The Gunks

After having worked a lot of days, I finally got a few days off. So I ventured down to New Paltz.

I got out climbing on Sunday with Margaret in the Trapps and we did Bonnie's Roof Direct (5.9+) in one pitch, which is an awesome awesome awesome climb. After that we went and did The Sting (5.11d) and I led it clean first try. I'd gotten it before, and doing it again in that style was way fun. When we first got there there were some people top roping it. They were obviously fairly new to roped climbing, and the one girl actually said at one point "Why would anyone ever lead this thing on gear?" It was nice to then crush it with them still watching...a little icing on the cake perhaps.

Today Maria and I went out to go climb Maria (5.6+), but there were people top roping the first pitch, so we bailed and went over the Madame G's (5.6+) instead. Such a good climb. It was Maria's first hanging belay, and she did wonderfully. Devin showed up too and I threw the rope down to him and he top-toped the right side of the pillar directly. Looked like good climbing.

All in all, great success.

The past few days

Like I said, I went to Silver Lake the other day. Rich and I went to work on Abracadabra. We've gotten three pitches up so far and it goes at A2+ so far, but it's likely that the first pitch will be somewhere in the hard 5.11 to easy 5.12 range, second pitch 5.11 and third pitch 5.10. And for the last pitch there are at least three options. Rich and I hiked straight to the top of the cliff and lowered down on toprope to inspect.

We cleaned one option, which follows a pretty cool crack after some lower angle stuff. Right in the middle of the pitch, the crack completely disappears, and there is a V4 boulder move that I wasn't really able to unlock at all. There are two sinker finger jams without any real feet to speak of. Then the next real hold is like 5 or 6 feet away. The gear would be really good at that point, but the move is balls hard, unlike the rest of the pitch.

Then we checked out another option to the left, which seems to be a more consistent climb, both in terms of the pitch itself being sustained, and also with the climb itself...I think it will go in the 5.11 range.

Can't wait to get back up there and do some more scrubbing and scoping. There is still another pitch we didn't even look at!

Other than that, I've been to Beaver Brook twice and work too many times to think about.

Silver Lake

The climbing at silver lake is neither silver, nor is it a lake. It's more like an ocean of platinum rock. You should check it out. That's what I'm doing today.

Spider's Web

I went to Spider's Web with Matt and Rich yesterday before work. Matt led TR (5.10a), and we all did a lap on that which is a super fun route with nice jams and what-not. Then I led Fear and Loathing in Keene Valley (5.11b) cleanly, which was pretty cool. I had top-roped it once last year, so maybe we can call it a 'grey-point.' It's a pretty sweet route though. And then Rich led Slim Pickins (5.9+) which is also a super cool route.

It's fun to crag before work.

King Wall

I've been working a lot, which isn't exactly conducive to climbing. But, I did have my (single) day off this week today and so we went out to King Wall.

There was a strong chance of rain all day, pretty much starting at 9am, so I convinced the boys to get an early start. We were up by 6 and out the door by 7, and charged up to the cliff through morning wetness. I've always heard that King Wall is the cliff that stays dry in the rain, so it seemed like a sure-fire bet.

When we got to the cliff everything looked soaking wet. Water streaks everywhere, steady waterfalls in section and just a general air of dampness. But upon closer inspection Kingdom Come (5.12A0) was dry as a bone, even with the waterfall behind it. The first pitch goes at 5.11b, and is steep and loaded with big jugs and positive crimps. A fantastic pitch of climbing. I went first and hung the draws, climbed it on-sight with no falls (woo hoo), and then Rich and Matt climbed it after.

After that we found a short trad climb that follows a right facing corner/flake. It's capped by a big roof so it too was bone dry. It was called Ellusive Dream and the first pitch was 5.10a. Rich led it and had some real excitement near the top. It's mostly a burl-fest of a climb -- strenuous laybacking on a slightly overhung feature with smeary feet. Rich plugged the last piece of gear in and went to climb up to the anchors and the gear disappeared a bit as well as the holds. At least there was a rivet in the rock that Rich could sling. He almost fell, before looking down and realizing how far away the gear was, and then decided to pull harder. He ended up doing the moves no problem.

