Nears perfect day
With the summer fast diving towards Labor Day, we spent a hot lazy Sunday at the Gunks this weekend. Joana and I stumbled into a cab to catch the 7 AM bus out of the Port Authority, arriving in New Paltz at 8:30 to Guillaume and a fully loaded minivan ready and rarin' to go. The target of the day, given the heat and humidity, was the Near Trapps: near the steel bridge lot, nice and shady, good single pitches, and relatively uncrowded. With a party of 3, we were looking for challenging climbs with good first pitches and decent belay/rap anchors; luckily, we found exactly what we were looking for at the near end of the Nears.
First up was Le Plie (5.7- PG), which G chose as a warm-up and for which he duly geared up for first lead. Starts off with 30 ft of easy slab before crossing an overhang. The crux of the route is after turning the overhang, where you have to do an awkward cramped leftward traverse on the slabby ledge with little to hold onto and an overhang forcing you down into a sketchy crab crawl. No real pro after pulling the overhang until you finish the traverse. Once you can stand again, the route meanders left and slightly upwards to a fixed anchor. G led it boldly and cleanly (so easily he dispensed with a half a biner of racks halfway through - not entirely certain he wasn't aiming at us though...). JK styled on her way to seconding it cleanly, making the moves look very easy. We pulled the rope and I led it on G's pre-placed gear, including a solid slung hole right before the crux pull and traverse; G climbed it one more time to clean the gear and rap. Fun warm-up...
We wandered only about 40 ft leftward to hit up Broken Sling (5.8+ PG), a solid and fun route through a series of overhangs. I've seen it called a testpiece 8, and it was certainly a value climb, but the + really applies to the burly boulder move to get of the ground. The business is in getting yourself situated on top of a jug that's 10-12 feet off the ground; slick, overhanging feet and small holds makes it a balancey and burly move both to latch the jug and to get up and standing on it. Managed to climb up and get a red C4 in a crack to the left to protect the starting moves; proper body positioning, a high right foot, and a fingerlock in the vertical crack to the left helped me get past the crux. The moves after the tricky start I found to be actually fairly well protected, more Gish than PGish. The climbing itself was fun, big moves through small overhangs and just spaced enough pro to be thought-provoking. There's a sketch fixed anchor (3 nuts) about 75 ft up, past a small ledge and alcove; after downclimbing off the ledge to free up a stuck rope (due entirely to me slinging cams far too short), I backed up the anchor and headed down.
JK took her turn with lots of tenacity; the crux moves off the ground are quite reachy, as are several of the moves above. However, she is fast improving on the crack technique, which helped out here - turning a few of the roofs was much easier with a well-placed handjam to lock off and get your feet up and around. Handjams were no mean feat giving the humid and hot sweat-inducing weather, it constantly felt like you could pop out even the securest of jams. G followed by pink-pointing the climb complete in one go, making the starting moves look much cleaner than they felt to me. Even cleaning the route on TR, I thought it was real work to get off the ground.
Small high step...
We finished off the day on another of G's bold choices: Criss Cross Direct (5.10a). Another great route with crux moves off the ground, with the climbing relaxing a bit in the second half. Goes pretty much directly upward following a crack through a series of small overhangs, looks deceptively straightforward from below but we were soon to find otherwise. To get off the ground, you jam and layback an overhanging crack with your feet on *very* polished rock. G protected the tricky and strenuous layback with a solid Wallnut placement from the ground, but it's a burly and sequency series of hands to turn the overhang and work yourself up past a fixed pin to a good flake 4 ft beyond the lip. What follows is another tricky sequence through a mediocre left hand pinch and a single right finger lockoff to hit the next good hold and stance to place pro; I'm pretty sure G used a single pad mono to get past this point! Excellent, bold onsight attempt.
Even leading it on pre-placed gear (where I could clip high if sketched) I found the climb demanding, enough so to once thoughtlessly grab gear (which G promptly called me on, of course). As impressive was how hard JK worked the opening moves, I got tired just watching her. She didn't let up until she worked out the sequence for the layback start and gained the stance above (I'm guessing our refusing to let her off the rope had something to do with her persistence). Never knew she could curse so much...
JK deals with the crappy flaring hand crack...
But is still all smiles (at least between swear words)
Awesome climbing day where we upped the grades and explored a new area, I'm a definite fan of the Nears and would head back in a heartbeat. Thanks for the ride, G! Stuffed ourselves at the Gilded Otter before sleeping through the bus ride home. Note to future self (and all others who want to climb in August): bring bug spray.
More pics to come (send me a link, JK...)
Ticklist:
Le Plie (5.7- PG)
Broken Sling (5.8+ PG)
Criss Cross Direct (5.10a PG)
11 comments:
Nice trip report! Looked like it was a tad warm, eh?
Take on the second pitch of any of those climbs?
No second pitches, would have been too warm in the sun early in the day. Turned out OK, the second pitch on those climbs were similar climbing, and probably a little bit easier.
Nice thing about the close end of the Nears is that it's an easy scarmble back right and down after you top out (I think).
Ah, that makes sense. I remember how badly we baked the last time we did a second pitch in the sun.
Nice job breaking into the 10s.
Even the 8 was a step up for me, lead head wise - and that I had to work the opening move a few times to get right. The rest of the climb felt good though, kept it mentally together and didn't let nerves paralyze me - kept heading upwards, which is key.
The 10 was a real strong lead by G, necessitating a few hangs to work out the sequence. I think it could go clean on a second run, lots of the sequences are doable once you know them and there are places to rest. You'd like the routes we did, a good variety of moves.
Next time, would love to do a few 8's and 9's to see if we can get them clean. There are a few promising ones right in the first half of the Nears.
Great description of the routes KL.
I keep dreaming of the moves on Criss cross. I wish we could go back to do it clean. I am convince it can go, especially now that you have found the crimp past the first piece. When I did it on TR it didn't feel like I was at the limit. I also think I would put less pro (I wouldn't back-up as many pieces), which would make it easier.
You would have loved the climb BL.
Kenway's lead was amazing, in some ways I think it was a harder lead than mine. Many of the roofs were awkward to pass.
Great day.
It was so so awesome! I keep thinking about Criss Cross too. Want to go back and finish it!
F%$&^NG -A!
I've downloaded the pictures and have started resizing them (and slightly retouching the sweat and swollen mosquito bites)
Hey JK, can you put me on the Photoshop diet while you're at it?!
I respectfully disagree about the leads, Criss Cross was definitely harder with the moves strung together. It would have been really tough to lead it without G's gear placed. Broken Sling has a real hard move off the deck which was at least much less stressful once your first piece is in.
There are a number of hand and finger jams to get over the roofs on Broken Sling, definitely tougher if you don't get them just right.
JK please give me muscles, a tan, and do some improvements on my face while you're at it.
And I want a goatee like Guillaume...
Is the PG rating on Le Plie for that crazy pendulum on the traverse?
Maybe, although it might be due to the fact that past the crux move to get over the ledge, you are in an very awkward position with more or less no good hands, you are squished by the roof above you, and you must travel left for a few feet before you could put in pro. It scared me enough that I put my C3 000 in something close to my feet before I got started.
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