The Rain

It's raining again. I mean seriously what the hell? This has been the wettest ^$%#^%$@#$23!! year and it is really beginning to get tiresome. On average it rains like between 45 and 50 inches every year. This year it has rained at least 70 inches, maybe closer to 80. Absurd. Atrocious. Abhorrent. Contemptible. Offensively repugnant. Rant Rant rant rant rant rant rant rant. Angerzaurus Rex.

Hard climbing

So I've been working a lot recently. Like, a lot a lot. And while that is no excuse for not posting, I'm gonna role with that excuse anyway. That said, I have been climbing a little bit.

Last Wednesday I got out with a guy I recently met who lives in Patagonia. He does first ascents in the Torres del Paine region of Patagonia and is super hard core. He's also fun to climb with. He was up here in the Gunks to give a slide show and do some stuff at home and had a few free days to go rock climbing. And rock climbing we did.

We started out the day with a warmup on Boldville (5.8) and The Winter (5.10d), which are always super fun and super classic. I think The Winter could be one of the best corner climbs in the Gunks (although perhaps Simple Stuff could rival it). The other cool part about doing those climbs on that particular day was that Rich Romano was around doing some routes. It's always fun to watch someone climbing with a harness that is a swami belt made out of 1 inch tubular webbing. It's also fun to see a local legend as well.

After the warmup, I got on Uphill All the Way/The Man Who Fell to Earth (5.12a). I'd never been on it before, but I've been really wanting to give it a try. Since it was right there, I gave it a go. The line follows an arching crack/corner/roof feature. the crack itself is never very big, and consequently the holds aren't that good and the gear is small. After working up the initial 30 feet or so, you move right and do some hard stand up moves. After that pull the roof on some crimps and it's all over. Very much fun. On the onsight attempt I got to the hard standup move and wasn't feeling that psyched on the gear. So I took a hang, found another piece of gear and repositioned a piece, and then climbed to the top after that. Second attempt (with the gear still in), I crushed. Here is the vid:

After that, Andrew gave the Sting (5.11d) a try. I gave him the gear beta, and he got all the way to the last move on his first try. I cleaned it up, and we moved on to the Yellow Wall (5.11c). I'd only been on it once before, and I'd never led the first roof pitch, so I was psyched to get back on it. Boy is it fun. I sussed out the crux once, and came back to a rest, and then fired it after that. Romano was watching from a distance, turns out, and he came over and said "Huh. Left heel hook aye? I've always used a right." To each their own I suppose.

After that we cooled down on Ant's Line (5.9), feeling really quite worked. But all in all it was one of the harder days of climbing I've done in a while. 5.8, 5.10d, 5.12a, 5.11d, 5.11c, 5.9. All after seven days in a row of work!

Rainy day activity

Its been raining here a lot. A lot. A lot. Route 32 is close again, as well as Springtown Rd. I'm more or less trapped here in Rosendale unless I take a most circuitous route (which I will most certainly have to do today to get to work, bah!). So I've been fooling around with iMovie all morning trying to edit my first video. Exciting! First though, some back story is in order.

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.

And now let's think dry weather. We don't need no more rain no more (triple negative, it's cool.)

Becoming Certified

For more than two years now I have been slowly moving toward becoming a climbing guide. "Do what you love to do," has been what I've heard for a long time and now I'm putting that into action. And that action is building momentum.

Two years ago I signed up for an AMGA SPI course through Alpine Endeavors. (On a side note, people love acronyms, but for the most part I think they are rather annoying.) Who the heck knows what AMGA or SPI is? The American Mountain Guides Association is the industry standard for education and certification in the climbing world for guides in the US. They have been making efforts to create professionalism in the guided climbing world, which in turn legitimizes the industry. If someone is AMGA certified, a client can know that this guide has taken courses, learned skills, and passed rigorous exams.

The AMGA has different levels of guides. It starts with Single Pitch Instructor (SPI) which is a three day course and two day exam. It then moves to Rock Instructor followed by Rock Guide, each of which are 10 day courses and six day exams. And these courses ain't cheap either. The SPI course and exam would run you $800 and then the Rock Instructor and Rock Guide course and exam are each $3,600, for a grand total of $8,000.

