First Trip to the Gunks

Yesterday Nate and I went climbing in The Gunks. Despite some unfortunate setbacks, it was a great trip.

The Gunks is on The Mohonk Preserve, a privately owned wildlife/recreation preserve of 6700 acres. We both payed 75 dollars for a yearly membership. In exchange for that, the trails are all really well maintained, there's a nice visitor center, they have programs almost every weekend on everything from Leave No Trace to singles nights.

The rock is nothing like I've ever climbed on. It's characterized by horizontal as opposed to vertical cracks and TONS of overhangs, ceilings and roofs everywhere. Even many of the easier routes go up and around big imposing overhangs.

After a two hour drive from Princeton, we got thoroughly lost trying to find our route, a classic 5.6 called High Exposure, first done in 1941 by Hans Kraus and Fritz Wiessner. We started up the wrong route before realizing that it was definitely too hard to be rated 5.6. (That climb I think was actually Airy Aria, 5.8).

Finally we found some people and they told us that the route they were on was in fact High Exposure, so we ate our lunches and waited for them to finish. Nate lead the first pitch, and I proceeded to stub my toe and gash open a big bloody hole. Fortunately, putting on my climbing shoe really staunched the bleeding because of the compression/pressure of the shoe.

The climbing took us a while, because we climbed in really short pitches. I got to lead the crazy pitch though, which was probably some of the most exposed climbing I'd ever done. You have to step around this roof on a very narrow prow. Also, because the cracks do not run vertically as they do in most areas, you don't know from below whether the rock above you will accept good protection because you can't see the cracks. It's also not as obvious where the route actually is because you don't have a crack to follow. All those facts contributed to our slow progress.

Nonetheless, the climbing was stupendous. The Gunks are amazing.

I have pictures from the trip, and you can see them at http://picasaweb.google.com/rmcgibbo/FirstTripToTheGunks

A Day of Midwest Climbing

Today my dad and I went to Jackson Falls, a sport climbing area in southern Illinois. The drive takes about two and a half hours, so we had to get up early in order to get back before five o'clock. Up by 5:30 and out the door by 6:00. There was nobody else there at all save for one local on a horse. No traffic, no lines; can't beat that!

Although it's called a falls, we didn't see much water at all. The waterfall was sure dry. I bet the farmers in the area are hurting.

We got in some great climbing, mostly in the easy 5.10 range. First, we started at Spleef Peek. We did a 4 climbs in a row, which almost perfectly increased in difficulty (5.8, .9, .10a, .10a).


Then we went to The Gallery, home to a lot of five star 5.10s. We did three adjacent ~60 ft climbs. The one that I'm looking at in the picture was the first, a 5.10a called Earthbound Misfit, and then right on the corner is Psychotherapy (5.10b) and then the next one, all the way around the corner is called group therapy (5.10c). I had some trouble staying on route on the middle one, but other than that these are great climbs.

We continued down the bluff line where Dad did a 5.9 face called The Sophmore and I worked on a nice 5.11d overhang called The Reckoning. I had to rest on the rope at almost every bolt, but the biggest reason for that was difficulty in finding the correct holds. Although the route seemed awesome to me, I don't think it got much traffic because many of the pockets were sandy and some unfortunately were damp and slimy inside. I would love to be able to try it again soon, because all the moves were really fun. I think the biggest issue for if when trying to climb it free (no falls or rests on the rope) is just endurance.

We finished off the day at Mr. Jimmy on an outstanding less than vertical slab route, and then called it a day. I just got this camera, so I'll post a few more picture. The rest are posted at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013324&l=46fa6&id=1295520678















Me on The Reckoning, 5.11d


















Dad rappelling off after climbing Master Marley, 5.10a.

Should I Keep This Up?

The summer is almost up - I'm leaving St. Louis to return to Princeton this Saturday. So, the original purpose for this blog is done, but I'm not quite ready to give it up. I think it's a useful tool to keep in contact with you guys. (Do you think so? Leave a comment!)

I could end this one and start a new one, but that seems like more trouble than it is worth. I just changed the name of the blog a little bit, and I guess I'll just keep going. The topics of discussion will be a little different (less climbing, more chemistry), but I think I'll be able to keep it interesting.

As a plus, I also recently got a camera, so there will be more pictures.

Closing Time

I forgot to post this post from a little while ago. I wrote it in the Madison, WI airport with no internet access at the time.

