Back in the Gunks and Ice Season

Last weekend Naomi and I traveled down to the Gunks to climb and hang out with our friend Jamie before he heads out west for the winter. The weather called for snow but we figured it wouldn't be too bad. Turns out we were wrong and after a couple of hours at the crag on Sat it started to dump! I was really psyched to give Survival of the Fittest (13a) a lead go. I been on it a couple of years ago and wanted to finish it up this weekend. The route is definitely a bit spicy to lead in that all of the 4 pieces you place in 70 ft. are critical to keeping you off of the ground and tricky to place. I toproped it a couple of times and was feeling ready to lead and send it when the snow started to come down even heavier and a big drip developed right on the crux holds! Bummer!

Lost City covered in snow

We spent a bit more time there before making the treacherous hike down in worn down approach shoes. We realized that worn out approach shoes are pretty much skis on wet, slippery snow as we took a bunch of feet over head diggers.

Jaime and I talking beta in the blizzard

We headed back to Lost City and Survival on Sunday which turned out to be a beautiful day but found the route to be even wetter than yesterday after all of the snow. We toproped on a beautiful 13b/c route just to the left called Clairevoyance. This is an amazing route with really cool moves. I fell off the last move on my third toprope burn. Definitely going back for this one!

One another note... the winter has finally arrived and I have pulled out the ice gear for this weekend. today is rather wet and warm and then it's supposed to get really cold. Perfect scenario for something cool to form on Cannon Cliff. That's where I'm heading Sat. Psyched to see what we find!

Back at the Gunks

The weather was absolutely beautiful this past weekend for another trip down to the Gunks. I'm always psyched to meet up with my friend Jamie Hamilton and check out all that place has to offer. Jamie is absolutely crushing these days and is making quick repeats of hard 13's and hiking 12's like it's no big deal. The video below shows him making an Alzheimer's onsight of Pleasure Dome 12b/c at Lost city. Jamie's heading out to the desert southwest in a week or so and I'm he'll be tearing it up at the creek all winter and coming back mutated in the spring.

On Sat morning we went out to Sleepy Hollow and I was psyched to lead Bone Hard .12b pg-13/R. This is an amazing route with really cool movement and some dicey gear. The crux is placing a questionable offset nut, which zippered as I lowered off, and then punching it through a short boulder problem past a strenuous pin clip. Apparently this has been led often with a long sling pre-hung from the pin but not often ground up. The video shows some footage of the crux. It's a bit shaky but I figured I'd put it in since Jamie went through the effort of climbing a tree to take it.

After that we sessioned an amazing, bouldery 13a called Renaissance that Jamie had worked out direct start to. We only toproped it but perhaps with some more work I would be psyched to try and lead it.

This route is just one of so many lines at the Gunks that combine hard climbing with bad or really hard to place gear. Just having seen the new film Progression and watching the American crew destroy that place, it got me thinking about how many routes lie in the Gunks with few, if any, lead repeats. It would be rad to see a crew of the caliber that went to the Gritstone come to the Gunks and try and repeat some of these hard, scary lines!

This weekend I teach my training workshop at the Boston Rock Gym which I'm really psyched for and then the following Friday we're off to the Red River Gorge for Thanksgiving!

The Gunks and Alpinist.com article

I'm all packed up and ready to head down to the Gunks in New Paltz, NY today after work. I've been going to the Gunks for the past 10 years or so and it's been really cool to see my progression over the years in comfort level and through the stout grades down there. I was down there last Halloween weekend and got a totally bouted by rain and rally humid conditions. This weekend looks prime and I'm super excited to get on a few routes I've had my eye on. Of all the places I've climbed in the northeast, the gunks is a true bastion of traditional ethics and many of the routes are a bit scary to say the least. Gear is often extremely tricky to find and place and is often really specific. I'm psyched to spend some time down there as it starts to get really cold up here in northern New England.

Jaime racking up below Bone Hard 12b pg-13, Gunks

Also... check out the article here by Reinhard Cate on alpinist.com about Wheelin N' Dealin and Matt Wilder's route Cheating Reality 5.14a R in the Flatirons, CO.