Champlain Mountain Loop

Ladders are incidental to the Dorr Mountain Ladder Trail and the Perpendicular Trail on Mansell, but they are the essence of the Precipice Trail. Brunnow's genius was in using iron to finish the route nature began. As for ladders as most of us think of them - runs set between rigid side rails - there is only one on the Precipice. Brunnow's rungs are set in holes drilled into the face of the granite. Iron rungs in themselves do not make for difficult hiking. As used in Acadia, they generally make it easier to get out of a tight place here and there. On the Precipice Trail it is where the rungs are set that makes all the difference - places you would not tread on your own. More than a convenience, Brunnow's rungs are the backbone of this route.

The Precipice Trail has four sections: preamble, traverse, cliffs, and upper shelf. The reason for installing rungs at the beginning may be to give climbers a taste of what they will face higher up. If the trail fails to get the message across, bold yellow signs state it in so many words:

The Precipice is maintained as a nontechnical climbing route, not a hiking trail. Attempt this route only if you are physically fit, wearing boots, and experienced in exposure and heights. Persons have fallen and died on this mountainside.

Two rungs, the first set high, in a six-foot wall of granite. You stretch and pull yourself up, muttering about giants. With an assist from a seven-foot handrail, you come to the edge of a talus slope, a river of giant boulders rushing down from the base of the cliffs. Blue blazes beckon you up the talus slope, daring you to crawl or leap boulder to boulder, with no steps to make the going any easier. Your reward is a great view of the cliffs. There are two sets, those above the talus, and an upper wall beyond. The trail heads for both.

Scrambling over boulders, you come to another test, a keyhole to squeeze through. And another. In intimate contact with granite, you crawl beneath a fifteen-foot boulder, experiencing the talus from underneath. You angle across the field of fallen rock, reaching the base of the lower cliffs. Two rungs lift the trail onto a ledge. Leaning ahead, outstretched arm grasping at niches, I hopped from one more-or-less level spot to the next.

Down stone steps pinned with iron, up a flight of giant steps, the trail leads to more woods at the base of another cliff. From here the trail rises steadily at a uniform pitch across the cliffs. A few rungs and handholds, but no ladders. A five-foot wall of rock stymied me for a bit, lower rung almost three feet off the ground. Squeezing through a narrow gap, the trail goes on, until it levels off at about 700 feet. Then Rudolph Brunnow whips out his iron, and the fun begins.

You know the trail has changed gears when you come to a set of seven rungs, followed by a narrow ledge with five handrails, leading to seven more rungs. Abruptly I was on the face of the cliff. Up a wet cliff face on the five-rung ladder. Then another eight rungs, leading to thirteen set in a narrow angle in the cliff. This must be the hard part. But it got worse. One narrow cliffwalk followed another. I was on a ledge three feet wide, not a handhold in sight. Up two rungs, then along a ledge.A row of eleven handholds took me around a long curving ledge to a rise with three rungs. Onto a shelf. Up three more rungs to another shelf. Then a sloping ledge with a boost from a natural foothold. Five stone steps led off the ledge, with a killer step at the bottom three feet high. A leg-up of one rung. Six more rungs onto a tricky sloping ledge with an overhand. Over a step wedging in a crack onto a ledge running thirty feet south. Then another ledge three-feet wide running north. Up seven rungs over a ten-foot wall. North again on a shelf four or five feet wide. Three rungs onto a higher shelf.

Coming to three stone steps, I was surprised to see them there. Past the steps, four rungs mounted to a narrow ledge two to three feet wide. Nine rungs ahead. A long skywalk, with footholds - long, low bars. There were handholds, too. Eleven in a row, around a curving shelf. Then three rungs into a cleft. And with two farewell handholds, I stood on the brink. Where I was greeted by a yellow sign:

Climbing up is easier than climbing down. For an easier way back, take Bear Brook Trail from summit, located 10 minutes ahead.