Anyway, back in 2009 I signed up for the SPI course, but then didn't really pursue anything more with it. I think this was partially due to the fact that we were moving to the Adirondacks soon, and the focus was going to be Silver Lake. But, now, back in the Gunks, guiding can be at least somewhat lucrative, and it is something that I love. Earlier this summer I signed up for a refresher course with Alpine Endeavors, and then right after that I took and passed the SPI exam. I am officially an American Mountain Guides Association certified Single Pitch Instructor.

Well, actually, I wasn't completely certified when I passed. This is due to the fact that AMGA requires all its guides to have CPR and basic first aide certifications as well. This past week I have been taking care of that. I went back to New Hampshire, but this time not to play. This time I was going to become a certified Wilderness First Responder (WFR).

One of, if not THE pioneer in wilderness medicine is SOLO, or Stonehearth Open Learning Opportunities. SOLO has been teaching wilderness medicine since the 1970s, and their international headquarters happens to be in Conway, not too far from Cathedral and Whitehorse. So I zipped up their last week and took the 80 hour WFR course.

It's a pretty cool course. You learn basics like CPR, the heimlich maneuver, and how to use an AED device (and become certified to do all three). You also learn how to build splints, stop bleeds, treat shock, build litters and shelters and a lot of other really cool stuff. And doing it at the SOLO headquarters was awesome because the practice scenarios were sweet. Many times our instructor, Josh, would come in and say, "Oh, no, something really bad happened." We would gather all our gear, walk out of our classroom and up a trail, only to find one of classmates with a bone sticking out of their leg, or blood being spit out of their mouth. From wax to fake blood to makeup, the scenarios were super effective at teaching you how to rescue someone in the back country.

Only one more thing to do, and I am a legitimate guide. New York State needs a slice of the action, of course, so I have to take a "test" and pay them $150. After that, I'm good to go. The process started over two years ago, but this summer I have made concerted effort to make this thing a reality. Who wants to pay me to take them climbing? Anyone?

New Hampshire: Whitehorse, Cathedral, Cannon, Rumney

Road trips. Ahhh, there ain't nothin' like 'em. Waking up early and making french press coffee. Going to sleep early with achey hands and feet. Camp food, food bars and water (and beer). Climbing. That's about all there is too it. This past week Matt and I road tripped out New Hampshire way and hit up some awesome climbing. Nyssa and Rich where there for a day of climbing too and we even got to celebrate birthdays.

Matt got done working on Monday at 4:30. We jumped in the truck and headed Northeast. By midnight we found ourselves at Rich's aunt's house, just over the Maine border, 20 minutes from North Conway. There was disgusting rain for most of the drive up, so we were not really expecting to climb on Tuesday, but we went out, with minimal gear, to check out Whitehorse. (The minimal gear thing ended up being a bummer later, as the whole cliff was bone dry.)

Whitehorse is a cool cliff. On the far right side, there is a nice Chapel-pond-esque slab. And then as you work left it gets steeper and steeper. The rock itself reminds me a bit of Poke-O-Moonshine with slabs, dikes and some faces and roofs. We ended up getting on Future Shock (5.11a), Ethereal Crack (5.10c), Seventh Seal (5.10a), and then we simul-climbed the slabs at the end of the day.

Me hanging the draws on Future Shock. What a wild route! (Rich got a fish-eye lens for his birthday -- cool huh?!)

Coming down the slabs.

The gang from Cathedral, looking over to the Whitehorse slabs.

Rich and Nyssa had to work the next day, but Matt and I didn't have to work. So, instead, we decided to get on the Prow (5.11d) at Cathedral. This is by far, the hardest undertaking Matt and I have ever attempted. It's a six-pitch climb that breaks down like this: 5.10a, 5.11d, 5.10a, 5.11d, 5.11d, 5.10a. It is a superbly awesome climb from bottom to top. It's also really hard. I got one of the 5.11d pitches cleanly on lead. But the other two didn't quite go as well. That said, our effort was better than expected and we got up the thing in the end with out too much "nylon jug pulling."

Me on pitch one. Slab slab slab. The route goes up through the triangle roof up high. Off to the left you can see the last pitch of the uber-classic Recompense (5.9).

Matt hanging out on pitch three.

A demonstration on how cams work, half way up the prow.

