outdoors
Rogers
Rock
a grand-scale adventure by phil brown photos by carl heilman II
›› THIS STORY originally appeared in Adirondack Explorer magazine. For information, go to adirondackexplorer.org.
T
om Rosecrans has climbed all over the world, but he’s most at home on Rogers Rock overlooking Lake George. Have you heard of the legend of Rogers Rock? We’re not talking about Major Robert Rogers, the leader of Rogers’ Rangers in the French and Indian War. We’re talking about Tom Rosecrans, the rock climber. Rosecrans, 59, has climbed in the West, the Himalayas and East Africa, among other places, but he’s spent most of his time in the Adirondacks, where he has logged about 70 first ascents, and of all the cliffs in this part of the world, he’s most at home on Rogers Rock. The 650-foot slab rises straight out of Lake George. Legend has it that, in March 1758, Major Rogers was fleeing Indians when he came to the brink of the cliff. He strapped his snowshoes on backward and retraced his steps to make it appear as if he went over the edge. He then scrambled down to the frozen lake by another route. When the Indians saw him far below, they thought he had been aided by the Great Spirit and so ended their pursuit. Rock climbers who scale Rogers Rock enjoy throughout a breathtaking view of Lake George, looking south toward Anthony’s Nose or north toward the foot of the lake. There’s no climb like it in the Adirondack Park.
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“Rogers Rock has everything I like about climbing,” says Rosecrans, a retired teacher who owns the Rocksport climbing gym in Glens Falls. “It’s scenic, the routes are generally long, and they don’t scare the bejesus out of me.” Yet most climbers who come to the park speed past Lake George on their way to the High Peaks or Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain, the traditional destinations of cliff hounds. This could change with the publication of Adirondack Rock, a guidebook that is opening people’s eyes to the climbing possibilities in many parts of the park. Rosecrans has seen a steady increase in climbers at Rogers Rock over the years, especially in the summer. The park’s first rock guidebook, A Climber’s Guide to the Adirondacks by Trudy Healy, did not mention Rogers Rock at all. Rosecrans published its successor, Adirondack Rock and Ice Climbs, and included three routes on Rogers Rock. Climbing in the Adirondacks by Don Mellor, first published in 1983, offered 10 routes there. Adirondack Rock, though, represents a quantum leap forward, or upward: It divides Rogers Rock into three cliffs and describes 40 routes in all — four times as many as the previous guidebook. Twenty-one of the routes are on Rogers Slide, which is what most people think of when they think of Rogers Rock.