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.