Hot trip to the Gunks

Thursday was dragging. I had worked on the 4th of July to get double hours - my 8 holiday plus the 9 I was actually there working. I still needed 4 or 5 hours that Thursday to get my 40 for the week and head to the Gunks. With about a half hour to go I just couldn't stand it any more and used a half hour of vacation.

I still had to get groceries and pack, so we weren't on the road until 3:45. Traffic was moving so we were in New Paltz in under 3 hours. Rain was due and we were starving, so we decided to hit a place we were familiar with for a quick dinner. Before we finished, the skies opened up and rain was falling hard. It slowed some by the time we left, but we still ended up setting up our site in the rain. We started by setting up a tarp between 4 trees to make a little "porch." Aside from shelter, we also hope it deterred people from joining our site while we were away. The last time Agnes and I were camped up in this spot some group rolled in late and woke us up as they crashed in and set up in our site.

We assembled Agnes's tent in our tarp shelter and then ran it out to our usual spot. Unfortunately we didn't get it aligned properly to the slope of the ground and we fought against gravity's pull to our left side all night. It was too wet to want to go and fix, but a lesson learned to check first next time. No matter how quick we are trying to set up, the inconvenience will pay off with a more restful night.

Friday

We didn't bother setting an alarm, but were up before 6AM. There was no going back to sleep either. The birds were keeping Agnes up, and her complaining was keeping me up. She wanted a warm breakfast at the bistro and we were the first in the lot. The music was playing and the door was open, but nobody seemed to be coming to answer our inquisitive "hello"s. I could hear someone and wandered back to the storage room to see if they were open. They were not. We ate our packed breakfasts in the parking lot and headed to the Trapps. There were a few vehicles in the lot, mostly with people "camping" in them.

Since this should be the least busy day of our trip, we decided to stay near the Uberfall area. We could pick off a number of easy climbs, could walk off to save rappel time, and weren't far from the car in case the threatened afternoon shower rolled in.

Our first climb was Easy Keyhole (5.2). The first pitch followed a wide crack up to a little roof with an interesting escape to the left (the keyhole, I guess). I set up belay off a tree and Agnes joined me. The next pitch was supposed to have a nice view from a boulder/pinnacle, but I wasn't sure if the boulder I climbed up to was what I was supposed to climb. It looked a little scary to climb up and then come back down (it isn't actually part of the upward progress), so I skipped it. The climbing was easy and I don't remember it very well. I imagine there is a way down to the climber's left after topping out, but I wasn't sure. We decided to hike to the familiar Uberfall descent route instead.

Next up was Short Job (5.4). It starts right by a climb I followed Kurt on (called 69), so it was easy to locate. This climbed to an overhang (a common theme in the Gunks) and then exited to the left. The exit wasn't too bad, holds and gear were good, but it still gave me a little rush. It was easy terrain from there to the belay location. I scrambled over loose rocks towards the start of the next pitch and slung a larger boulder to bring Agnes up. As I belayed Agnes up I felt a little movement against my thigh. I reached up the leg of my shorts and found a frog. I set him aside and he supervised my belaying. I pointed him out to Agnes and she about ran from the belay. Apparently she dislkies frogs. I moved him away so she could sit.

The second pitch was a lot of fun, but didn't have the best / easiest gear. It starts up a left leaning ramp and I didn't find great protection right away. It also didn't help that Agnes freaked out when the from moved. I started with a marginal pick tricam, then a better one, before getting some solid gear in. I don't know if I followed the route from there, I just looked for what seemed like a fun route. I kept heading left and, after almost getting my #4 camalot stuck, pulled up to a slabby finish to the top. We walked back down the same descent route.

The crowd was picking up steadily, but Bunny (5.4) was open. I had follwed Kimmy up this once before and wanted to try leading it. It was an enjoyable climb, with the most strenuous part for me being the initial moves off the ground. Agnes wanted to make things more interesting, so she took a 5.6 variation that followed the initial crack through the overhang I went around. She also climbed the big flake that made up the final corner to the top, where I had stayed on the left face.

A group had begun to assemble at the bottom of the climb. We were planning to rap off instead of scrambling up the last 40 feet to the top to walk off. I hurried to get our rope ready to rap down and advised the party below that we'd be tossing our rope shortly. Their leader asked if we were setting up a top rope. We later found out they were, they being a group of about 9 people.

I wondered if it was time to clear out of the Uberfall, but Horseman (5.5) was just about to open up and I'd never been on it. I found it stressful.