Here it goes:



I'm sitting in the Madison, WI airport writing this post into my text editor. Seven dollars for WIFI internet access was a little too expensive. I'm on my way to St. Louis - by the time I post this up to the web, I'll be home.

On the fifth of august, my parrents arrived in Estes Park. I quit my job, and we spent four days together in Estes Park before coming here to Madison for a joint birthday celebration for many of our relatives. My grandmother turned 94, my aunt 70 and my uncle 60. We almost had someone turning 50, 40, 30, 20, and ten this summer as well. Twenty was the biggest stretch though, as they tried to use me (i'm still eighteen) and a second cousin who's nineteen to fit the pattern.

As a last hurrah in Estes Park, I went hiking with my parrents. I hadn't done any legitimate hiking during my two months in Estes, and I was supprised by how much I enjoyed it. By legitimate hiking, I mean hiking without climbing as the destination. We went to some very beautiful lakes in Rocky Mountain National Park together, and had hoped to climb two thirteen thousand foot peaks (Chiquita and Ypsilon) in the park. Unfortunately, the dirt road ging up to the trailhead had been washed out by heavy rain the previous day, so we had to settle for a different hike - dissapointing trek through the forrest to a (less beautiful) lake. But it was a good workout.

One morning I got to take my parrents climbing at Jurassic Park. My mom overcame a lot of her fears and got up three routes - some of her first outdoor climbs ever. The first was the nice 90ft warmup Coloradoditty, and while I find it quite relaxing, she was especially scared because of how high it is compared to many (gym) climbs. My dad also lead Edge of Time, and I had one last try on my ongoing project, Andrology. None of the moves are harder than 5.11d, but there are just so many of them! With the difficult section between 70 and 80 feet up, and no rests beforehand, endurence is the key. I guess.

Here in Wisconsin we had a nice visit. Almost the whole family was in town for the party. My grandmother has seven children, many of whome (unlike my dad) are grandparents now themselves. Some of my aunt Ann's grandchildren are even older than I am, and there sure are a lot of them. Next time I hope we get name tags.

This morning we helped my uncle fred on the farm a little bit before setting off. There's always work to do on a farm, so we kept busy unloading hay and taking the branches from two cut down willow trees up to be burned.

I'll be back in St. Louis for ten days before going back to Princeton on the 23rd. I'll be helping with the Outdoor Action rock climbing orientation trips for incomming freshman, so I have to be back to school quite early. Classes don't start untill the 11th of September, so I plan to spent a lot of the down time setting rock climbing routes at the Princeton climbing wall.

Hopefully I'll have time to see many of my high school friends while I'm home.

Classic Climbing

I've gotten two more great climbs in in the last two days. I only have two more days of work left, and not too much time here after that, so I'm happy to be getting "my money's worth" of climbing in.

Yesterday Drew and I climbed a route called backflip. It's one of the classic 5.9s on Lumpy Ridge, and was visible from one of the climbs Dad and I did when we were here. Drew lead the crux pitch, a thin crack in a dramatic 90 degree inside corner that comes to a roof that you have to traverse around. That traverse was some of the more dramatic climbing I've ever done - I felt like I was Warren Hardring on the Nose's Great Roof. (Sorry if you don't get the reference.) The next pitch had a little spice too, as I got to lead a 5.7R start to some funky thin crack moves. We got super lucky on the descent, with the ropes just stretching the necessary amount on the rappels, and I even found some booty (a new Black Diamond quickdraw).

Today Drew, his friend Nick and I climbed Pear Buttress (5.8) on The Book. We were worried that moving in a party of three would really slow us down, but we went surprisingly fast on each of the five pitches. We left after an early lunch and got back in time for dinner! Instead of doing the standard really scary (no protection for the first 20 ft) start, we opted for to do the first pitch of a different line called Loose Ends (5.9) and then met up with Pear Buttress after the first pitch. The variation was awesome (and well protected), but also significantly harder. I was pretty happy with myself for leading it clean. I got to lead the third pitch - a perfect finger/hand crack, and though I didn't feel like I had enough gear to place protection as often as I would have liked, I got through it. Drew got to lead "The Cave Exit", a super wierd bouldery exit from a legimitate cave near the top of the wall. The description says you can get some funky stemming moves, but we all had to climb it like an overhang (complete with heel hooks!)

(The picture is of some random guy off the internet doing the cave, because we didn't bring a camera). Although it doesn't look it, this is ~400 feet off the ground.

Maybe I'll get some more climbing in before I leave or maybe not. If these turn out to be my last two climbs in Colorado though, I'll have no complaints.