This classic linkup allows an all-free ascent of one of the proudest sections of the Big Wall. It has a complex history with some sections first climbed in the 70s and others in the 90s. Jon Sykes's guidebook (Secrets of the Notch, 1st ed., 2001) describes the route and history quite well. Here I paraphrase his descriptions of pitches 5-11, because I have only done the first four, which are far and away the most popular. You'll find that the climbing on the first four is as good as on VMCDD or Lab Wall, making these some of Cannon's very best pitches. Sykes's book is a great resource, but unfortunately it's out of print. You might be able to find a copy at EMS or IME. 

  The route starts about 100' right of Labyrinth Wall Direct and 100' left of YMC Dike at a nice belay ledge on top of a 50' buttress. Locate a large roof about 100' off the deck - it's the roof that the first pitch of Lab Wall skirts the left edge of. If you are standing directly underneath the right edge of this roof, the start of Benedictus is up the jumbly buttress to your right. (Underneath the right side of this roof is a line of bolts belonging to the Lowther Memorial route. Benedictus is 20' further right.) 

  1. Climb off the ledge up and right to a hollow flake, continue to a very shallow left-facing corner, and clip a bolt. Layback up the corner past a pin; the short crux is about 5.11a if you're tall, a little harder if you're not. Step left to climb flakes and edges, 5.8 R, to a large ledge and a bolt anchor. 75' 

  2. The sick-looking finger crack splitting the clean face directly above you is your target. Climb up and slightly right through a bulge at maybe 5.9 and continue to the base of the finger crack. Layback, fingerlock, and crimp your way up this classic stretch of rock, clocking in at low-end 5.11. Gear belay at a stance underneath the roof, or link into pitch 3. 100' 

  3. Follow the roof leftward as it angles upward and turns into a chimney in a corner. Chimney or layback, whatever you do it's about 5.9. When the corner ends move right to a nice stance with a bolted belay. 40' 

  4. Climb up and slightly right to gain a left-trending ramp. Climb the ramp up to a shallow right-facing corner/flake feature. Clip a bolt and climb through a short crux, 5.11a with the right sequence. Belay at the nice ledge atop the flake. 75' 

  You can rappel from here with  a single 70m rope. From this point Benedictus Direct goes straight up the face on bolts, then climbs the overlap with two hook moves. The face goes free at 5.11d/5.12a to underneath the overlap, then the Insult to Injury variation (5.12a/b) traverses right. Another free variation goes left from the belay atop the pitch 4 flake and is described below. I can't comment on the state of the bolts or pins or how necky the R-rated sections are. 

  5. Climb up and left following a seam at 5.9R. Reach a stance, clip a bolt, continue left past a second bolt and a first crux at 5.11c. Join up with Lab Wall's fifth pitch, climb the 5.11 headwall to a small ledge and a two-bolt belay shared with Lab Wall. 100' 

  6. From this belay, Lab Wall goes up and left and When I Paint My Masterpiece goes right. Climb up and right to a horizontal crack, continue right past two pins at 5.10b. Climb through the overlap on large holds at 5.9+ R, and up the face to a two bolt belay at the next overlap. 120' 

  7. Traverse left then climb up to a crack below the overlap. Step right, clip a bolt, and undercling over the overlap past a second bolt, 5.11b. Move right to a stance and clip a third bolt, then climb the slab up and left past a fourth bolt at 5.9 R to join Walk on the Wild Side. Finish the pitch with a rightward 5.10 R traverse to a bolted belay at the grassy ledge. 100' 

  8. Instead of moving right to YMC Dike as you would for WOTWS, climb straight up the face at 5.9 R to a bolt, then step left at 5.10d to gain a right-leaning arch. Lab Wall Direct joins here. Climb the arch at 5.9 to a two-bolt belay. 80' 

  9. Climb left past a dowel, continue left at 5.9 and then turn up and right. Lab Wall Direct goes left here. Climb straight up the face, clipping three bolts, until you reach the shrubs. Somewhere in here is a 5.10d crux. 85'   According to Sykes you can rappel from here, though I don't know what is required for ropes. 

  10-11. Up a dirty slab to some bushes at around 5.6, then take the line of least resistance up nondescript shrubby licheny rock to the top. 300' or so

Benedictus/Masterpiece

The Ghost (Clean Aid)

VMC Direct Direct

One Drop of Water. V

Hierophant Tower

Labyrinth Wall Direct

Magical Mystery Tour (The Girdle/Traverse of Cannon Cliff)

Vital Phenomena

Ghostrider

Dreamin' (project?)

