Gunks Trip

The moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived. I’m not talking about world peace. I’m not talking about the apocalypse, either. I’m talking about having chocolate for breakfast, courtesy of my buddy Wes. You see it used to be I was the sugar-mongering fiend, supernaturally craving exorbitant quantities of this magic crystal. But now that I have cool control over my hunger habits, Wes has lost it altogether! The tables have finally turned!

But really, this is just one small example of the almost nonstop laughter we had for two consecutive days. Fear not: mostly the fun was had at the expense of one another and no one was seriously injured in the construction of the jokes. Wes, his girlfriend Arianne who I finally got to meet, and I spent these days in the sunny pocket of the pants that are the week. And in the Gunks! Climb, climb, climb, sleep!

We only climbed classics. We saw a lot of routes we wanted to climb but did not have the daylight for it. Arianne had never done multipitch before and so this was an awesome expansion for her experience and knowledge. Wes onsighted his first V4 to the astonishment of a crowd. And I sat back and enjoyed it all, occasionally getting questions and compliments regarding what I was wearing.

Here are some tidbits about the routes we did. Frog’s Head was the first of the 3-star, 2-pitch routes that we did. I think it was a 5.5. It was very relaxing and a good introduction to the style of climbing at the Gunks. Wes was nice and gave me the leads on this!

Next up was Bloody Bush. I wasn’t overly impressed with its first pitch, which had a lot of rocks I would have loved to have thrown off the route had the Gunks not been swarming with nearly as many people as millipedes. What’s the deal with those buggers anyhow? Wes led both pitches, the second of which was definitely the more challenging of the two with the memorable move in it. The second pitch is primarily a traverse right under increasingly higher roofs that you get gradually closer to, eventually bumping your head if you aren’t careful!To finish our first day off, we went over to Arch. We had 30 minutes before darkness closed in on us, so I tried to make quick work of it. It’s actually a very interesting and varied first pitch. The second pitch is a 5.0 gateway to the third pitch, and given our time constraint and lack of headlamps we did not execute it. We were, however, told the third pitch is the best. For that reason I would love to climb this route in its entirety on the next trip there. As it stands, we did laps on it until it was dark!Then we went for a walk on the carriage trail and down the stairmaster. Day two we get a late start thanks to packing our campsite into our cars at the Multi. And then we get in line, waiting and watching for High E – E is for Exposure – to open up. When it does, it’s righteous. After climbing the first pitch with all of the mighty rope drag that two ropes could muster, I belayed Arianne and Wes up the corner and jug-haul traverse and face. Then began the real fun. The high exposure of High Exposure comes when you’re higher up. I would describe the move as a crouching tiger hidden dragon move. That is, you shouldn’t underestimate your own inner tiger or the route’s dragon-sized holds. Without being able to see the face you are about to climb, you have to commit to it from a roof underneath which you are crouching. Once you pull the move, look down and around. The exposure extends vertically all the way to the ground. It’s awesome and the route has bomber holds the entire way. It might just be my favorite 5.6 lead ever.The climbs were nothing less than superb and the company couldn’t’ve been better. I hope to have another set of days play out similarly soon!

More pictures to be posted soon (from Wes + Arianne's camera). Now stop reading and go have fun!