Matt coming up the beautiful 5.11 finger crack after the crux of pitch four.

The top of pitch four.

Matt coming up the last pitch.

The last moves of the last pitch.

The top.

When we got down to the truck again, we noticed there was another party climbing The Prow. We wondered to ourselves, "How often does this thing get climbed twice in a day?" Here they are on the third pitch. Up and to the left of The Prow party you can see a climber on Recompense.

Our next objective was at Cannon Cliff. A little thing called VMC Direct Direct IV (5.10+). Of course, we had been on it once before but had weather issues and was only able to scope it out. And as fate would have it, we ran into the first ascensionist, Steve Arsenault in the parking lot after climbing The Prow. He said he tries to climb VMC Direct Direct at least once a year. We chated with him a bit more and headed off to Cannon. This time around we were psyched to crush. We rolled in at night, set up "truck camp" and called it a night. The stars were out and the cliff looked great.

We got to the start of the climb after some heinous talus scrambling, and started up. Things were going fine to start, we climbed to the top of the second pitch with no problems. But that third pitch is a doozy. After some hard underclinging in a tips crack and smearing on a blank granite face on the second pitch, the third pitch comes at you on all fronts. It's technical and pumpy and it's sustained, both mentally and physically. As fate would have it, Matt and I both fell. But at least we got to try climbing it this time! We climbed one more great pitch, and then rapped, having gotten to our previous high point again -- the top of the fourth pitch.

The day was not lost though. We got to the ground, packed up our stuff and moved to the right a little bit to Moby Grape III (5.8). This climb is close to 1,000 feet long, and it climbs some pretty fantastic features, starting with a splitter, Yosemite style hand crack and ending with a huge fin shaped boulder called the Finger of Fate. We scurried up as fast as we could, knowing that we already spent half the day on VMC. Just around dark we arrived back at the car. Amazing climbing, nasty decent. All in all an excellent alpine climbing day -- 11 pitches and 1500 feet. After pounding some food we called it a night.

Cannon Cliff at sunrise.

Matt at a rest on pitch three of VMC Direct Direct.

Top of the fourth pitch on VMC Direct Direct with the historic Whitney-Gilman ridge in the background.

Me approaching the Finger of Fate on Moby Grape.

The top, with the White Mountains in all their glory.

We anticipated one more half day of climbing at Cannon, but the weather was not on our side. We had stashed a second rope at the base of Vertigo (5.9 R) the day prior, and just as Matt was getting to the belay at the end of pitch two, it started to rain a bit. So we bailed. We did end up at Rumney to do a couple of short sport climbs before heading all the way home. We did a fun steep corner at the Bonsai Wall called Peer Pressure (5.10d) and we also checked out Waimea (5.10d) at the Waimea Wall. Both classics. Both awesome.

I think the final tally was somewhere near 30 pitches and 2,500 feet of climbing. Not bad for a little four day road trip. This should be a good jump start for 20, 5.10 pitches in a day?!

Climberism!!

Silver Lake made it into issue #7 of Climberism's online magazine, which you can (and should!) check out here. You do have to "sign up" for it, but it's free and easy to deal with. Plus you get to check out climbing news about the northeast! Do it, you won't.

Adirondack Hiking

I have been itching real hard to get back up to the Adirondacks. I miss the smells, the sights, the people...I just miss the dang place. I just got done working a long week last Sunday, so Margaret and I zipped up to mountains in the North. We stopped in Albany on the way through to wish Nyssa a happy birthday over a few margaritas and then woke up early the next morning to finish the drive to the Adirondacks.

And when we awoke, much to our chagrin, we discovered that the weather was supposed to be severe thunderstorms throughout the day. Blah! We went anyway.

We made it to the Noonmark Dinner by close to 10 o'clock and had some breakfast. Then we went to the Mountaineer to kill some time. We were hoping that maybe the weather would clear enough to be able to do some climbing, but it just really wasn't in the cards. Margaret had never done a High Peak before so, we bought a guide book and picked out Big Slide Mountain as a hike to do. Seemed like it was better to get out hiking in the rain, rather than doing nothing at all.