Start roughly 60 feet or so right of VMC DD, you will want to start below a small right facing corner with a bolt in it, climb past this to the left side of a huge overlap, climb the left side of the overlap to a bolt anchor (5.10) 

  Move right off the belay and climb a left facing corner to a belay on the right (5.8) 

  Climb straight up past bolts to a set of two ledges in an amphitheater/alcove (5.10+) 

  Follow bolts out the left side of the amphitheater  to a left facing corner and the belay (5.11) 

  Move right from the belay following bolts to a vertical wall on the right, climb this to a small niche belay (the original aid line goes straight up from this belay on rivets....dont do it) (5.11) 

  Climb left on bolts until you are above an overlap, step back under it until you are right of a very thin vertical crack, continue to a stance on the right. (5.8) 

  On the left will be a short arch leading to a large ledge. (5.11) 

  climb a right facing corner to flakes moving right to a bolt anchor (5.10) 

  Finish up on YMC Dike (5.8) to the top. 

  There are many variations to this route to get to the top, in my opinion "Walk on the Wild Side" is the easiest both to follow and to get off. On the sixth pitch there is a variation that climbs the original A4 crux seam with bolts at 5.11. 

  Expect that all the pitches will have some sort of cannon trickery commonly experienced on all long cannon free routes. 

  This was a pretty monumental route to climb for me  I first climbed the first five pitches but had to aid through the alcove 5.11 pitch, this summer ill be psyched to come back and get it clean.

P1: Get to the top of Triple S Buttress. Climb a right facing corner system to the top of the pedestal, or go around the pedestal and climb the first pitch of Sam's Swan song to the pedestal. 5.7, 2 bolt belay.   P2: Right arching crack into a bolt ladder. Do some hooking between bolts, following the right-most ladder to a two bolt anchor.    P3: Ancient rivet ladder to a multiple bolt belay below the large overlap.   P4: Bust out left under the overlap, hand sized and larger pieces are helpful here to get through this section, once you're at the corner find a bolt to clip and then head up on some heads and or ball nuts towards a bolted belay on a good foot ledge. This pitch has some blocks on it that are intimidating to climb around.   P5: Free at 5.9+, emphasis on the +, leave the belay and head up through an apparent weakness in a kind of stem box looking feature towards a massive ledge with a nice bolted anchor under the ghost roof. To aid this pitch have some hooks and small cams ready. Pro is not abundant.   P6-8: Do the Ghost Roof (Old school A4 or 5.12R?), or finish on Sam's Swan Song through some scary 5.7R pitches. 

  If you just wanted to climb The Ghost, it is possible to Rap from the top of P5 with 2 60m ropes. Retreat is easy from this route until you start P6.

Not just my favorite climb in the East, but one of my favorites anywhere. Beautiful, sustained, well-protected, exposed climbing. CLASSIC.The route is located in the big wall section (middle-left) of the cliff. The route starts under the right end of the 200' wide roof feature half way up the cliff.P1. Up slabby corner to top of buttress. 100' 5.7. Hope you are warmed up by this point because the climbing is hard from here on out.P2. Work right up right-leaning dihedral to awkward mantle back to the left and up ramp. Turn back right again and get into the business - undercling an overlap to a right facing corner continue up to a bolt belay. 120' 5.10+P3. Hard moves off the belay into the next corner, follow through and overlap (takes orange Metolius). The book calls this 5.10+ and the alternative undercling to the right a 5.10, though I find the direct route easier. 130', 5.10+P4. Climb rotten rock to a bolt, move left to a rt-facing and the face w/ a bolt. Face climb to a corner (very difficult when wet) to bolt belay. 120' 5.9 (mentally hard).P5. Hard friction off the anchor (5.11), or right then up (5.10R). Continue past face traversing left to shallow dihedral and slabs w/a small overlap. 5.11P6. Climb through blocky headwall, moving right then up a shallow lt-facing corner to slabs. Continue w/poor protection to the cow's mouth.[ NOTE: The following comments by Paul Madry seems worthy of inclusion in the route description. R Hall NH Admin.  Climbed the route 08/02/19.  Pitch 6 is altered. The huge dark obelisk fell down. As you traverse /diagonal right, the only pro is an old bolt ( really bad, like Salvador Dali melting sculpture bad). It’s 5.7R , and wet most of the time. Going straight up from pitch 5 final headwall ( or traversing right low early in pitch 6 ) may be better. New guidebook describes it as an option.   The good news is that pitch 5 seemed much cleaner, I think some loose rock came down with the obelisk.P7. Hard, wild undercling out the right side of the roof (there are great holds above the lip - have faith). 5.10+(P8 and 9) easy slabs to summit.