After that we climbed Chronic Fixation which is a 5.10b clip-up. Short and pumpy with some good moves on it for sure.

'Twas a good day indeed.

Check this Out!

http://www.climberism.com/silver-lake-and-potter-mountain-climbing-rebels-interview/

What's Happening?

It's been a few days here since I last updated, so let's see what's been going on...

Matt is back from his trip to New Zealand. He had a good time indeed and it's nice to have him back.

Shortly after sending Zoinks!! I went back to the C Chimney with a couple of buddies who had never been to Silver Lake before. Alex and Jack are both pretty strong, and I was still pretty psyched on Zoinks!! (how couldn't you be?) and so we decided to climb it. Rich and I had been talking about trying to link the pitches into one and had plenty of gear that day, so I racked up with triples of everything finger size and smaller and took off. I've got to tell you that those 180 feet are so much fun. A link-up is totally possible as long as you have enough gear and are conscious of rope drag. It's almost a completely straight line so rope drag isn't even really that big of a deal. All in all it was a fun day.

Matt, Rich and I met our friend Amanda a few days later at the Creature Wall. I had never been before so it was cool to check out a new wall. It definitely has some fun cracks. The highlight for me was climbing Arachnid Traction in my sanuks.

Then I worked for a few days, went to New Paltz, came back and worked some more. On Monday Rich and I made it out to Silver Lake for a little while. We went back up to the C Chimney cliff and hiked straight to the top. We built an anchor and lowered down over a potential new line and tried top roping it...

So, I've never really considered myself a fan of slab climbing. The climbing at Potter is slabby for sure, but it's not really slab climbing because of all the holds. The route Rich and I tried at C Chimney though is amazingly slabby. It's maybe 88.5° so calling it a slab may be a little misleading. But the climb is awesome. You start off a ledge and pull through nothing to gain a flake. The flake again leads to nothing, and you gain another flake. This again leads to nothing and then one more flake. The flake ends at a small overhang and a few more slabby moves leads to an out-of-the-swimming-pool finish.

I've never been on hard slab before and this was awesome. Way harder than the last move on Hippie Sticks. I didn't even try the start yet, couldn't pull through the next slab crux, and was able to pull the next crux once. So, out of four cruxes we were able to figure out two. It's going to need a few bolts and a lot of trying before this goes down but it will eventually I'm sure. I think we are going to call the route Half Shark Alligator Half Simuliidae. (Simuliidae is the family to which black flies belong.)

And then yesterday Matt and Pelman and I went to Beaver Brook. We climbed Beaver Fever (5.10a), Castor Canidensis (5.11a), Good to the Last Drop (5.10d) and then Pelman and I tried the project there, which is coming along nicely. Pelman figured out how to pull the last little over hang, and then I alllllmost pulled it, but not quite. I think this route is going to end up being 5.12b which is cool. I would be cool if my first 12b was a first ascent.

And now the work week starts back up.

Sending, not pretending.

On sunday I didn't have to work but Rich was working a double. So I went out to Silver Lake where I still had a fixed rope hanging on Zoinks!! and I tried some variations and other pitches. They were all really hard and I didn't really make much progress. But maybe someday in the future. After a couple of laps on the old top rope solo, I headed over to Pitchoff and met up with a college buddy. We did a couple laps on the Raven, and then we did Roaches on the Wall. I'd never done Roaches before, and it's pretty sweet for sure.

Yesterday I worked breakfast, which was fun. Rich did too, and we got out at about the same time. So of course, we headed up to Silver Lake. And sent Zoinks!! on lead. I've top-rope soloed it enough times that it should have been easy, but it was still really hard! It's an awesome awesome awesome awesome climb and I can't recommend it enough. It's so good.

I was saying to Rich on the hike out that finishing a project is a little bit like losing a friend. You aren't going to see each other as much, things are going to be different when you do see each other, and they'll never ever be like they used to. That said, I'd climb Zoinks!! any day.

Also interesting. There was another party climbing on a route a couple of cliffs over. Haven't had that experience at Silver Lake yet. Wonder what they were doing....