It ended up being a 8 mile, round trip hike, with 2800 feet of elevation gain, bringing us to a total elevation of 4240 feet, which is the 27th highest peak. And while it was raining to start the hike, about mid way up, it stopped. The clouds and fog were still pretty socked in by the time we reached the summit. But patience prevailed and after 20 minutes or so everything lifted, giving us spectacular views. A highly recommended hike, for sure.

The start of the hike. Tall dense birches and tree-root staircases.

Our first view looking out to the Great Range. It was still pretty wet at this point.

The wind was whipping through the valley. Really awesome cloud formations ensued.

Dense fog in the valley with the Great Range in the background.

We ducked back into the woods for a while. Notice the smaller trees at the higher elevation. Also, lots of moss growing on the trees as well.

Approaching the summit. Thanks Long Island chapter of the ADK, for building me a staircase.

The clouds are lifting! Hurray! You can see Gothics and the True North Slide...remember?

Summit reward. Lots and lots and lots of rewards for that summit.

Gravity's Rainbow -- A new project.

Two days ago I went out to Lost City with some buddies. I went with the intention of trying a route that I've seen many times, but as always seemed like it was too hard to consider trying. A new project has begun: Gravity's Rainbow.

It sits on the overhanging east face of a large, detached block. It follows a vertical crack, and in true Gunks form, there is more face climbing than crack climbing. It's very beautiful.

I heard that it has one section of tricky gear, so we set a top rope up on it. After trying it once, I'm very psyched to give at a lead, but I think I'm going to go for a head-point style. That is to say, I'm totally going to scope out gear, figure out what works best, try it a few more times on top rope, and then when I'm good and ready, lead the thing.

Project!!!

It's been a while, I know.

So, it's been a while, I know. It's not that I haven't been climbing. I've been getting out here and there, mostly cragging. But I've also been working too much. I'm now in my second week of more than 35 hours. Booo. I guess you gotta make those dolla' dolla' billz though.

Things worth mentioning that have happened in the past few weeks:

• Chiggers. They suck. Really really hard. And then after they finish sucking you itch. Really really hard. I hate chiggers more than any other kind of bug. I would kill them all.
• Cragging is cool. Sleepy Hollow, Slime Wall, Lost City. Hot days equals find shade.
• Fourth of July at the Lake is still awesome and water skiing is still strenuous.
• Sent my hardest route (on toprope) at Lost City: Caffeine and Nicotine 5.12b.
• Swimming holes are cool. Especially ones that you can climb out of.
• Climbed the coolest slab boulder problem ever. Stand Up Start Button (V5). 15-18 feet tall, and a sea of tiny pebbles and pebble clusters. Bad Ass.

Some photos:

Unnamed V5

When Animals Attack V3

A young, fluffy turkey vulture.

That's about it I suppose. Summer is moving right along. It's almost August for crying out loud! Matt, Rich and I have a trip planned to New Hampshire coming up. Lets hope it doesn't rain.

By the way...this is my 200th post on gunksterpuller. It's been a long time.

Seven Pitches at Lost City

Sunday, Margaret and I got out for the afternoon to do some top-roping at Lost City. When we got to the parking lot we saw some fellow climbing buddies and we decided we would climb together, sharing top-ropes. This of course, facilitated many pitches and easy setups.

The beauty of the TRs in Lost City is that they are generally in the shade. The area we went to called the Chasm is particularly shady, as it is, as the name suggests, a chasm -- i.e., all day shade. We started the day with Texas Flake, a stellar 5.10c on an overhanging wall with a long reach for a crux. Margaret went first and with only the slightest of hesitations, crushed it. I followed and left the rope up for our buddies.

We then moved over to the left and climbed Golden Streaks (5.11a) and Caffeine and Nicotine (5.12b). Caffeine and Nicotine is a superb climb. Very very crimpy with multiple hard sections. I only hung once on my on-sight TR attempt! Woot woot.

After that we moved back into the chasm and climbed the steep and relentless Forbidden Zone (5.11b). It's another awesome awesome awesome route that starts with some hard crimpy moves, and just stays on for the next 70 feet. It's good enough to do twice...which is exactly what I did.

After cleaning up that route, we moved over to the right and did Black Crack (5.10d), which our buddies had set up. I'd done it a couple of months ago, and it's also quite good -- deceptively steep and deceptively hard.

