The Pinnacle Butt-Rest

By:  Greg
July 23, 2014 5:45 pm | Category: Climbing, Summer

On the eastern flank of Mount Washington, NH, not far from where we like to ski, is an exceptionally nice place to rest one’s butt; the “Pinnacle butt-rest” one might say.

For many years, mountain-folks have widely agreed it’s a great place to rest your butt, but in a seeming-contradiction to Nature’s propensity to minimize everything via paths of least resistance, even though one can drive up Mount Washington, and comfortably stroll down to the top of the Pinnacle butt-rest with a cooler of Coors and backpack of smoked meats, since at least 1910, people have been trying to find harder and harder ways to get to this incredible butt rest. As early as August of 1910, fine folks like Mr. George Flagg and his friends were interested in resting their butt here, but only after going through great difficulty to get to the butt-rest from directly below. Here’s a sketch Mr. Flagg drew of he and his friends admiring the butt-rest from the bottom. The butt-rest is just under the “Mr.” in “Mr. Dennis.” You can almost sense the mile-high stoke-level of these guys in this sketch. But yet it makes no sense. They can just walk around the Pinnacle to get to the top and rest their butts. But they won’t. And we won’t. Mountain-folks all want to go straight up as best they can.

Mr. Flagg and friends–like me and my friend Christian–didn’t know much about ascending the butt-rest from below, but they knew they had to get there from the bottom one way or another. Sometimes they needed to pull on their gear:
pull you up
Sometimes they needed to pull on their… friends?
http://www.famousinternetskiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/gpetrics/pinnacle-butt-rest/George-Flagg-Pic-3.jpg

But for some strange reason, even though its wildly beautiful, and perched out in the middle of the rugged Huntington Ravine, actually sitting atop the butt-rest is not enough for humans like me, Christian or Mr. Flagg. We seem to find getting to the butt-rest via the most difficult route we can muster more than half the fun. Look at Mr. Flagg’s beautiful sketch of the Pinnacle butt-rest. It makes no sense why he didn’t just want to walk around. Or maybe it does.

Of interest, the violations of Nature didn’t end with Mr. Flagg. For instance in October of 1928, William P. Allis along with some of his friends approached the butt-rest from a route through a “chimney” that a previous party, led by Mr. Lincoln O’Brien in May of 1927, had warned was unclimbable. So not only were they looking for a more challenging route to the butt-rest than Mr. Flagg’s, but moreover they had been warned of their chosen route’s impossibility! Of course Mr. Allis found a way up it however. He’s a human being. By standing on someone’s shoulders, and then using nearly-forgotten-abilities he had honed as a boy climbing trees, Mr. Allis wiggled up through the chimney, and then on up towards the butt-rest. If his technique was anything like ours, his motions were no doubt lewd and lascivious. Today mountain-folk call this place the “Allis Chimney” in honor of Mr. Allis’ brave yet ultimately worthless wanton wiggle. Here’s an old picture of a party (not Allis’) climbing directly below the chimney:
allis

Of course it didn’t end with Mr. Allis. Indeed, Robert Underhill (perhaps the father of American rock climbing, and who was following behind Mr. Allis in October 1928) wrote in his notes detailing that first ascent, that to the right of Allis’ chimney “the wall is unclimbable.” Today that “unclimbable” wall is the most popular route to the butt-rest, and sadly most folks skip Mr. Allis’ celebrated chimney. Go figure. We humans are strange creatures.

Considering the history of strife surrounding this Pinnacle butt-rest, and having ticked off a few warmup climbs in Vermont, about 104 years after Mr. Flagg, my friend Christian and I decided it was time to go rest our butts atop the Pinnacle too. We decided to approach from Pinkham Notch. Here’s our first view of the Pinnacle (cf. Mr. Flagg’s sketch above).

As is often the case with us, upon finally seeing the thing we came to climb, we both agreed that it looked a lot less scary on the Internet.
alot less scary on the internet

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8 Comments

  1. Harvey
    wrote on July 24th, 2014 at 3:38 pm  
    1

    Love these photos. They leave a lump in my throat.

    Sorry I can’t come up with a more original comment.

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  2. Peter
    wrote on July 25th, 2014 at 10:04 am  
    2

    very rad. Absolutely love the composite shots. And that traverse looks like a bucket full of NOPE to me.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  3. SignGuy
    wrote on July 26th, 2014 at 4:10 pm  
    3

    I second the love for the composite shots! Great TR.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  4. ml242
    wrote on July 31st, 2014 at 11:56 pm  
    4

    Great post, Greg and Christian. Nice pics and illustrations. Mount Washington really is a place for all seasons.

    I’ve been unsuccessful in my three attempts at big outdoor climbs this summer, and seeing this really makes me want to get out there immediately to rectify it, even if I finally got around to posting my effort from May on Harvey’s blog.

    I had quite the similar issue with a traverse, of course it involved using the force to float oneself to a small ledge and was rated (cough cough) 10+, but still, the rgba equivalent of the poop smear in my shorts was really close to (0,0,0, 1.0) for the internet savvy.

    Still a couple months left, I can’t wait to see some orange and red underneath my feet before the snowliage comes in as well.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on August 4th, 2014 at 5:13 pm  
      5

      just got caught up on your adventure in the Gunks… jeez that sounds scary man!

      hopefully it doesnt hold you back though… hope you get out and get climbing on a project soon. Hit us up if you’re ever thinking about climbing in Smugg’s… happy to show you the very little we know!

  5. mtl_ripper
    wrote on August 7th, 2014 at 10:45 am  
    6

    a lot of BAD ended up looking like FUN – not my cup of tea, tho. Dig the photoshopped pics, nice twist. Enjoy the hot season!

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  6. I'm_a_crappy_skier
    wrote on September 2nd, 2014 at 4:00 pm  
    7

    Beautiful pics! I don’t have the huevos for that!

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  7. Butch Chamberlain
    wrote on September 18th, 2014 at 8:30 am  
    8

    Well, it’s me again. I have to say that those photos of the HR bring some pleasant memories back. When I was younger, (much younger), I went on an excursion into HRavine. I didn’t do the daring Pinnacle climb, however, did cheat an go up through the gully. Which for me was impressive. Your pics are really top notch as usual. I dare say that Christian has overwhelming love of all things vertical and flat. OMG those drops are something else. Again, a great TR guys. Keep bringing us all the fun. Most of us live in a vicarius world. And for me that is enough.

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