wasn't already done, I decided to come back the next day for the lead. The climb isn’t that hard, but the protection options are somewhat limited/specific for the initial section and the crux, so be prepared. Dancing up across the initial slab has no protection, but the leaves would probably soften a fall pretty well. Once established, a couple of really good pieces of gear are found to protect the crux, after which the climb lays down a little for the remainder.

I didn't clean very much of the lichen/vegetation off of the route because it didn't seem necessary, so it'll likely look a bit camouflaged for a while. Hopefully it'll stay that way. Please follow suit and leave the lichen alone to the best of your ability. I don't think this route will see too much traffic, but the lichen is pretty amazing up there and I would like to see it remain as intact as possible for obvious reasons.

Immediately left of Baptism by Fire. Tiptoe out the slab to the initial gear in the small right-facing corner, then follow your nose/obvious features up, eventually ending at the BBF anchors.

Small cams and stoppers up to .75 BD. I found offset cams to be useful.