To finish out the day I did one final lap on Brave New World (5.11a), just to make sure I was good and pumped, which I most definitely was.

In terms of a fitness day, you couldn't really ask for anything better.

Millbrook

Alright, so, maybe you've heard: Millbrook has an approach. But, as it turns out, I like approaches. It gives you time to get psyched on what you are about to do, and in that sense it's a bit like foreplay. But it also "feels" more appropriate to have to hike in to a cliff. I mean, it's rock climbing. This is serious hardcore stuff, man. Sure, it's convenient to walk two minutes to the climbing, but it's most definitely not eXtreme.

The mileage to Millbrook is somewhere between 3.5 and 4 miles each way and it takes close to an hour. But it really is a great approach. It is relatively flat with a third of it being on a fat carriage road. Then you wind your way through tall pines, crossing some streams along the way. Eventually you pop out in a patch of seemingly endless mountain laurel and when you do leave the mountain laurel you end up on flat rock littered with dwarf pitch pine. Just a little bit of up hill after that and you're at the cliff, simply titillated.

Mountain laurel approach.

The most common approach to climbing at Millbrook is to hike to the Westerward Ha! (which is the classic 5.7 of the cliff) rappel station and then rappel down to the "death ledge." The ledge sits atop a mostly chossy bottom third of the cliff and all of the climbs start there. You can carefully scramble left or right from there to whatever climb you'd like. But, if you have the right beta or can interpret topos really well the better option is to rappel the route you want to climb, avoiding death ledge.

I've been to Millbrook several times now and have never been let down. I have really only done done a handful of routes out there, including Westward Ha! (5.7), Cruise Control (5.9), Realm of the Fifth Class Climber (5.9), Time Eraser (5.10a), and Cuckoo Man (5.10b/c). But there is one other route that I've been on too: Square Meal.

Square Meal, which has been called 5.10d, is probably somewhere in the 5.11a/b range and it is perhaps one the most impressive lines in all the Gunks. I'm just going to go ahead and say it right now: It is the best climb in the Gunks. Rock quality, gear, movement, exposure, and fun factor all get 5 stars. After starting on the first pitch of Schlemeil (5.10b/c) you build an anchor on a small ledge in a corner. (Here to the right, you can see Matt working his way into the crux section of Schlemiel, with the top of Square Meal just barely visible.) From the anchor you move right on a good horizontal and make a few hard moves up to a small overhang. From there you plug in some good nuts, muster some courage while chalking up, and make some desperate moves to the right to a jug. One more cruxy section that includes a bomber mono pocket and it's hero climbing up a corner. To top it all off, the final 20 feet traverses out a horizontal jug rail on an overhanging face with massive exposure. (Check this photo out.)

This route and I have had "a history" together. Basically it has thwarted me, hard, twice before. On attempt number one, Matt and I had difficulty with route finding. We built the anchor in the wrong place, and then ended up traversing underneath the crux, climbing a bit of either Nectar Vector or New Frontier. From there we got up to the easier crux, couldn't pull it and ended up getting rescued with a rope from buddies at the top. Attempt number two was a little better but Devin and I still got shut down pretty hard. Built the anchor in the right spot that time and climbed both cruxes without falling. But I traversed a lower horizontal and ended up on Nectar Vector, again, this time in unprotected 5.11 territory. Luckily, we got a rescue from above from some friends, again.

So obviously, I had a vendetta. Matt and I were by ourselves this time, so there would be no help from above. We knew exactly where the top was, so we rappelled the route, building the anchor (in the correct spot) for the first pitch on the way down. Matt led the first pitch, getting a little worked and even taking a nice whip. After reassessing beta, he climbed it no problem, and I followed cleanly. After racking up at the belay, I moved out and up. After some minor hesitations at the first crux I moved through it. Nice and clean so far. I moved up to the next crux and again had to remember beta. Once I figured it out, it was smooth, glorious sailing to the top.

Just about to enter the crux section. Skytop and the Trapps can just barely be seen in the background.

If I had to personify my relationship with Square Meal, it would be like this: Vendetta was a girl that Square Meal and I were fighting over. I was the out-of-town guy and Square Meal hated my guts inherently. There were even two occasions were Square Meal beat the crap out of me. Once we got to know each other a little better though, we realized how lame Vendetta was and instead of fighting over her, Square Meal and I became best friends who have lots of fun climbing together.

