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losbill
Jul 5, 2010, 3:04 AM
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Great post John. Enjoyed reading it. Pleasure meeting you with Gail and Mitch at the base of CCK the past weekend. And under the small world category I'm a friend of Greg Burns as well.
I am heartened that it is not just we gumby 5.8/5.9 climbers that occasionally catch the rope behind the leg and go inverted now and then. Been there once this season, striving not to repeat the event.
Hope you enjoy yourself for whatever time you have left at the Gunks --- Bill
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gblauer
Moderator
Jul 5, 2010, 4:07 AM
Post #277 of 1159
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Bill, let us know when you will be back.
John, we miss you!
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darkgift06
Jul 19, 2010, 5:29 PM
Post #278 of 1159
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Its been some time since I went climbing with my family, this weekend we made it out to the local crag for some Sunday climbing. To give you some back ground my dad decided to learn to climb when I was about 8 or 9 & being a single father with an only child, I also got to learn to climb. We never climbed a lot when I was a kid but it was always enough to keep my interest. Now that I'm all grown up (27), married, house, & dog, climbing has becom a big part of my life. My dad has since gotten married & had a child, my sister who is 11, & with having another child he has let climbing slip from his priorities. However once or twice a year we still get out, & he usually brings his neighbor who has 2 kids about the same age.
I typically have this mind set where I figure I won't be able to get in any quality climbing or climbing that pushes my limits. So I focus on helping the kids learn, & also try to keep my dad & his friend up on there climbing safety/info.
My dad is typically the top rope family they show up hike around set up anchors & gang bang 2 routes with all 3 kids & both adults, then hike back up move rope & repeat. Well we changed things up this weekend I would lead a climb, setup a TR, pull the 2nd rope up traverse 5 ft, & set up another TR on the next route.
This worked great in 4-5 hours we climbed 6 routes, the kids each did 6 climbs, both parents got in 5, & I got in 7. The climbs were easy, a few 5.6's, some 5.7's a 5.8 & a 5.9. (my typical grade of climbing is warming up on a sport 10a or 9) this makes my climbing sound easy but 5 of the 7 climbs were onsights, & 3 of them were trad, but I'm just learning trad & only have a rack of nuts. I also had a major mental boost that I've not had in a while. That is when your dad is your belay it fills you with this confidence I can't even explain, no crys of encouragement like your friends give you, you don't need it with him, just the look of a proud father who trusts his son. I don't climb with him regularly but when I was onsighting a trad climb with only a rack of nuts, the head game was no where to be found, I was confidant & better than that I was relaxed. Placing gear was easy & so was the climbing.
Its also a huge ego boost when you've pulled the rope & are climbing a few climbs over, & some guy comes up with at least 2grand worth of every type of gear, & doubles of most cam's hanging on double gear slings around his chest plus full harness. he got down after placing at least 10-15 peaces, & I had lead it with only a rack of nuts & had only placed 3 of them.
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johnwesely
Jul 19, 2010, 11:26 PM
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darkgift06 wrote: Its also a huge ego boost when you've pulled the rope & are climbing a few climbs over, & some guy comes up with at least 2grand worth of every type of gear, & doubles of most cam's hanging on double gear slings around his chest plus full harness. he got down after placing at least 10-15 peaces, & I had lead it with only a rack of nuts & had only placed 3 of them.
Good job, but make sure you are being safe. You don't want an ego boost to get you killed.
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davidnn5
Jul 20, 2010, 1:26 AM
Post #281 of 1159
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Exactly what I was thinking. And buy some damn cams, you crazy young whippersnapper! (or whatever pro is most useful/used where you climb)
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darkgift06
Jul 20, 2010, 6:05 PM
Post #282 of 1159
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lol it was a 20meter wall, & all bomber constrictions :D I've decided my next peaces to buy will be finger size cams, then a few bigger ones. the amount of pro I placed was good, I think the guy who went up after was more practicing placing gear than climbing.
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darkgift06
Jul 20, 2010, 10:36 PM
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Its largely a comfort thing to me, if I'm not comfortable I'm sweating, chalking, matching hands to rest, & the whole while trying to place gear. I was not even close to this during my climb, my first peace was probably 15 ft up placed at a great no hands stance, then the next at another 15 ft above that one, & the same for the last another 15 ft up. that leaves a 15ft run out to the top. a nice equally placed climb in my mind.
