Greeley Ponds

West of Greeley ponds,  On the eastern flank of Mt Osceola, is a rock extrusion of schist and granite Much is smooth dark and possibly of a high iron content. furthest sections north are granite.

About a mile from the ponds west is 1/4 mile+ long disconnected walls that far to the south are split by a giant dike (in winter known nowadays as "The Drool of the Beast" It is in the middle of nowhere and there's nowhere to go after climbing it to get off of it in summer or winter. Therefore rappelling from the dike's decent rock ending is necessary in winter. Beyond the dike south is a 200+ brown slab. I've heard rumors of someone bolting a route up the brown slab. Rumors are unreliable and the slab ends at the dike. I haven't been to the slab yet. I believe the slab is granite. There's good rock out there on both sides of the Dike. It's just very hard too find this section because of the many rolling hill mounds between the ponds and the raised rock extrusion. I approached the cliff in summer directly from the ponds and it was terribly long and nothing to see except trees and more trees because of the hills. When I approach again it will be the same as I did in winter way before diagonal up to the crag bands avoids all of those rolling hill mounds.

Past the ponds heading south by trail from the Kancamagus Highway is another ledge system called Painted Cliff by hikers but known as Gorilla Head to climbers. The approach is reasonable but  should be made from Waterville Valley instead of the Kanc. I believe the trail is accessible to bicycles. This section of ledges are facing slightly southeast. The highest section, Gorilla Head is furthest south and 200+ft of very steep lacking natural removable protection features. To get there take the Greeley Ponds trail (road) from the valley until there is a fork heading uphill westerly. Follow this road trail until the cliff bands comes into view. I firstly bushwhacked up to this section and believed it was the best approach until I brought my friends up the bushwhack. They were pissed off to see below and south of the cliffs it was a short scramble to the road trail from base of the Gorilla Head. There are two unnamed moderate climbs here we did. 1 pitch length for each (100ft) and we rappelled from stunted pine trees. These ascents were done in 09,1981. We all had been climbing for a year and my judgment on what was climbable then must be based upon my inexperienced viewpoint then. I did a solo further north of this granite section that began steep and tapered off to becoming a slide scramble.