Greenville, Maine is known for ice fishing and snowmobiling, but did you know it’s the launching point for Maine’s most impressive ice climbing? Dozens of 100’ virgin routes in a gorge called “the grand canyon of the east” as well as the tallest ice climbs on Mount Kineo ranging from 300’ - 700’ in height.
These rare adventures begin on snowmobile covering many backcountry miles before setting off on snowshoes through untrammeled mixed forest to the top of Gulf Hagas. After touring 19 sunny miles with Dan into the Gulf and rappelling into the amphitheater, we pulled the rope and stared at four gorgeous ice climbs.
After climbing the warm up as seen in the photo above, we got in a couple laps on the middle 5 grade route.
We walked the river a ways to check out multiple routes for future adventures and returned to climb a slightly overhanging route with our packs on. That got me a little pumped!! After walking back to the snowmobile, we hauled ass back to Moosehead Lake. Dan asked if we had time to tour the lake northward to check out Maineline, our objective for the next day. With just enough time to spare we punched it 70 MPH on the lake and found Maineline standing tall and proud.
Shan drove up earlier that day to ski the local mountain and climb Maineline with us. We had a very early start ahead of us…
We left Rockwood on foot crossing Moosehead lake for Mount Kineo around 5:00 am. Everything was calm and silent as we were guided by moonlight and stars.
Maineline is the steepest continuous ice climb in New England. At around 350’ it clocks in at 5+ and sees maybe a handful of ascents each season...
I had a blast climbing with the Dan and Shan show. We already conjured up future adventures, and heres to hoping this post finds you both well and excited for adventures to come. You know who to call!
