Exploring 2 of the Adirondacks’ best multi-pitch ice climbs

A day spent on Multi Gully and Roaring Brook Falls

By Phil Brown

When I got out of bed, the temperature was near zero in Saranac Lake, and the forecast called for it to stay frigid all day. I started to have second thoughts about ice climbing, but soon enough Will Roth showed up at my door.

Multiplication Gully: A historic Adirondack route

As a professional guide, Will is used to climbing (whether rock or ice) in all kinds of weather, so he was eager to go. His cheerfulness rubbed off on me as we drove to our destination: Multiplication Gully, a reliable ice route that forms in a cleave of rock in Wilmington Notch.

Multi Gully, as it’s familiarly known, is a classic Adirondack ice climb and an old one. Alan Spero and Tom Worthington did the first ascent 50 years ago, in February 1975.

In his guidebook published the following year, Tom Rosecrans offered a spare description: “There is an ice gully here, about 3 pitches long and of moderate difficulty.”

In the modern guidebook, “Blue Lines 2,” Don Mellor is more expansive: “This route is just about perfect, were it not for the other climbers queueing up below. It’s a tight, rocky, sunless cleft, with unusually good ice. … Word is that Yvon Chouinard raved about it as being one of the best pitches in the East.”

Chouinard revolutionized ice climbing in the 1960s and 70s by manufacturing ice tools with dropped picks and crampons with rigid platforms, among other innovations. His equipment company evolved into Black Diamond.

Related reading: New ice climbing guide gives solid overview for beginners and experienced adventurers

Overcoming the chill

My friend Steve Thompson and I wanted to climb Multi Gully last winter, but every time we arrived, other parties had already started up the route. This January, Will and I had better luck. No other cars were in the small pullout on Route 86. Perhaps the cold was on our side.

We walked along the highway a hundred yards and then began a steep, snowy slog. Partway up we stopped to put on our crampons. In 15 minutes, we got to the base of the climb and roped up.

These days, Multi Gully is done in two pitches. The first is shorter and easier. The main challenge is a small wall or bulge of thick ice near the beginning. Will twisted in an ice screw and clipped the rope to guard against a fall. Higher up, he clipped the rope to a sling around a cedar. That was all the protection he needed.

I had been belaying Will in warm mittens but exchanged them for thinner gloves when my turn to climb came. I surmounted the bulge without difficulty, but by the time I reached the cedar my fingers were numb. I stopped to warm them before joining Will at the belay anchor and putting my mittens back on.

At a second glace

The second pitch is more interesting. On this one, Will put in six or seven ice screws for protection. At the start, a steep section leads to a comfortable stance, where you can rest and shake the cold out of your hands. You next climb to a tight spot and squeeze between the ice and rock wall. Once through this constriction, you angle left and ascend to a tree anchor. To my mind, climbing past the constriction is the highlight.

For much of the climb, we had been sheltered from the wind, but at the top we could feel it, further sapping our body heat. Poor Will had been standing in the breeze the whole time as I climbed the second pitch. He now set up a rappel, and soon we were back at our packs. In another 15 minutes we were sitting in Will’s pickup discussing what to do next.

Off to Roaring Brook Falls in a change of plans

We headed toward Keene Valley with the intention of climbing some short routes near the road, but on the way Will had another idea: Roaring Brook Falls.

Visible from Route 73, Roaring Brook Falls is perhaps the best multi-pitch moderate ice route in the Adirondacks. In winter, the cascade freezes into a kaleidoscope of shapes: pillars, columns, mushrooms, fragile daggers. As you climb you can hear the water rushing behind the ice, and sometimes a portal allows you to see it as well.

On this day, the late-afternoon sun was at our backs, and there was no wind. We never felt cold or even chilly. And we had a blast.

Despite its length (400 feet, three pitches), Roaring Brook Falls is not overly difficult. In fact, Will had soloed the route four days earlier. On our climb, he made quick work of the first pitch, which follows a series of steps straight up the waterfall. On the short second pitch, we ascended a low-angle ramp and went past a frozen pool to a large ledge. 

The third is the best pitch. In summer, the water rushes through a narrow rock slot. In winter, the slot is an exciting feature to climb. The ice forms bulges and columns, and the roar of falling water is omnipresent. And somewhat ominous–a crash through the ice would be disastrous. We reached the top safely and enjoyed a stellar view of the Great Range before following the hiking trail back to the parking lot.

The thrill of ice climbing

Will regards Multi Gully, Roaring Brook Falls, and Chouinard’s Gully, which overlooks Chapel Pond, as the three best moderate multi-pitch ice climbs in the Adirondacks. He guides all these routes several times a year.

“I don’t know if I can say one is better than the other,” he wrote me later. “They are all so classic.”

What makes a classic? I don’t climb ice enough to judge. All I know is that climbing Roaring Brook Falls and Multiplication Gully added up to amazing day.