Monotonic
Sometimes hard is easy, and easy is hard... More on that later, but the hardest part of the day was getting up in the dark to head to the Port Authority for a long daytrip up to the Gunks. Met Jess at the bus terminal and headed up on the 7 am to New Paltz, where G picked us up in the familiarly reliable, and increasingly battered, minivan.
Been a long time since I've been climbing outdoors - last time we were in the Nears, G and I hit up Te Dum (5.7) and Back to the Future (5.8). Today, I had no other goal in mind than to get outdoors, feel the rock under my fingers, and get home in relatively decent health. The Nears were moderately crowded, unfortunately with most climbers on the moderates we were looking to hit up. After wandering a bit at the close end of the Nears and finding people on most of our intended warmups - Layback (5.5), Grease Gun Groove (5.6) - G suited up to lead the first pitch of Gelsa (5.4). With three, we were only doing first pitches today, but word has it the upper pitches have some stellar 5.4 climbing - another day...
Fun first pitch, and a good warmup: big hands, good and plentiful pro, decent feet. The pitch heads up about 30 ft to fixed pin, then up over a small overhang to a big ledge with a tree before traversing left and up to fixed bolts. Not sure this is the real p1 belay for the climb, these might be at the top of Roseland; I saw climbers belaying from a little further up, under the big roofs at the start of p2. G was running it out with elan as usual. Jess followed on TR, and we pulled the rope so I could relead on G's spaced out gear, supplementing as good conscience and shaky confidence required. We let a father-son duo free past in order to rope up for the second pitch, but there was plenty of space for us to share the belay.
Dutiful pair of crag pooches awaiting a return
Next up, we waited a while for a couple from NYC to finish the first pitch of Grease Gun Groove (5.6). Again, G lead, Jess followed, I reled on G's gear, and G followed to clean and rap (shoutout for doing all the annoying rap duty, btw!). Definitely a little more thoughtful than Gelsa, especially on lead. After a bouldery start the climb heads up a left facing corner/open book, through a series of stances on ledges trending to the right before finishing through a short series of fun, small overhangs to a tree at the p1 belay. Crux felt like it was about midway through, requiring a hand traverse right before a highstep and reach onto a good stance. Pro beta hint: the following ledge has fixed pin invisible around the corner to the right. Again, maybe to prove that he doesn't need a plaid shirt to lead like a lumberjack, Guillaume ran it out again.
G runs it out on Grease Gun Groove
To finish the day out, we headed over to mess around on Sling Time (5.11d), just to the left of Disneyland. In over our head today, but there's a midpoint sling anchor right where Swing Time (11a) and Sling Time (11d) split off. From the anchor, Swing Time heads up and left through the roof at a v-notch into an open book; Sling Time heads out on hand/finger jams and heel hooks to the right along the roof and exits out a small right facing corner. To take some of the burden, I headed up first. Gunks 5.7ish climbing up to the anchors, with okay feet and decent hands and fingerlocks up to the roof - pretty much eats up gear up to the midpoint anchor. Lost my nerve before the big reach for the fixed slings, and managed to pop my high piece when I sat on it to rest (C3 00, go figure; at least the .75 below it held). In retrospect, would have been possible to gun past the anchor for the jug at the start of the next roof before clipping. G found better gear (yellow alien?) and toyed with the next moves, and Jess made easy work up to the anchor as well. I gave it one more shot, but it was getting dark enough for me not to want to pit my shiny gear against my rusty skills on the real business of the climb. Funny enough, TRing the bottom section was harder than leading it - maybe something to do with more intent focus on being careful on lead, but the second time on TR was not any easier, surprisingly. Felt out along the roof past the fixed slings, pretty rough jams but can get the next piece in, the real work is the transition around the corner which is further still.
G heads out for the fixed slings
Crisp day, beautiful foliage, and a little climbing to boot, finished off with a quick beer at the Otter before the ride home to city life. Next time, I think some consistent work on 7s, 8s and 9s are in order: Fat Stick (5.7), Baskerville Terrace (5.7), Birdland (5.8), Inverted Layback (5.9) and Roseland (5.9) are right in the area, other possibilities are mentioned in this rc.com thread. More pics here.
Tick list:
Gelsa (5.4)
Grease Gun Groove (5.6)
[Sling Time (5.11d)] not even close, but will get on it again
3 comments:
The couple we saw on Sling Time made it look more graceful than Boris, but then again, they weren't wearing pjs.
There's not a lot of pro in his sequence, that's efficient but a bit scary...
It was a great day, too bad we climbed so little this summer.
Hey, plenty of climbing left, as long as we bundle up. Crowds will only decrease, no?
Good times, would love to hit some 8s and 9s next time...
Gunks looks beautiful with the red leaves!
If it gets to cold to climb over there, you can always come down here :)
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