Shagged: Maine’s Shag Crag Deals with Perma Draws

==

With or without in-situ quickdraws, Shagg is widely considered to have a more exciting feel than the average sport crag. You drive down dirt roads, then hike 30 minutes through dense pine, and past a secluded pond where climbers swim on hot summer days, and over rickety makeshift bridges that cross deep puddles. You cannot see the cliff until the trail finally spits you onto a small bluff, facing the impressive profile of this 30-degree overhanging wall.

Shagg Crag is 5.12 heaven, with about 15 distinct and high-quality routes from 5.12a to 5.12d. There are about three routes of 5.9 and below, and a good handful of 5.10s and 5.11s. Counting extensions and link-ups, there are about 10 5.13s.

The routes are from 20 to 200 feet tall (with some two-pitch climbs that can also be linked in one excellent mega-pitch). Each route has unique features and distinct cruxes. The scenery is spectacular, stretching from Shagg Pond to tree-covered hills.

As a student at Portland’s Maine College of Art until 2003, Joe Kinder logged many days at Shagg. “It was amazing. I still consider it my favorite granite sport-climbing cliff,” he says. “It’s got the perfect climbing, perfect round holds. It’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s just one little gem that New England is lucky to have.”

Noting Shagg’s friendly routes, Kinder says fixed gear isn’t necessary there. “Shagg never had a big-shot connotation,” he says. “It was just a small locals’ crag that was really good. Hang your draws for the season, but take them down when you’re done.”

Randy Baker is credited with “finding” Shagg Crag. Sometime around 1990, he recruited Brian Delaney and together they plucked the first modern ascents. While scrambling up an easy and naturally protected route, they found an obscure piton, discovering that Shagg has an undocumented climbing history. Baker and Delaney established a 5.8 and a 5.10 ground-up and on trad gear (both routes have since been retro-bolted) before installing the cliff’s first rap-bolted route. They named the blocky and technical 5.12a It Ain’t Pretty Being Easy.

Word of the new cliff spread quickly, and soon other climbers swooped in. “I’m not sure we could have kept it a secret very long,” says Delaney. “Not that we’d want to.”

In 1992, Jerry Handren, a Scottish ex-patriot working as a guide in North Conway, drove over from New Hampshire and bagged the FA of Shaggin’ Wagon (5.12a), a powerful undercling route with smears for feet. In the same year, Bob Parrott, a builder from Western Maine who seems to have established at least one route on every cliff in the state, put up Ginseng Route, which may be the best 5.12c jug-haul in New England.

Erik Mushial and Nate Kimball—with the help of the then teenagers Dave Graham and Luke Parady (both raised in Maine)—established Diesel (5.13d), Fat Lady (5.13b/c), Aggro Shagg (5.13c/d) and The Ritual (5.13a) during the 1990s.

Between 1995 and 2004, Bates College students and recent graduates such as Dave Sharratt, Greg Shyloski and Taki Miyamoto became fixtures at Shagg.

Since 2003 Bill Morse, who has lived and climbed around the country with his wife, Nora, has probably spent more time climbing at Shagg than anyone. “Shagg is what kept me in New England,” he says.

==
For a few years after 2004, Morse noted that Shagg’s traffic dropped. He says, “I felt like I was one of the new people pioneering Shagg again—climbing this place again. [Today], there’s a lot more people rediscovering Shagg. That’s one of the reasons why I hung the PermaDraws.”

Morse’s reasons for installing PermaDraws at Shagg were, first, to give back to a place he loves, and with the cliff’s increasing popularity, he thought fixed hardware would be safer and make everyone’s lives easier and more fun.

“[Morse] was trying to do a good thing, something generous. That shouldn’t be lost,” says Eisele, “but it was from his own perspective of what a climbing area should be like.”

One part of the perspective, Morse admits, is that many of his regular climbing partners—especially those balancing babies, spouses and dogs (sometimes all three at the crag)—appreciate convenience.

“We all have kids and our time is limited,” says Morse. “The sport-park mentality has been really appealing to us in the past few years. It’s like, hike up—that’s a good warm-up—climb, and then blast back out of there without having to go back up for our draws.”

Ironically, for the last five years, Shagg has been equipped—with unsafe and deteriorating hardware. PermaDraws, Morse and others reasoned, reduce the threat of draws failing or ropes being frayed.

For a wider perspective, in Rifle Mountain Park, Colorado, for instance, at least two sun-bleached nylon quickdraws on separate routes have snapped in the last three years. Recently at the Red River Gorge, Kentucky, a climber sustained head injuries in a ground-fall when a deeply grooved carabiner on the first bolt of Tapeworm (5.12d) severed his rope. There are other examples of ropes becoming core-shot or “sheathed” on sharp rope-worn carabiners.

