First Gunks of 2007
To warm up for the coming trip to Red Rocks, and because the weather was absolutely gorgeous, I took my first trip of the year up to the Gunks (with Agnes and Kimmy). The place was a zoo, I guess everyone was itching for some good weather.

I had swimming Friday afternoon, so we didn't get on the road until the peak of traffic. Worried that the campsites might be going quick, we headed straight to the multi-use area when we arrived (around 8:30). Not too many cars, but the lower areas looked taken, save for the central one. I don't like that one because of the proximity to the road and the other sites. I prefer to be up the hill way in the back where it is (a little) quieter. No luck. Everything was taken up top. When we hiked back down, the central one wasn't even an option as others were now setting up in it.

We "lucked out" though, there was one site left. It had probably been skipped since it was close to the road and the trail to it was muddy. No matter, we took it.

Saturday

I slept pretty well that night, though I did take a shot of Nyquil. I woke up some time after 5AM. I didn't know exactly the time since I had no clock with me and we didn't bother with alarms. I suppose I could have judged by the light in the sky if I was more outdoorsy. Or maybe by the idiots driving by honking - I think that is one of nature's signposts. After breakfast and a quick stop at the Bistro, we headed to the West Trapps lot - we probably weren't in shape for the "stair master%quot; from the other lot yet. Our first climb was Tipsy Trees (5.3). We were alone for the moment, but that wouldn't last long with the popular Minty only 20 feet away. In fact, a group of 5 people showed up by the time Kimmy headed off on the first pitch. They actually went to the wrong belay spot, opting for a tree along the second pitch of our route to set up a toprope. I had to squirm behind the tree on pitch two to keep the mess down. After I convinced myself to trust my feet in my new shoes (very stiff/padded, good for walking off in but not at "feeling the rock") I made it to a belay spot off a tree on the GT ledge. We did a double rope rappel from there and had to negotiate traffic on the way down. Part of which was a girl from the local gym, a neat coincedence. Pulling the ropes jostled free some pebbles from the ledge. Amazing how much a pebble stings from 200 feet, I had a little bump on my right hand for a week or so afterward.

The crowds were in full effect by now, including an annoying guide who seemed intent on monopolizing Minty and shouting directions non-stop to his climbers all afternoon. He didn't even give them a second to think or look around for a hold. Yikes.

We wanted to do Twin Oaks, but his compatriots seemed to have that tied up too, with a top rope dangling there unused. We decided to hop on Southern Pillar (5.2) instead, since it was right there and open. I'd followed it twice, and done the first pitch once but bailed from there because of darkness. Kimmy hadn't done it at all and took the first pitch. The second pitch starts off in a big corner with easy climbing. It was wet though, so I was glad to have switched shoes so I could feel more comfortable. The climb went well at first, but I had some issue about two thirds of the way up at a bulge. I was trying to place a #2 Camalot but wobbled. My instincts made me tighten up, including the hand on the cam trigger. This wasn't good because I really wedged the fully deployed Camalot into the crack. And I mean fully deployed; the points of the lobes were passed each other so much that the bottoms were now parallel. It was the most overcammed unit I'd ever seen and it would be a bastard to retrieve. I popped in a different cam as a backup while I worked on the stuck one. I didn't want to actually weight the piece though - I haven't weighted any of my gear other than anchors of multiple pieces or some nuts only a foot or two off the ground. It looked good, but I didn't want to test my placement 150 feet off the deck. I told Kimmy about it and moved on. I figured she could try to get it out, but that I would rappel down to it and give it a whirl if she couldn't. The rest of the pitch was fine, but my mood was sour thinking about losing an expensive piece of gear. It took me a while to set up a belay anchor. There was a tree, but it wasn't thick enough to make me comfortable. The pitch was long and I was short on gear to back it up with, so I fidgeted quite some time building and rebuilding. I wanted it to be positioned well for me to lower off of to work on my cam.

Agnes joined me on the ledge, then Kimmy headed up. I knew she had arrived at my cam when I heard "holy crap!", or something along those lines. I told her not to spend too much effort on it, I could lower to it and try. I would rather I personally get it stuck worse and give it up. Beore I could get it all out, she said it had came out easily. My mood improved a whole lot. She came up but didn't join the belay spot. Instead she headed the short distance horizontal to the Madame G rappel and belayed Agnes and I over.

At the bottom we ran into Nicole, another girl from the gym, small world. We figured we could get another climb in and headed towards the car and see what was free along the way, hoping for Belly Roll. It was not, but there are a few other easy climbs in the area and we tried Roddey (5.2). Kimmy had the interesting first pitch up a corner and over/around an overhang. There wasn't much protection near that section because she declined the #4 Camalot (we declined it on every climb this weekend, and really could have used it a few times). She belayed at a ledge from a tree and I ran up the short last pitch to the top. I was in a much better mood now and had fun slinging some trees and old pitons (mostly as a joke for Kimmy to clean) on the way. We met a whole group of somewhat familiar people from a gym we sometime go to in Philly at the top of that climb. Smaller world.

There wouldn't be enough time for another climb so we packed up. We dropped Kimmy at camp (she was cooking with a friend) and Agnes and I opted for our familiar burger platter at Bacchus with sweet potato fries. Delicious.

There was a fire going when we made it back to camp and we sat around chatting with our neighbors from the next site, drinking wine from a bag. We put out the fire and headed to bed around 11. Within 20 minutes I noticed a light in our camp site. I figured it was just someone's headlight as they passed through, except they weren't passing through. Eventually I realized our fire had resumed, having not been dowsed properly. I used up the rest of a gallon of water on it and meticulously stabbed out all of the embers with a stick.