A true directisima.We named this route  prior to the first ascent after a saying by a famous Italian climbing Emilio Comici who said the perfect line is where one drop of water will fall... Start between the VMC and the Direct Direct. All pitches except perhaps one and two give superb climbing . No extra bolts please.P1) Start in the dike-type rock just right of  the VMC. Free climb for about 90' than aid into a corner on the left. Swing right into another short corner and belay on the right. 160'P2) Continue up the dike both free and aid aiming for a short right leaning arch. Climb the arch and then after three bolts move left about 6' to a belay in the large crack on the VMC. 120'P3) Follow VMC which after 80' goes right. Continue up roof using nuts and pins via a crack which leads a few feet left. Continue over the roof to the large flake.160'P4)Just right of the belay mantle into a crack. Excellent climbing leads through a break in an awkward vertical wall and onto a slab with good horizontal crack right below the big upper overhangs.160'(Site of first ascent bivy).Massive thunder storms all night.. waterfall fell    directly onto the climbers,lots more than One Drop of Water!.P5)Escape by the slab on the left then aid back right for about 20' then straight up the overhangs to a belay above a short jam crack and below twin cracks.100'P6).One pin in the twin cracks brings one to a beautiful slab.Climb the cracks in the slab to ledges.165'P7)Up easy climbing to the summit. 150'

First rope soloed by climbing straight up into the dike instead of where the Ghost climb goes to right from there. I followed this dike and clipped myself into a decades old 1/4" bolt, moved out left away from the dike onto a series of solid narrow flakes. After I had gotten in my last piece of pro I was incompetent too fall onto my gear. So I rappelled down from that last placement and called it Hierophant Tower after the mysterious bolter.   Jim Shimberg and I finish this pitch on a cloudy wet day. Reached a corner left above my rappel gear (higher in corner old lost arrow pin). This was the way the mystery climber went. I did a tension traverse to the corner I wanted too climb directly above the rappel gear.    Nailed Three pins and we took turns drilling out the hole for a bolt at the corner's end. Up there lastly, burned out, misjudged the depth of the hole we had made, and put in a shallow okay bolt. After the bolt C0 too free moves up left and up, block in the best way right too a long easy too nowhere dead end. Back down again and into the how on earth does this exist extremely broken up wall of stacked flakes, like granite broken egg shell pieces. Granite flakes stronger than they look and easy climbing not gear protective. Thirty feet up and right from the bolt is the bolted belay ledge and the mysterious climber's (2 1/4" bolts)and gear. We added a third bolt to the rappel station ledge below the large crescent moon arches of the last pitch. We stopped and rappelled.   Removed the block from the best way up from the dike. Ted Hammond freed this pitch (11c) doing the face move, right traverse past the bolt. Tom Bowker and I couldn't do the move (maybe move is greater difficulty than I've rated it) easy tension traverse though, to the dike (5-5) but run out.    Jim and I returned in October to place bolt above rappel belay station to access the highest arches above the belay. These are expanding arches flexed radically while bolting from the friends pressuring onto it. I got very angry at Jim for not telling me about the see sawing on granite friends and he said nothing knowing I was going too bolt it anyway and I vented at it being very cold. Too cold, we rappelled.   Charlie and I returned in summer of 1987. Did C0 bolt move to climb  giant (expanding too body weight) arches above (5.6+?) difficult too rate long run outs) it terminates at the base of the left side of 'The Ghost' for half a rope length up from that single bolt (exhilarating) for distance. Windy, Charlie was under dressed for the cliff and was getting hypothermia. I lowered off of a lost arrow I put in at the base of the Ghost arch ceiling (there was a large loose block under the ceiling of 'The Ghost' arch). We rappelled and did base climbs out of the wind.         JeffP and Ryan Brooks freed the face to the arches 5.11+? in 9/14. They made no mention of the run out through the 5.6 arches. Amazing the bolt is okay and I removed the X rating.

This 6000' girdle traverse of Cannon Cliff is certainly the longest roped climb in New Hampshire , providing excellent training for alpine climbs. The first ascent (traverse)from Lakeview to top out on the The Whiney-Gilman Ridge took just under six hours.Simul-climbing was used on the easier sections such as the slabs etc..Some pleasant wild situations when crossing the big wall section of the cliff.

 Climb pitches 1 to 4 of Lakeview and move left to join Wiessner's. Downclimb Wiessners to the Old Cannon Garden, follow garden to its termination to the North-South-West climb. Follow NSW and climb its difficult crack pitch. Traverse left,easy ground interrupted by difficlt bits,untill the Conn Dike is reached. Climb this gully/dike for two pitches then traverse left along a ledge system. This section is vague but it's important to work your way as far to the left as possible,then make a 165' rappel to the top of the 5th pitch of Labyrinth Wall.A tricky lead straight left brings one to the long flake that slices the entire big wall section of the cliff. Enjoy an elegant pitch across the flake passing the VMC and One Drop of Water routes and belay at its extreme left end.(top of pitch 5 of The Ghost).Climb up to the left (5.7)and join Sam's Swan Song and follow to the top of its 4th pitch. Two pitches straight left brings one to second cow pasture on top of the Duet Buttress. Down climb a gully to the first cow pasture then traverse straight left 150' to Cannonade. Reverse Cannonade to the top of the Cannonade Buttress. Traverse left from the top of the Buttress to reach The Black Dike. Climb down until a traverse line just above the base of the gully brings one to a 100' corner and crack this leads to junction with the Whitney-Gilman Ridge. Finish up this fine climb to its top.The climb has had several repeats.