So anyway, after Matt topped out, we relaxed for a bit, taking our sweet old time sorting gear, coiling ropes and packing up. We decided to do Realm of the Fifth Class Climber next -- Matt hadn't done it yet, and we were feeling a bit worked, so it seemed like a good option. I had minimal recollection of the route, but we somehow found the top and rappelled right over top of it. Matt linked the first two pitches together, which includes a pleasant corner roof, and I led the last pitch of meandering through roofs and faces.

Matt leading the stellar second pitch of Realm of the Fifth Class Climber.

Sitting back on the top of the cliff, we contemplated doing the Old Route (5.5), which was the first climb to ever be done in the Gunks. Just then, a turkey vulture landed on the edge of a cliff and a cool wind flared up. We looked over our shoulders to see dark clouds headed our way. The climbing seems to be on Millbrook's terms, so with the threat of a storm, we headed home. A light, cathartic rain kept us cool for all of the three and a half miles home.

The Portent.

Take the hike and get out to Millbrook. It is, without a doubt, worth ever step it takes.

Seven Pitches in an Afternoon

Yesterday I met up with my buddy Mark around one o'clock for some climbing in the Trapps. I was a little bit early so I walked down to the Sleepy Hollow area to meet up with him, as he lives and works at the Mountain House and rides his bike from there. And since we were down there, I thought, we might as well climb there.

Sleepy Hollow is the last section of the cliff, and it's one of my favorites. It isn't as tall as the rest of the cliff, but it's secluded and has lot's of pine trees. During the summer that awesome pine smell permeates throughout the area. The views are different too. You're quite close to Skytop and even the valley views aren't the same as they are in the early Trapps. And lest we've forgotten, the climbing there is fantastic too! We ended up getting on Art's Route (5.9) and then Wegatebles (5.10a).

Art's Route would seem to be me to be a hidden gem. It's really, really good. And it's also pretty hard. The guidebook says "First Ascent: Art Gran, 19060s." The fact that it's Art Gran and that fact that the date is vague is usually a good indicator that "5.9" could mean anything from 5.9 to 5.11. This one is definitely not 5.9. You start with a cool crux off the ground -- a sort of mantel thing. And then it's a bit easier for a while. When you get up to the roof, if you've taken Dick's advice to bring a blue cam, you'll be pissed at him because it's actually the #4 that you want. But then you do some hard pulling with some big moves. Maybe even throw a little dynamic pop in there, if you're so inclined. The business is over after that, so the hard climbing isn't very long, but it's hard for sure.

Wegatebles is one of those climbs that is good enough to do every day. If it weren't for the long walk to get to it, I would probably consider doing just that. It of course starts with some spicyness above a small nut right off the ground, and then pulls big roofs on good holds (What?! Are we in the Gunks or something?) This climb was Matt's first 5.10 lead, I remember it well.

Mark had to go to work after that so I called up Davis to see if he wanted to get out for a little while. We ended up doing five more pitches, which was totally awesome. I led up the run-out first pitch of Annie Oh! (5.8) which has terrific climbing. And then Davis led the second pitch of Three Doves (5.8). We came back down the ledge and I did the second pitch of Annie Oh (5.8) which has a scary microwave block on it that could come off at any second. Came back down again and Davis led the last pitch of Arrow (5.8). Classic. All four pitches.

We finished up the day with Feast of Fools (5.10b), which Davis led. He had never done it before, and so obviously he had to do it. Another classic, awesome pitch. So good.

Ian leading Feast of Fools back in the fall of 2008.

Lots of mileage on some uber-classics. Millbrook tomorrow?

A shout out.

Check this out: http://bigfootmountainguides.com/2011/06/13/why-you-should-use-a-grigri/

Ryan, the author of Big Foot Mountain Guides, always has good insightful things to say. This post is particularly good I think. I've been transitioning into a grigri only lifestyle recently, and I have to say, I like it.

Just last month I was climbing Crisscross Direct (5.10a). I had topped out and was belaying my friend Kasia up, using the grigri. She got about five moves past the first belay and out of nowhere, it started to rain. Like rain really hard with cold, fat raindrops. She managed to climb most of the way up before the holds, her hands, and shoes were soaked. But, I just lowered the break strand down to her, and I pulled on her end, and she belayed/pulleyed her way up -- no big deal.