Sunday

We woke about 6AM on Sunday and packed up our site. We had decided to head for Andrew (5.4)straight off. It was a bit of a hike to get to, so we figured we'd avoid the crowd a little. We had the place to ourselves. Kimmy had been getting the shorter, less exciting pitches thus far so I let her pick. All the pitches were PG, meaning not as good or plentiful gear placements available, with the third pitch being 5.4. She didn't want that one, and since we were swapping leads, that meant I'd take pitch 1. It was pretty long, heading straight to the GT Ledge. The PG part messed with my head. I have run out longer sections between gear before, but that was by choice. I was worried about being forced to run out sections. It wasn't bad, save for a section to a big flake of rock. It took me a few attempts and down-climbing to rest positions until I convinced myself to haul myself up to it. I didn't like the gear below it and normally like to protect a spot that - even if easy - is harder than the terrain I have been moving over. I made it to the ledge and set up my belay. Twice actually. After starting with one tree, I changed my mind to reduce rope drag and position myself closer to the edge where I could see the climber (and Agnes could then take pictures of Kimmy).

Two guys arrived during this, having hiked along the GT Ledge from some out of site location. They set up shop to work on Twilight Zone, an impressive looking (and hard) climb on a big roof. By the time Agnes arrived the first guy was up and taking whippers trying to climb through the roof. Kimmy arrived and did the second pitch, a hike to a tree a ways down the ledge and Agnes and I joined her.

There wasn't much in the way for gear off the start, and I had to scramble up an easy slab 10-15 feet to get some options. From there I followed a blocky, right facing corner to a small overhang where I was supposed to move right. I put in lots of pieces, mostly because I kept expecting not to have any choices ahead. I made it to the overhang and wrapped a sling around the top of a flake behind a pretty big (and maybe not entirely stable) block, then extended it with another two footer so the rope drag wouldn't be a huge hassle later on. There didn't seem to be much to traverse on. The span to the next part of the climb wasn't big, but it was wet. And the rock over there looked to be of the same hollow, crummy variety I was hanging on. I got psyched out. I kept picturing my feet skidding off. The extended sling - while great for alleviating drag later - would mean a big drop before it would catch me. I decided I got suckered too high, that I needed to traverse lower down. So I downclimbed. In the mean time, the guys flying off the climb 9 grades harder were encouraging me and telling me the climb looked like a lot of fun, go for it. I felt like such a wuss, they were killing me with kindness. Clearly they trusted gear to hold, but I am at the point where it is still a theory (and I want more experience before I test it). I tried the lower traverse and was passed the water and under where I needed to be. But I couldn't make my body go up. I was tired from hanging so long and scared that I would get up there and not be able to find a solid gear placement before my body gave out. I traversed my way back again and rested. The other guys had an anchor nearby and said I could join them and hang out a bit, have some water and beef jerky. I decided to retreat. That means being lowered on gear I placed, the sling at the top. I lowered onto it slowly, nervous to actually weight one of my pieces in practice. It held, and I was happy. Kimmy said she'd give it a try, and I figured I could go again after a rest if needed. Fortunately it was not needed; she moved through it pretty well. I wouldn't have been reassured by the first piece she placed after the traverse - a little nut behind a non-sturdy sounding flake - but she soon clipped a brand new hex someone had recently gotten stuck. Now where was that belay supposed to be? I read her the description from there and she set up on a pretty small ledge for the three of us. It was a good thing she had scavenged some of the lower gear I placed when she started or building that anchor would have been tough.

By this point, the climb had taken most of the day. There wasn't much water - a little bottle for the three of us - and no food. I was really glad I didn't need to retry that pitch. Even following on top rope I didn't feel that confident. Having to worry about gear wouldn't have helped. Given the small ledge, I didn't get to hang out there long. There was no room for any of the gear I had left so I had to leave the belay anchor without a first piece clipped. It is important to get a piece off of the anchor right away to lessen the stress placed directly on that anchor. I really would have liked to have for our first all gear anchor for the weekend. I put in a kind of crummy tricam as soon as I could, maybe it would help a little. A few feet up I came across a beautiful and huge horizontal crack under a roof. So big that the #3 Camalot was less than ideal and I would have liked that #4 - I should just get used to carrying it on every climb. The climbing was really easy and fun; I liked climbing on bomber hands through a horizontal shaft. I popped in the best gear I could from the small stuff I had to prevent a nasty swing. The traverse ended in a really fun move up onto the slab to the finish and I was feeling great. A nice change from how I started the pitch, exhausted and not in the best spirits. The thirst and hunger came back pretty quickly as I started to belay. The top of the climb was beautiful and we enjoyed the view and scenery for a while. What a nice spot for a picnic...

We hiked over to get in line for the bolted rappel over Arrow. A group was climbing up at the time, and others were descending, so we had to wait for traffic to sort itself out. We did a two rope rappel and that was good enough to get us to a ledge to scramble off. Unfortunately the ropes didn't want to join us. They got stuck while we tried to pull them down, but the group on the way up was nice enough to get them moving again.

Altogether that climb took us some ridiculous amount of time. Eight hours? At any rate we headed for food and drinks and called it a day. That gave me time to browse the EMS 20% off sale and pick up a rope bag for Red Rock Canyon.