The start was easy enough, but there really wasn't much protection to bother with until the tree 15 or 20 feet up. I did slot a nut about midway. I knew it would be useless once I got much above it, but I wanted it just in case I slipped down the slabby face before slinging the tree. I didn't slide, and the rope drag pulled it out after I had passed the tree.

The climbing was interesting and the gear was pretty good. I followed the corner to an overhang where you are supposed to traverse out left onto and up the outside corner. I knew from Patrick's most recent trip report (look under June 2007 here) to not start the traverse too soon. Before moving left, there was a great hand hold I thought a blue tricam might work nicely in. Unfortunately it kind of toppled over as I was placing it and got itself stuck in an awkward position. I fiddled with it a while to at least get it set somewhat OK as a chock, but wasn't all that thrilled to clip it. I started traversing, getting another piece in on the way. My nerves kicked in. I shouldn't have had anything to worry about, but I guess I still don't really have faith in the gear. And I think I could smell fear. It stunk. Though maybe it was just because I started sweating more, and the adrenaline rush was heightening my senses. At any rate, I threw my left leg up on top of a ledge and did graceless haul-my-ass-up move on a combination of my shin and knee.

The flies must have smelled me too, since they swarmed me the rest of the way up. We walked off and made it to the base as the rain started. It was intermittent, quickly starting and stopping. We packed up under Doug's Roof and called it a day.

It was still fairly early, so we hit Rock and Snow for some shopping (and to clean up in their bathroom), then Bacchus for burgers. Not anxious to head back into the damp woods, we watched Transformers at the local cinema. We picked up supplies afterward at the grodery store - primarily anti-itch cream for the numerous read bumps all over Agnes courtesy of the mosquitoes. We grabbed a late snack at a Chinese place and made it back to camp around 10:30 PM. Our ploy hadn't kept anyone away, there were two new tents in our site. One was reading Harry Potter aloud while we cleaned up. I was going to ask him to wrap up story time, but he quit shortly after we turned in for the night. We could have had worse neighbors.

Saturday

Our plan for Saturday was to take a longer walk and hope most of the crowd didn't. We started with Easy Overhang (5.2). Last trip with Kurt we planned to do this route but gave up on the second pitch because of wasps. The first pitch is a fun squeeze up a sloping chimney. I didn't place much gear, but it would be really hard to fall out of that thing and I don't know that gear would help much. I set up at the bolted anchor and Agnes zoomed up. While she climbed, another party had started up Son of Easy O. And another party was starting Easy O behind us. Yikes. I headed up the second pitch and skiped the noted optional belay. I couldn't imagine I would need to talk Agnes through it.

The crowd made the rappel situation dicey. The group that followed us was doing a variation that came right up the rappel route I planned to use. We checked the other direction to see how accessible the bolted anchors on Kama Sutra were. They were not easily reached. We decided just to walk off.

Once we had our bags, we continued along the cliff a while to Easy Verschneidung (5.3). I'd never been on it, but I think Agnes followed Kimmy up it. Pitch one followed a big corner and was a good time. It ends up on the GT Ledge, and you hike 60 feet to pick up part two. This was a short pitch but I loved it. It starts up a groove through a notch to a face under a roof. This part was a blast. There was a horizontal ledge/crack that meant easy gear and hands anywhere I wanted. From there it was smooth sailing to the top. I thought it would head all the way up to get us to the bolted Arrow rappel route, but it did not. We used the closer rap station to get back down to the GT Ledge. There was a new party coming to climb the pitch we just finished, and people on Arrow, so I didn't want to walk over to and share Arrow's rappel. There was a rap station at the base of the pitch we just climbed, so we decided to try that. The new party asked if I knew where the next rap station was and I said no. I figured if the rope didn't reach the ground and I saw no other station, I could try out my self rescue skills and ascend the rope. Twenty feet into the rappel I could see the ends were nowhere near the ground. They were actually dangling out in space after a roof. I had no idea how big the roof was or if there was another rap station hidden from sight below it, but I didn't want to find out. I ascended the rope, told the next party what I saw, and we headed over to the Arrow rappel.

We were really hungry and thirsty by the time we made it down, the sun had been out in full force. Agnes was not in the best of moods between hunger, thirst, and itchiness.

Our plan, after lunch, was to head back towards the car and jump on the first good route that was open. I wanted to try Twin Oaks (easy to find but I've never been on it) or Beginner's Delight (one of my first leads and I wanted to see if it felt any different). We ended up on Twin Oaks (5.3).