I did a sport route just after which was protected much worse than how I protected the trad route even the guide book said (Run out). one bolt 10tf up, another at 15ft up, then finally one last one about 45 ft up & run it to the top at 60ft, there was good possibility of a ground fall around that 3rd bolt.
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davidnn5
Jul 20, 2010, 11:05 PM
Post #285 of 1159
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Good excuse to bring along some extra gear and place it between bolts!
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Gmburns2000
Jul 20, 2010, 11:45 PM
Post #286 of 1159
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darkgift06 wrote: Its been some time since I went climbing with my family, this weekend we made it out to the local crag for some Sunday climbing. To give you some back ground my dad decided to learn to climb when I was about 8 or 9 & being a single father with an only child, I also got to learn to climb. We never climbed a lot when I was a kid but it was always enough to keep my interest. Now that I'm all grown up (27), married, house, & dog, climbing has becom a big part of my life. My dad has since gotten married & had a child, my sister who is 11, & with having another child he has let climbing slip from his priorities. However once or twice a year we still get out, & he usually brings his neighbor who has 2 kids about the same age. I typically have this mind set where I figure I won't be able to get in any quality climbing or climbing that pushes my limits. So I focus on helping the kids learn, & also try to keep my dad & his friend up on there climbing safety/info. My dad is typically the top rope family they show up hike around set up anchors & gang bang 2 routes with all 3 kids & both adults, then hike back up move rope & repeat. Well we changed things up this weekend I would lead a climb, setup a TR, pull the 2nd rope up traverse 5 ft, & set up another TR on the next route. This worked great in 4-5 hours we climbed 6 routes, the kids each did 6 climbs, both parents got in 5, & I got in 7. The climbs were easy, a few 5.6's, some 5.7's a 5.8 & a 5.9. (my typical grade of climbing is warming up on a sport 10a or 9) this makes my climbing sound easy but 5 of the 7 climbs were onsights, & 3 of them were trad, but I'm just learning trad & only have a rack of nuts. I also had a major mental boost that I've not had in a while. That is when your dad is your belay it fills you with this confidence I can't even explain, no crys of encouragement like your friends give you, you don't need it with him, just the look of a proud father who trusts his son. I don't climb with him regularly but when I was onsighting a trad climb with only a rack of nuts, the head game was no where to be found, I was confidant & better than that I was relaxed. Placing gear was easy & so was the climbing. Its also a huge ego boost when you've pulled the rope & are climbing a few climbs over, & some guy comes up with at least 2grand worth of every type of gear, & doubles of most cam's hanging on double gear slings around his chest plus full harness. he got down after placing at least 10-15 peaces, & I had lead it with only a rack of nuts & had only placed 3 of them.
That was a really nice write-up. thanks for that. my dad doesn't climb, but we've done a fair amount of sailing together. I know that confident, proud look. I get it from him whenever we're out doing anything and I take the lead. some of my best days are spent with my dad.
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darkgift06
Jul 21, 2010, 4:44 PM
Post #287 of 1159
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Registered: Mar 16, 2009
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davidnn5 wrote: Good excuse to bring along some extra gear and place it between bolts!
I did take my rack of nuts with, but I think there was a flake that has since fallen away that was used for pro.. so now its a face climb. Maybe its a good time to get a friend to teach me to bolt & re-bolt the route
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dagibbs
Jul 30, 2010, 5:43 PM
Post #288 of 1159
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Registered: Oct 1, 2007
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My sisters were in town, or more accurately, up at my parents' cottage for the weekend. It is up in the Gatineau hills, about 70km north of Ottawa (Ontario, Canada), on a pretty little lake called "Lac Sam". (It used to be Sam Lake, but then they turned all the names of places in Quebec to French back in the 80s.) My brother-in-law, Randy is, also a climber. And, it turns out a friend of his, Martin, was also on the lake -- at another friend's cottage.
So, on the shore of the lake there is this 20 foot (or so) high boulder, nicely overhanging, that we used to jump off as kids. Wait...overhanging boulder, with deep water! DWS! We boated over on Saturday afternoon, and took a run at some of the lines up it. I had an old pair of climbing shoes -- the other two were in bare feet. (My handicap was the lack of glasses.) There's 4 or 5 lines up the boulder... the hardest of them Martin speculates goes around V6-V7. I got up a side-one that was probably around V0. Also, there were many plunges into the lake.
