A Gorgeous Weekend in the Gunks
Can't wait to go out again
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I had such a great weekend. There was gorgeous weather, awesome climbing and good friends.
Keith was on our Climb4Life team in Salt Lake City. He's a great climbing partner. He's been climbing trad for many years.... and he's a geologist. A climbing partner who's a geologist: how perfect is that. I picked Manik up in Manhattan and we met Keith at Rock and Snow in New Paltz. We went off to find a camp site and set up our tent before it got dark. It was pretty high tech camping. We had a huge 4-man tent with a screened in porch and an attic. The campground had hot showers and clean bathrooms. We didn't even cook out -- we'd just go into town for breakfast and dinner. We even had Thai on Friday night. We had a great time climbing. Keith picked out some great routes. On Saturday we did a couple "classic" multi-pitch climbs: Maria (5.6) and Shockley's Ceiling (5.6). Maria was a great first climb of the trip. It's a nice grippy 3-pitch climb with a fun crux at the end. We only did the 1st two pitches of Shockley's Ceiling. I was just too tired at the top of the 2nd pitch and didn't have it in me to pull through the ceiling itself (basically you're reaching back over your head to climb up and over the ceiling). I'd love to go back and work through that crux. I was exhausted come Saturday night. I was asleep before my head hit my sleeping bag. We all slept in late and had a nice breakfast at the local diner before we headed back to the rock. Because of our late start we got to hike up "the stairmaster" from the lower parking lot. It certainly got my heart pumping before our climbs. We did a few shorter single-pitch climbs on Sunday, but all just as fun as the ones we'd hit on Saturday. We started on a variation of Squiggles (normally a 5.4, not sure the rating on our variation) and then moved over to Double Chin (5.5). Lucky for me, Double Chin was situated directly in front of my new favorite boulder in the Gunks. This rock had the perfect shape, I tell you. It had a nice spot for me to sit, a great angle back to lie back on and a place to prop up my feet. I cat napped while Keith and Manik worked on the route. I'll certainly remember that rock next time I'm up there. I really liked Double Chin. It's so-named for its two ceiling moves. There were plenty of hand holds so it was easy to be confident as I worked through the crux, but it was still a lot of fun. Manik lead the route and got to scratch up some of his shiny new cams. I sat out of the last climb. Manik and Keith climbed "Black Fly" as the sun got lower and lower in the sky. We headed back to the car and made the drive back home. It really was an great weekend. A huge thanks to Manik for chosing some gorgeous weather to climb in, and to Keith for being our guide. I can't wait to go out and climb again. |
