Grand Manan - New Routes, conditions and access

[Stef]

Great weekend is Grand Manan! Conditions are not as fat I have seen them, but still pretty good and "in".

A note on access: The owners of Whale Cove Cottages not longer plow their parking area/road down to Whale Cove. Park instead at the end of The Whale Cove Road and walk in from the beach. Not sure if the Eel Brook and cliff-top trails are open this year with all the snow. We approached everything from the Whale Cove side. It takes 45-60 min to reach the Wiser's Deluxe/Statutory Holiday area from Whale Cove, so plan for the extra time to get out if the tide is coming in.

We also did some exploration on Whistle Beach, which is located NE of the end of Whistle Road (see access description for Indian Beach in Joe's book). Found some great ice with a five-minute approach and accessible at high-tide. I'll post some updated maps and topos on the FB group.


Some new routes:

Seven Days Work

Business Time - WI4, 45m. FFA S. Kruse, R. Linden, 28/02/15

Left-trending route ~ 100 South (climber’s left) of Statutory Holiday. Belay in cave/squeeze chimney at the top. V-thread rappel to descend.


Whistle Beach

Eggs – WI3, 15m. FFA D. Ricker, S. Arcand, and R. Linden, 01/03/15

Short vertical route. Good spot for top-roping and likely accessible at high-tide. This is the first route on Whistle Beach, ~ 400m NE of the Whistle Road access point to Indian Beach.

Steak and Eggs – WI4+, 35m. FFA S. Kruse, S. Arcand, and D. Ricker, 01/03/15

Big obvious set of steep curtains, just left of Eggs, Great route with a short approach and also likely accessible at high-tide. Descend via 5 minute walk-off the top to the Whistle Road or v-thread rappel.

[max]

I was also on Grand Manan this weekend with Luc and Marty. We explored Seal Cove and Dark Harbour there is some ice at Seal Cove but not worth the drive.
After a 1.5hr walk in Dark Habour we found no ice... the rock looked pretty good though.We went to Indian Beach as well and walked southwest for 5-10mins and climbed 3 routes.

Island Speed WI4+ 40m FFA Marty Theriault, Luc Gallant, Max Fisher

Sunday Driver WI4 25m FFA Max Fisher & Luc Gallant

Fish Factory WI3+ 25m FFA Luc Gallant, Marty Theriault, Max Fisher

PS. Seven Days Work zone is excellent!
A couple photo's will be on NB FB page.

[HDW]

cool. where did you guys stay?

[Stef]

We stayed at the Whale Cove Cottages. The Stone cottage is a great spot as well.

New access/route map is up on the FB group.

[chossmonkey]

We stayed at the Whale Cove Cottages. The Stone cottage is a great spot as well.

New access/route map is up on the FB group.

Sounds cool! Thanks for sharing.




I'm curious why FB is so much more popular. It is probably easier to posts photos to, but then it is very difficult to find anything later on. If its publicly shared information why not post it somewhere that it can actually be searched for and found in a year or two?

[Greg]

We stayed at the Whale Cove Cottages. The Stone cottage is a great spot as well.

New access/route map is up on the FB group.

Sounds cool! Thanks for sharing.




I'm curious why FB is so much more popular. It is probably easier to posts photos to, but then it is very difficult to find anything later on. If its publicly shared information why not post it somewhere that it can actually be searched for and found in a year or two?

You make a good point but to answer your question I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it seems CEC is pretty quiet these days. I think the ease of posting photos on facebook is also a big reason. If there was some way to make it easier here that would make this a more popular platform. I still use CEC for the reasons you mentioned but I also use facebook from time to time and if you want to get information out about conditions I think it makes sense to use both.

[chossmonkey]

We stayed at the Whale Cove Cottages. The Stone cottage is a great spot as well.

New access/route map is up on the FB group.

Sounds cool! Thanks for sharing.




I'm curious why FB is so much more popular. It is probably easier to posts photos to, but then it is very difficult to find anything later on. If its publicly shared information why not post it somewhere that it can actually be searched for and found in a year or two?

You make a good point but to answer your question I think it has a lot to do with the fact that it seems CEC is pretty quiet these days. I think the ease of posting photos on facebook is also a big reason. If there was some way to make it easier here that would make this a more popular platform. I still use CEC for the reasons you mentioned but I also use facebook from time to time and if you want to get information out about conditions I think it makes sense to use both.

yeah, facebook is way too easy to put things into. Just push a button and it pretty much does it all for you.

I think the lack of traffic here is directly related to facebook. The long term quality may not be as good there, but short term it is more efficient for quick communication.