Crushing.

So, I haven't been very devoted to the old blog as of late. But that's because I've been busy climbing! With Charlie, Connor, Ian, Matt and myself all living in the same house, there is never a time when someone doesn't want to go climbing. We have been climbing all the time. Climbing climbing climbing climbing. And when we aren't climbing we are talking about climbing. This of course has been very productive in the way of getting strong. It is so much fun pulling on hard climbs in the Gunks. Recently we have just been crushing 5.10s. We have done Beatle Brow Bulge, Face to Face, Birdie Party, Stirrup Trouble and Fickle Fingers, all of which are 5.10s. Last week we set up a photo shoot for Charlie and Connor on Modern Times. We got there via Directississima (Doubleissima). It was a revenge climb for me -- two weeks before that I led it and took a massive whipper at the crux on my second smallest piece of gear. On my second go, I crushed it. It's certainly the most sustained 5.10 I've done, and it's probably my most favorite send of the season.

Speaking of setting up photo shoots, just a couple of days ago we all went out and we set up a photo shoot on Welcome to the Gunks (5.10b). This has been a climb that has loomed in the distance for me. It has been there, staring at me, waiting. It's got a certain reputation of being scary, airy and hard. There are a total of five roofs on the route, all pretty substantial. And on top of that it has a 5.9+ R section where if you blow it, you could hit a ledge. The gear you have is more or less at your feet, and you have to sort of mantel on some slopers right before the second roof. I think that was both the mental and physical crux of the climb -- I'd say all of the roofs go at like 5.9+, none of them as hard as, say, Grim-Ace Face. My best on-sight to date. For sure.

And continuing with the crushing, just yesterday Connor and I got up at like 6:30 to beat the heat, and we did Art's Route (5.9), Wegatables (5.10a), Simple Suff (5.10b) and Birdcage (5.10). Yay crushing.

Here are some of the photos from Welcome to the Gunks.