Yay grigri.

It is Hot

I had plans to go out to Millbrook today to do some climbing. But when I woke up at was 76 degrees and in the next half hour it was up to 80, and then 85, finally peaking at a record high 94. So obviously Millbrook was canceled and plans for swimming commenced.

Found a pretty neat spot near town that you can do some jumping, swimming, floating, sunning, and even some deep water bouldering. The water is probably at least 15 feet deep, and the jump is probably a little bit higher (making the bouldering a little bit higher than 15 feet too...). Super awesome, totally neat, radically tubular. If it had it's own facebook page I would "like" it.

We stayed out there for a while, maybe till like 2:00 or so, then headed back into town for some burgers at Market Market (best burgers around, easily). After lunch we decided, for some strange reason, that it would be a good idea to go out to Triple Right and try some hard routes. Turns out it was a bad idea.

Triple Right is buggy and it doesn't get much wind. And it also turns out the roof cracks, in the Gunks, in 85 degree weather, with 80% humidity are not the best idea. Think of trying to hold onto sweaty crimps, or even jugs. Your finger tips want to just grease right off. Now think of hand jams. You need the entirety of the back of your hand to create friction so that you can stay on. Now, when you climb horizontal roof cracks that require full body weight hand jams with said conditions, you just aren't going to have success.

But rock climbing kicks ass, and even though I have many bug bites, it was a fun adventure. Arachnious is an awesome 5.11c sandbag, and I'd like to go back and send sometime. Check out a write up about it here: http://mammutathleteteam.blogspot.com/2008/11/there-are-no-cracks-in-gunks.html.

Craggin Wagon

We had ourselves a little Trapps craggin' party yesterday that was thoroughly enjoyable. Nyssa came down to join the party so in total it was Matt, Margaret, Rich, Nyssa and me all getting out on some ropes and having a good time.

We went to the Winter/Spring area and climbed all day without moving our packs once. I led up Oblique Tweak (5.8) while Matt did Boldville (5.8), much like the other day with Mark and Mark. Then everyone took turns climbing both these routes and then also Winter (5.10d), Summer (5.11d), Fall (5.11a), and Spring (5.9+).

Matt give the Winter a lead and crushed it, with only the slightest amount of elvis-ing going on. I also got on the first pitch of Unlsung Heroes (5.10a), which was pretty dang good. It's not the most obvious thing at the cliff, and the second pitch goes at 5.11a PG-R, so I think it often gets overlooked. But it is most definitely a high quality first pitch with a couple of different cruxes. It was Margaret's favorite climb of the day.

This is a great area to get in lots of pitches. Not only that, but the trees keep you in the shade for most of the climbing and there is a little trickle of water that creates a zen-like atmosphere. With leading only two climbs you can then top-rope nine different pitches, making for a total of eleven climbs without moving the packs and only racking up twice. For a hot lazy summer day it can't be beat. I'll be going back there to do just that for sure.

Peter's Kill Bouldering.

Made it out to Peter's Kill for some bouldering for the first time this year. That place has some really, really good boulder problems. Margaret and I headed out in the morning to meet Rich for some fun, relaxed climbing on some shaded boulder problems.

We went to the left side first and did Spew Harder (v5) and Loner Boner (v3) and I tried Dwarf Toss (v8) for a little while too. When I injured my finger I took like six weeks off of climbing. One of the first days back climbing I got a shoulder start for Dwarf Toss and did the dyno second try! I wanted to send pretty bad, but turns out it's pretty hard a little bit lower down...hmm, next time I suppose. But all three of those problems are quite good. Rich was able to snap a few photos of Margaret on Loner Boner:

Margaret and me at Loner Boner.

One arm, finger lock start...I can't get my fingers in, so it's a desperate crimp dyno for me.

The crux.

After that we went over to project land. I thought I'd never been there, but turns out I had been once many moons ago. I tried this crazy sloping arete thing way back when but never tried anything else that was there. We got on My Eye Only (v3) to start. It looked like it hadn't been climbed in a long time -- there were spider webs over anything, moss growing on key holds and not much in the way of chalk. But after we got her lookin' pretty, she climbed pretty nicely:

Margaret on My Eye Only.

