Fast forward and pause.

It's actually starting to feel like Spring outside. Sort of.

The Roundout Creek in our backyard has made serious gains this month.

The flooding days.

Fast forward to today.

The month of March has been fickle with its weather. One day a it was 65 and sunny, a few days later it snowed 4 inches. So it's been on again off again climbing, which, as it turns out, wasn't so bad because we've been able to settle into our apartment. The cleaning and painting is done and most everything is moved in. But who cares about that stuff. Climbing is more fun.

I've slowly been getting into shape again. The Adirondack winter was long, and this one was especially harsh. With basically no climbing from November through February, it's been an uphill battle (haha). But I have been doing some things that I've wanted to do.

On that particularly warm sunny day we were at Triple Right climbing. I top-roped Aphrodite's Divorce (5.11d) cleanly first try. I need to go and lead it. The gear on it is G+ so no real sense in not doing it. Also that day I watched Tim TR the top boulder problem on Cybernetic which is something like V9/10. Go Tim!

I went out and did Yum Yum Yab Yum (5.3) with Maria the day after it rained last week. That's a fun climb. Tons of exposure, long, varied and good movement. If only the crux hadn't been sopping wet...

And just the other day I made it out to the Lost City with Margaret and Kasia. Did some bouldering and then did a few laps on A Brave New World (5.11a). That route is fantastic. Sassy high stepping, reaches, crimps, jugs, undercling-deadpoint. Oh man, so good.

Margaret and I got out yesterday and did some routing in the sunshine, which is always a thrill. We actually did a repeat of one of Matt and my first ever days of climbing in the Gunks. Check out an old post here. (I was such a noob! hahaha.) Margaret and I did the Arch/Wrist link-up and the first pitch of Maria. All in the warm yummy sunshine.

And then again today I got out for a long lunch with Matt to do some bouldering. We tried Tim's new climb Happy Trail (V6?) on the Pubes boulder. We wanted to get some mileage in the short time we had, so we didn't stay there too long to work on it, but it looks like fun. I want to get back to try it again soon. We rushed over to Pat's Pinch (V7) and threw ourselves at that for a while. It seems like it's close to going down, but it's so PEBBLY and ouchy on my soft fing-eys that I didn't work on it long. What I really wanted to do was send Dirty Ricans and White Boys (V7). Finally did it! Woot Woot! Here's a video of the climb, but it's not me in the video:


Tomarrow looks like another baller/splitter/bomber day outside. If only we could pause the weather at today's and keep it there for the rest of eternity.

Classic Cragging.

The climbing season is not quite in full swing yet. It's certainly approaching, however, even if it's not quite quickly enough for my tastes. I keep thinking that 35 degrees is plenty warm for climbing and then realize that my fingers are numb and my toes hurt and all that jazz. That said, I got out a few times in the past days to do some single-pitch cragging.

On Wednesday, Margaret and I got out in the Trapps for a couple hours. I'd never done Classic which, as the name suggests, is a classic 5.7 Gunks climb. It starts with a hard move right off the ground (classic) and then moves up through a very enjoyable face littered with horizontals (classic), and finishes with a roof with Pamela Anderson sized jugs (classic!). It doesn't get much more (C)lassic than that.

After that we packed our bags for the long approach to our next climb, City Lights (5.8), which was about one minute forty-seven seconds away. It again has some hard moves right off the deck and then some spicy run-out face climbing above. Fun. After that we did Frog's Head which was 20 feet right of City Lights. Classic.

Yesterday Matt and I went out for some more classic cragging. (Matt just arrived from the north-country, where he recently ascended Positive Thinking, a 500 foot NEI 5-. *Way* to go!) After picking up some paint from town for our new apartment, we headed out to the workout wall in the Nears with intentions of lapping 'til our arms fell of. We started with Birdland (5.8) which is very much fun. Then we set a TR on Transcontinental Nailway (5.10c). After that we were going to do El Camino/El Kabong, but it was too cold. So we didn't.

It's official, by the way. Matt and I are now living in Rosendale above Margaret's apartment.

March 1

Today, I climbed until my fingers bled. It was a beautiful day indeed.

It makes me nervous how lamb-ish the beginning of this month is seeming to be. Although, really it's just the first three days of March that are nice. After that it seems to be pretty lion-ey...so lion-ey that I had to postpone my climbing trip to the dirty dirty (south).

A random thought.

If things never changed then they would always be the same.