Vital Phenomena rises through a previously unclimbed 50 foot swath of stone between Sam's Swan Song and Ghostrider. The second pitch is downright classic for its style. It climbs mostly flawless rock, is very direct, sustained and is probably the longest of its difficulty on the cliff. The protection is in the style of routes like Benedictus and Fruit Cup Wall - the hardest moves are well protected but expect runouts on easier terrain. The first 40 feet of the pitch are shared with Hierophant Tower but where that route traverses right into a broken vegetated dike, Vital Phenomena makes a move left and continues for another 140ish feet of new terrain. The two bolts on Hierophant were replaced, the remainder of the bolts on this pitch are new and were placed on lead.

 Pitch 1: The easy intro pitch that allows access to The Ghost, Ghostrider, VMC Direct, etc. 200' 5.7

 Pitch 2: The one you came for. Directly up from the belay, left of the obvious arching crack of the Ghost/Ghostrider, pass a small roof on the left. Small gear that you have to work for takes you to rapidly improving rock quality. A couple of bolts in an obtuse corner leads you past the first crux and eventually a small stance. Span left into a right leaning splitter that leads to the upper headwall. Five bolts worth of cryptic, well featured face climbing leads past a small roof. From the stance above the roof move up and left to a great ledge and gear belay that is shared with Sam's. 185' 5.11

 Pitch 3: Easy climbing left off the belay then back right gains a chossy gully ending at an excellent belay ledge shared with the Ghost/Ghostrider. 100' 5.6

 Descent: Three 100 foot rappels on Ghostrider brings you back to the top of the buttress where you will need two ropes to get to the ground. Alternatively, top out on Ghostrider or Sam's.

This is a link up of a couple different routes in the vicinity of The Ghost that avoids the bolt ladders of that route. It is a very direct, natural line with some really classic climbing. The rock quality and protection is a bit lacking in places, particularly the Ghost Roof pitch. If you have done the other big wall classics, this route should definitely be on your list.  

  P1. Start by climbing the first long, scrappy pitch shared by the Ghost, VMC Direct and a couple others. 200' 5.7 

  P2. Free climb the obvious right leaning crack to a stance. Continue along the weakness to where the bolt ladder starts. Nest some gear and make a face move or two left into a nice, moderate corner to a belay. Classic, 100' 10+ 

  P3. Now on Heirophant Tower, climb straight up off the belay into the first, obvious arch feature to a bolt. Clip one more bolt and make some very thin (crux) moves to access the next arch/scoop feature. Awesome climbing leads to the base of a corner and, higher, rejoins The Ghost. Step left out of the corner and boldly climb the face above to a roof. A boulder problem deposits you at the anchor atop of one of Cannon's coolest features, The Great Flake. Again, classic, 100' 5.12 or 5.10 A0 

  P4. Step right and make face moves past thin gear. Ramble your way through fun, interesting rock to a great ledge almost directly above your belayer. 100' 9+? 

  P5. The Ghost Roof. Flavor Country. Follow a line of weakness up towards the obvious corner through the roofs. This pitch gets an A4 rating not because of difficult aid placements but because of the possibility of your gear dislodging circus animal sized blocks. Free climbing this terrain feels equally, if not more, serious. If the rock turns out to be good, this pitch is PG rated. I would rather not test it. Once is enough 80' 5.11? R 

  P6-7. Pick your way to the top among slabs, bushes and choss. ~300-400' 

  All belays consist of bolts with rap rings, the route can be rappelled from anywhere. Two ropes are only needed to get down from the first pitch so if rapping, it might make sense to leave the second cord at the first anchor. All other pitches can be rapped with one rope. A fact that is unique among the Cannon big wall routes is that this route only has 3 protection bolts. 

  At present, the history of the free climbing on this route is a bit foggy. Jim Shimberg, Doug Madara and Chris Dube did some climbing in this area but don't remember what they did or did not free. The grades are my own guesses from a free ascent Ryan Brooks and I made in September 2014. Conditions were less than ideal that day and several pitches, especially the Ghost Roof, were quite wet. It would be interesting to hear thoughts on grades from subsequent (or past??) ascents.

When starting up the DD, look left to the sweet slab. Absolutely incredible slab climbing. I don't know if Gerry finished the lead , but several bolts are in place. JUST A GREAT PITCH

This is a 1000' tall cliff section with some stunning full length climbs like VMC Direct and Labriynth Wall. The only real bigwall aid routes in NH are on this section.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in 3. Big Wall