After that we did a fun slab problem called Stepping into Grey (v3). The more slab boulder problems I do, the more I think they are the bee's knees. So. Much. Fun. The last thing we did was take a photo of Kill Whitney (V10) because it has huge huge huge tick marks. Come on dude, clean off your ticks!

Little bit of this, Little bit of that.

I've been getting out intermittently the past few days for some shorter sessions. Friday, the day after Powerlinez, I got out for the morning with Mark. I had to work later that day, so I didn't really want to get too far away from the car. With that in mind, I suggested he lead P38 (5.10b). I had been on it only once before, and it was a long long time ago. In fact, P38 is where I met Ian for the first time. It's also where I saw someone I know take a trad fall for the first time. Oh the memories! After that I led up Nosedive (5.10b) and then we did No Solution (5.12a) on toprope. I actually climbed it without falling for the first time! It's been a long time coming for that one. Mark finished up with Retribution (5.10b) and we called it a day.

Saturday I spent the morning/afternoon tubing down the Roundout Creek. There was a slide show at Rock and Snow featuring Madaleine Sorkin and Lizzy Scully at 8, so I zipped out to Tripple Right before the slide show to do a little bouldering. I got on Pussywillow (v6) and Captain Bringdown (v6) and I did each a couple of times. Then I zipped back to town for the slide show.

Yesterday I got out for just a little bit of carriage road bouldering. Did New Pair of Glasses (v7) and Million Dollar Problem (v5). Tried The Twister (v8) with minimal luck...I think my beta is bad on that one and also tried Ricans and White Boys (V7) but was feeling pretty spent so didn't have much luck on that one too.

Today is another splitter day, so it's time to go crush!

Powerlinez

So lately I've been putting a "z" or two on the end of blog post titles to be ironic and funny. But, actually, Powerlinez is the name of a climbing area. I just found out about it last night...how ironic!!

Powerlinez is a climbing area about an hour south from the Gunks, just off of the Thruway. The rock there is a granitic gneiss, so it has a similar feel to the Adirondacks, except a little bit smaller and broken up cliffs. That and there is a bunch of good, worthwhile bouldering. Most of the climbing is under some pretty heavy duty power lines...hence the name...how IRONIC@!@11!

We started with some bouldering and warming up at the first little spot, which was only a few minutes from the car. We did a fun little dynamic V3 and then moved over to some tall cracks with some exciting top outs. Then we went over to a slab-ish arete kind of thing. It probably goes at something like V4. It was really good. I got it second try.

Andrew "near the top."

After that we went uphill a little bit and roped up at the Stockade Cliff. There was a top-rope climb at the cliff called Crankenstein that hadn't been led yet, so Andrew and I rock/paper/sicissorzed and he won. He geared up and put the thing away. Very much fun. Bouldery off the ground, and then hero climbing to the top.

Andrew, just after the crux on Crankenstein.

Our friend John, author of the Powerlinez guidebook, was out with us, and he had a little project that he tried after Crankenstein. There's a horizontal feature that runs across most of the Stockade feature. And since we are all really Gunksterpullers, sideways travel is second nature. It's a really good line. It's got technical ballet feet and a range of good, decent and bad holds. Nice and long too, like close to 70 feet.

John on his traverse at the Stockade Cliff.

When we were done with the ropes, we all decided that we were kind of spent from the sunshine, so we moved back into the woods and did some more bouldering. It looks like there is a lot of sub-cliffs and smaller bands of rock. You could certainly get lost back there doing some exploring. Some cool stuff for sure.

Andrew ending the day with a sweet, dynamic, V3.

After that little bit of bouldering, we all decided that the sun beat us down, so we called it a day. All in all it was a fun day. Definitely worth the trip down to the Powerlinez. It's only a half-hour from New York City, so I bet Powerlinez is a good alternative to the Gunks if the weather is iffy, or maybe if the Gunks are gonna be busy for a local looking to get some time on rock.

Oh, and I forgot to mention...the weather was so good today! All the humidity got sucked out of the air last night, and the temperature dropped by at least ten degrees. That's the good stuff.