It was not a date

Even though we chewed gum, I bought him dinner, I stared at his ass, and I'm sure his knees are sore now; it was not a date. Rather, it was a return to the Gunks that has been nearly a year and a half in the making. A few months after Kenway had gotten me hooked on climbing, we made a late season trip to the Gunks where the rapidly setting sun prevented us from finishing the last pitch of High Exposure. Our schedules finally realigned for another attempt today, and we left early to make sure we would be able to finish it.

The parking lot had a surprising number of cars in it when we got there, so we geared up and hoofed it up to the Trapps, arriving at the base of High E around 10AM or so. No line, and one party just getting to the GT ledge. Awesome. By the time Kenway racked up, they were already rappelling down. Kenway cruised up to the GT ledge, linking the first two pitches like last time. I followed, we enjoyed the view, and Kenway went for the money pitch (but not before some Germans had rapped from the top to run laps on the last top pitch?!?!). Before long, Kenway was at the top belaying me up. Incredible exposure on a perfectly clear day, no wind or sound and classic Gunks rock - solid horizontal rails on frictiony rock. We could have gone home after that last pitch. It's only too bad that the last pitch is so short!

Turns out we arrived not a moment too soon, cause by the time we rapped down, there were multiple parties (speaking multiple languages) lined up for High E. We quickly consulted the guidebook and decided to head over a couple of routes to The Last Will Be First. Looked obvious from the ground; the route follows a seam up to a small roof, although P1 is slightly long at 160 feet. But the view from the ground can be deceiving. That coupled with the hasty guidebook reading (skimming over "thin protection" and "interesting moves") made for some surprisingly hard climbing. From my position on belay, the first 50 feet or so looked ok and well-protected, but the next 60 feet or so looked mighty sketchy. And when I followed, I kept thinking, 'I can't believe he kept his shit together'. Just below the roof, there was a run-out section that required two committing moves with crappy feet (one of them a strange mantle-like thing) to a crappy stance where I cleaned a marginal Alien. Awkward traversing underneath the roof to another sketchy Camalot to some burly climbing around the corner. All this followed by a dirty top-out that had you ripping out grass trying to find holds to pull yourself up with. WTF kind of 5.6 is that!?! Pretty funny too, cause we were looking for something that I could try my first lead on. When I got to the top all Kenway said was, 'I don't think that is a good first lead.' I thought, 'No shit, I barely climbed it on toprope.' So we rapped after the first pitch.

Ok, no problem, plenty of climbs around. So we headed back towards the parking lot with an eye out for another 5.5-5.6 climb, finally settling on Wisecrack with a "short" 90 foot first pitch. Again, it looked pretty straightforward from the bottom. Kenway asked if I wanted to lead it, and I lol'd and said, 'You first.' Really fun climb with a big move out from under an overhang (we both used a little layback after trying out a few other moves), although there's no way I could have kept it together to lead it. That is one stiff 5.6 (one of the guidebooks rated it 5.5!), although someone noted that is considered one of the tougher 5.6s in the Gunks. Either way, it ain't like no 5.6 I have ever climbed in the gym! By the time we rapped, the sun was casting a long shadow over the Trapps, and we decided to call it a day.

A quick drive back to the city, and we congratulated ourselves with some fine dining at the Shake Shack.

Hopefully Kenway caught some pics with his camera, since I lost mine to the talus fields having dropped it rappelling from High E.