Approach trail for Mainface

[Marcus]

Hey all,

I'm visiting NS with my wife and we did some very enjoyable climbing today at G-Spot. The plan for tomorrow is to go to Mainface and climb Popcorn, as practically everyone I've talked to has told me it's a must climb. The only problem is that we spent about 30 minutes today driving up and down highway 357 trying to find the "faint trail" with a "Climb Nova Scotia Members only" sign past an iron gated dirt road.

Could anyone give any more specific directions on how to find the trail head because we've had no luck? Is there even still a sign up or has it since fallen down?

I noticed there were houses with road numbers, does anyone know between which two road numbers the trail head is? GPS coordinate would also not go amiss

Any help would be appreciated. We're hoping to go out tomorrow but unless I can find some more info on where the trailhead is we may have to bail.

Thanks!

Cheers,
Marcus

[mick]

Click here for a Google Street View of the Main Face gate as seen from the 357HWY

There is no "CNS members only" sign, although the cabin owner has requested that climbers be CNS members to access his property for liability reasons. You can become a member of CNS by visiting http://www.climbnovascotia.ca/membership/

Park on the highway (not in front of the gate), and follow the obvious ATV trail for about 15 minutes until you arrive at the cabin overlooking Paces Lake. Facing the lake, Main Face is on your left. To access E-Gully and Popcorn, walk down the steep embankment with a fixed rope. You will be standing in a dihedral of rock and notice a blank slab with about 6 bolts in it; this is "Splittin' Dimes" 5.13a that is listed in your guidebook as "E-Gully Project". There are numerous quality 5.7-5.9 trad climbs here in E-Gully. Continue past E-Gully down almost to the water and look for a fixed rope on your left - this takes you to the starting ledge of Popcorn.

Popcorn is an ultraclassic NS trad line and most people's first lead. Pitch 1 is great, pitch 2 is not as good, and pitch 3 should be avoided in favor of traversing to climbers' right for 5m at the top of pitch 2. From here, do "Main Line 5.7G" instead of the final Popcorn pitch.


Enjoy!

[Marcus]

Click here for a Google Street View of the Main Face gate as seen from the 357HWY

There is no "CNS members only" sign, although the cabin owner has requested that climbers be CNS members to access his property for liability reasons. You can become a member of CNS by visiting http://www.climbnovascotia.ca/membership/

Park on the highway (not in front of the gate), and follow the obvious ATV trail for about 15 minutes until you arrive at the cabin overlooking Paces Lake. Facing the lake, Main Face is on your left. To access E-Gully and Popcorn, walk down the steep embankment with a fixed rope. You will be standing in a dihedral of rock and notice a blank slab with about 6 bolts in it; this is "Splittin' Dimes" 5.13a that is listed in your guidebook as "E-Gully Project". There are numerous quality 5.7-5.9 trad climbs here in E-Gully. Continue past E-Gully down almost to the water and look for a fixed rope on your left - this takes you to the starting ledge of Popcorn.

Popcorn is an ultraclassic NS trad line and most people's first lead. Pitch 1 is great, pitch 2 is not as good, and pitch 3 should be avoided in favor of traversing to climbers' right for 5m at the top of pitch 2. From here, do "Main Line 5.7G" instead of the final Popcorn pitch.


Enjoy!

Awesome, thanks mick!

I had already bought a membership to CNS, but the Cassidy guide mentions another trail which meets up with the ATV trail perhaps being a bit faster. At any rate, thanks again, that makes it much clearer!

[chameleon]

Marcus, don't believe what that Cassidy guy writes..... he makes most of that sh#t up!


You can believe this though.....As an enjoyable triple crown of Main Face, I'd recommend:

1) Popcorn (as per Mick's description)
2) Itchy Skratchy (5.8ish - a little dirty in the middle but such cool climbing and exposure)
3) Mr. Puff (5.9)