Tom Armstrong, of Rumney, New Hampshire, says that a fixed nylon draw recently broke under a climber’s body weight. Guessing that half the draws at Rumney are “ticking time-bombs,” Armstrong feels that the rugged all-steel PermaDraws would be a welcome addition there and anywhere else where nylon draws are hung and left.

“When someone gets killed or seriously injured,” he says, “this whole ethics argument will seem pretty weak.”

The heart of the matter at Shagg, though, was respecting different perspectives concerning a crag that everyone thought was worth fighting for.

“I felt Shagg is the only place worthy of hanging draws like these,” Morse said. Some other climbers, he says, “felt the polar opposite—that Shagg is the only place worthy of not hanging fixed draws.”

Morse got an earful of opposing perspective in the days following Erik Eisele’s initial response. As in many online spats, some adults that had never met slung regrettable insults. By mid-July the e-mail attacks were scaling up and becoming increasingly personal and hurtful. Some people called Morse “arrogant,” and “an ass,” and he volleyed back with caustic messages of his own.

One concern involved whether visual impacts of the PermaDraws could threaten access at the cliff. Some took particular offense to the prominent translucent blue rubber sheath that covers the steel swage. Those in favor of the PermaDraws thought they were an aesthetic improvement over the previous assortment of nylon draws and two-foot slings.

==

Both sides of the argument contacted the Access Fund. On July 22, Brady Robinson, AF executive director, weighed in with the organization’s official opinion.

“We are impressed with the discourse we have seen so far,” Robinson wrote, referring to the communication he’d received. “There are unfortunately many examples of other groups of climbers handling similar situations with far less civility. We suggest that this be resolved within the community with a mind to reduce visual impacts while taking practical realities into account.”

And the community did, thankfully, find a peaceful resolution.

“We avoided a war,” says Eisele. “We avoided an explosion at Shagg.”

In a compromise, both sides of the argument agreed that PermaDraws are safer than ratty nylon draws and should remain on the routes that are the hardest to clean and the most popular. However, both sides agreed that it’s not necessary to equip every route and that the blue casing on the draws should be spray-painted a neutral color to reduce visual impact.

Morse says, “[Eisele] was big in initiating the compromise. Everyone felt so relieved. All of a sudden a lot of apologises went around.”

“Everyone gained,” says Eisele. “I don’t get exactly what I wanted, they don’t get exactly what they wanted, but we all get to climb at Shagg.”

Pat Bagley, a former Rock and Ice intern, lives in Boston and is inching his way toward medical school.

TICK LIST

The Great Escape (5.10c/d): Does 5.10 get any better than this? Wrapper jugs traverse up and right through the central white wall. This route got its name because it’s an easier and shorter variation of Bob Parrot’s original line, the burly Zag Shagg (5.11c).

Shaggin’ Wagon (5.12a): Make a hard move off a flat boulder, then work the obvious left-arching lieback/undercling flake to a juggy finish.

Ginseng (5.12c): Steep jugs with interesting moves and a wicked pump. Classic.

Shagg It (5.12c/d): One of the longest and proudest lines on the cliff. Recently led on trad gear (not recommended) by Chris Deulin, a bold and talented local.

Aggro Shagg (5.13c/d): Probably the best hard route at Shagg. Difficult snatches down low lead to a technical headwall and a slabby glory romp to the chains.

LOGISTICS

Season: Shagg Crag gets sun from late morning to last light, plus the steep white rock can act as a solar oven. Fall is best. Spring is great before the bugs come out. Winter is pretty good if it’s sunny and you’re willing to post-hole up to the cliff. Shade from trees makes summer better than expected.

==

Driving: Shagg Crag feels remote, but it’s just three hours from Boston. It’s about two hours from both North Conway and Portland. Google “Shagg Pond, Maine” for directions. Shagg Pond practically laps the approach road, Shagg Pond Rd. From the small, sandy boat launch, you can see Shagg Crag on the side of Bald Mountain across the pond. From the pond, continue up the dirt road for less than a mile. At the top of the steep, short, and partially paved hill, park in the obvious but modest pullout to the left. Please leave as much room as possible for other cars.

Approach: A 30-minute hike. Walk along the wide, relatively flat trail for about 10 minutes. When you reach a small pond (Little Concord Pond), take a sharp right up a steep single-track trail. Follow this over a series of rocky slabs, and almost to the summit of Bald Mountain. About five minutes shy of the summit, take a right onto a subtle climbers’ path and descend to the cliff. While this trail is obvious enough once you know where it is, it is also easy to miss. You may find it easier to spot the trail by walking to the summit (the view is great) and looking for the climbers’ path on the way down. Climbers currently enjoy a great relationship with the landowners. Please keep it that way.