Gunks Climbing

My southward excursion has been at least somewhat fruitful. I drove down Monday afternoon, arriving with clear skies and cool temps. Tuesday and Wednesday were awesome, late fall climbing days.

On Tuesday, Andrew and I went out to Lost City to do some bouldering. We did some fun problems near the Air Jordan boulder, from V0 to V5 including a really fun 4 and 5 (I'm so bad with names -- I'll find out later). Then we went and tried The Path which was really hard, but Andrew got. After that we headed over to the left side and got on Death of a Salesman and Funny Killer, both of which were also hard but fun moves for sure.

Yesterday Margaret and I had noble intentions of heading out to Millbrook to enjoy a day in the sun on white rock. But once 10 a.m. rolled around we decided a day of cragging in the trapps wouldn't be so bad either. We started the day with V3, a super classic 5.7 that pulls a roof via some chimney moves. Then we headed over to Never Never Land, which is THE face climbing classic of the Gunks. I hadn't been on it in a long time and we suprised how tough it actually is. Not only that, it's pretty run out as well. That aside, awesome climbing. Then we top-roped Nevermore (5.10c) and J'accuse (5.10b), which were both crimpy and fun. J'accuse is a series of hand-foot match mantels with no real holds to pull up on. Pretty wild houdini climbing. We ended the day with Maria Direct (5.9+) first pitch. I little bouldering on a rope.

All in all perfect weather and fantastic climbing.