Kasia is down here for the month, straight chilling. Her obligations include art making, house sitting, dog walking, and rock climbing. After a long first half of the year working, she's now relaxing for a month or so and doing some fun stuff.
Chris has been making it down here this summer with some frequency, which is awesome of course. In fact, I heard that he has been doing more outside climbing in the Gunks than at the Glen, his home crag! (Yeah, Gunks!) We've been hitting up all the cool spots for bouldering, like Lost City, Northeast (when is was still open...thanks a lot moss pullling, tree chopping, roof chippers), and Triple Right.
So anyway, his last visit was during the post-Irene-pre-Lee window of blue bird magnificence. With conditions looking awesome, we bouldered first the first day. The result of which was this video, and these photos:
Before we did Captain Bring Down, I worked on Sex Bomb Roof (v8), giving it a couple of really good attempts. I think I'm close on it, just a few days in a row of effort and I think it could go. Here I am entering the crux section:
Here is a photo of O-dogg (v2/7). This is the hardest easy problem of all time. It looks like a pile of choss when you pass by it, but the climbing on it is awesome:
Kasia did Captain Bring Down from the stand start (v5) and showed us there is a different beta for the top:
That pretty much concluded our day of bouldering. Chris and I tried Didactic Tactics (v8) and Lactic Tactics (v7/8) after that, but our tips were pretty fried and the bugs were starting to get gruesome so we called it a day.
The next morning we went to the Trapps to do some climbing. We did Airy Aria (5.8), and then top roped Scary Area (5.11) after that. Then we did The Sting (5.11d), which is still one of my favorites. Chris ended up flashing it on top rope! Way to go Chris! Here is a picture of me, half way up:
And to finish the day, we decided to do Directissima (5.9) into High Exposure (5.6). Chris had never done either before, so I figured, why not, it'll be fun. High E is the most classic Gunks climb, after all. After we got to the top, I found out that it was Chris' first ever multi-pitch. Yay!Chris toping out High E. Yeah, he's psyched.
...So psyched, that he had to tag my wrist.
Kas and Chris looking tough. 'Cause they are.
...So psyched, that he had to tag my wrist.
Kas and Chris looking tough. 'Cause they are.
And now let's think dry weather. We don't need no more rain no more (triple negative, it's cool.)