As we sorted ourselves at the base, I watched a guy get take a crack at Hyjek's Horror. While his guide called it 5.8 PG (gear pretty good, low risk of dangerous fall), mine said R (sparse gear, high chance of serious injury in a fall). After he backed off and hooped down, nearly toppling backwards on the rocky base, he took a look at my guide. Turns out he was not at the actual start, though the actual route was just as rough. I spotted him just in case, up until he got two pieces in and was passed the crux. Too stressful for my tastes, off I went on my easier way. The first pitch was pretty good. There was no gear down low, but it picked up, following a crack to a ledge. At one point a flake of rock covered the crack for a few feet. I ascended the face on the right, Agnes layed back that section, with her hands on the left of the flake and feet smearing where she could get them.

The second pitch was where it got interesting. It started out pretty nice, moving up and left towards a little overhang. The guide said to exit right, but I had forgotten and went right. It seemed like the more fun option anyway and wasn't difficult. Eventually I made it to the old piton the guide mentioned. It also mentioned this as an optional belay. Aside from the 50 year old chunk of metal, there wasn't much good gear. I cleaned out a crack with a nut, but could only fit a small (#4) nut in. I wouldn't trust the two for much protection, let alone a belay. My last pro was kind of far back as well, I had expected lots of gear options at the optional belay. The way up from there was a slabby face. Not terribly hard, but harder than what I had been climbing, and I was not in a good mood with the crummy protection. I eventually traversed left enough to get in a large (#3) camalot, then came back to climb the section. The rope drag was terrible. I should have slung the cam longer, but I was running out of slings as it is and wanted to save something for the next 50 feet (I think I had 3 slings left then).

I was happy to make it to the blocky left facing flakes. Easy climbing and protection. I wasn't sure where to stop. I had hoped to get to the bolted Madame G rappel, but I just ended up in a vegetated area above and to the right of it. I rigged a belay and Agnes followed.

While she climbed I looked for rappel options. There was a station off a tree above me, so I planned to have Agnes head on by and belay me up to the top of the cliff with her. As she neared, I heard a scream. No fall, but a bug had stung/bit her tricep. It is still a little bruised and swollen, one week later.

It turned out that the tree I spotted was on a grassy downhill slope and I didn't want to go check it out. Instead we walked over to above the Madame G rappel and down-climbed to it.

By the time we touched down again we were pretty hungry and thirsty. Agnes was not in a great mood from the bite and general tiredness either. We decided to wrap up our climbing for the weekend. Though the end was kind of crummy, it was a nice weekend and a shower and sleeping in our own beds was more appealing than one more day of climbing.

We hiked out and headed to camp to break down our site. A fourth tent had popped up and the girls who joined us the night before seem annoyed by the nerve of the newcomers to crash and set up so close to their tent. I can't imagine how they felt...

We ate at the Plaza Diner again. Not because the food was great, but because they had nice big bathrooms. We needed some cleaning up. Agnes cleaned up after ordering, and I cleaned up after eating. It was odd to see myself in the mirror - I looked like a homeless man. I was surprised the waitress hadn't seemed to notice. I was grimy, with hair sticking up at all sorts of angles. I stunk, and my eyes looked so exhausted. I cleaned up as best as I could in a stall with lots of wet paper towels and some body wash. I changed too. Unfortunately, while Agnes had her bathroom to herself, it seemed like every guy in New Paltz stopped in. Even a little girl wandered in and her mom had to retrieve her. When the coast looked clear, I decided I wanted to rinse my hair a little. Two guys came in. There was no point trying to try and be subtle now, so I just continued my business as if everyone gets a little shampoo in the sink after dinner.

We were on the road around 10 PM. I started the drive, but exhaustion was setting in and I didn't feel I could drive safely much longer. I kept holding out for a rest area, but when none showed up I just put on the flashers and pulled to the side of the road to switch with Agnes. And I was out. If you know me (and those are pretty good odds if you have made it this far) I am not an easy sleeper. That should tell you how wiped out I was. The worst part was that I only slept for about a half hour, then needed to stay awake to navigate the last hour or so on the back roads to my house. It was miserable to battle my eyes open and think.

Of course, tired or not, I checked my e-mail. I wouldn't normally, but I had e-mailed a girl from the wedding the previous weekend and wanted to see if she replied. She did, so I showered and went to sleep a little happier.

Sunday

Sunday was a recovery day. I had planned to go cycling since we headed home early. I woke up at 9. Then 10. Then finally got out of bed at noon to go lay on the floor by the computer. It was already in the 90s outside, so I didn't go biking. I managed to get up to buy donuts, but then ended up back on the floor, waiting for bed time to roll around again.