Sunday morning, we boated down to another small cliff -- this one set back about 20' from the water. It seems that, independently, all three of us had been by to check out this little crag for climbing. It was probalby about 45' high, and remarkably clean for rock that had (to our knowledge) never been climbed. We dropped a couple top-ropes (the scramble up being the most dangerous bit of the expedition -- moss carpet). We did 3 lines, all in the 5.6-5.8 range. The rock had a remarkable variety of holds and moves, mostly slab -- though one nice bulge to pull out and over at the top of one route to add a bit of variety. It was a great morning exploring some new rock.
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boymeetsrock
Jul 30, 2010, 5:50 PM
Post #289 of 1159
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Registered: Feb 11, 2005
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Nice ! Always fun to play around on unnamed stuff!
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johnwesely
Jul 30, 2010, 6:15 PM
Post #290 of 1159
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Sounds like a blast.
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dagibbs
Jul 30, 2010, 6:18 PM
Post #291 of 1159
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boymeetsrock wrote: Nice ! Always fun to play around on unnamed stuff!
Yeah. Probably my first ever fist ascent, and definitely my first playing around on a previously unclimbed cliff.
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Gmburns2000
Jul 30, 2010, 6:46 PM
Post #292 of 1159
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God I'd love to discover DWS like that. All the places i used to jump off required actually jumping out from the cliff.
sounds like a good time, though.
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dagibbs
Jul 30, 2010, 6:49 PM
Post #293 of 1159
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Gmburns2000 wrote: God I'd love to discover DWS like that. All the places i used to jump off required actually jumping out from the cliff. sounds like a good time, though.
It was lovely for jumping, too, because you only had to worry about the height -- not about hitting rock on the way down.
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gblauer
Moderator
Aug 3, 2010, 11:01 AM
Post #294 of 1159
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The Lazy Days of Summer
Thought I would check in with the Weekend Warriors, as it's been a while.
After a grueling travel week where I was in Lancaster PA, Seattle and NYC, I was eager to climb. We hadn't been to the gunks in two weeks, so I was "jonesing".
It was a beautiful weekend at the gunks (despite the forecast) and we spent Saturday in the Trapps. We arrived at West Trapps Lot at 11:30 AM and found a spot right up at the trail head. I seem to have "parking karma", I really wish I had lottery karma! Anyways, a very uneventful day climbing (the moderates) in the Trapps. We warmed up on the Bunny roof (we walked right up to Bunny, very unusual for the Uberfall), then climbed Red Cabbage Right. RCR is a very soft 10, a very easy "float" to the anchors. Did Bloody Bush for the first time in 3 years, it's a fun climb. P2 has a great little traverse adding some spiciness to the climb. I tried to get on Ken's, but every time we went to do it, someone was either TRing or just headed up. I forget what else we climbed, but, I know we finished on Horseman. I keep forgetting to the straight up variation, has anyone done it? (instead of doing the traverse) We climbed until 7:30 and then went to celebrate my birthday at Jen and Gavin's house. We were supposed to night climb, alas, as an "oldie" I was too tired to go out again. After an amazing sushi dinner, some very fun gifts, we released chinese wish lanterns into the night sky.
Sunday dawned early (after a 1AM bedtime) and MItch left for summer camp (Furniture School in Maine). I met Michael in the Nears. I could tell after I ran up Roseland that I was in for a tough day. Although totally fine, the moves felt harder than usual and I struggled wtih my feet. After Roseland we ran up Shitface, Transcon, Road Warrior, Birdland, Farewell to arms and To Be or Not to Be. We were completely alone in the nears due to the forecast (big storms), In fact, it started to rain, but, we waited it out. YOu could see it raining in NP, but the Nears was really dry. So, we waited while it sprinkled, then resumed our climbing. I was so sleepy all day, I could have fallen asleep while belaying.
Yesterday I took my friend Bett out. At 63, she decided to learn to lead. So we have dedicated several days this summer to Bett's leading. I have to say, she is doing a remarkable job. She is unflappable and manages to pick her way up the climbs. She lead both pitches of Easy O and then Three Pines to the GT ledge. I am impressed with her head, although she still needs to work on the consistency of her gear placements. It's always a joy to climb with her and to be a part of her progress.
Until next weekend...(headed to Atlanta and Lancaster this week).
(This post was edited by gblauer on Aug 3, 2010, 11:18 AM)
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boymeetsrock
Aug 3, 2010, 12:57 PM
Post #295 of 1159
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Happy birthday Gail !!!
Sounds like you're back to cranking pretty well. Glad to hear it. The shoe inserts are working well for you?
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gblauer
Moderator
Aug 3, 2010, 1:03 PM
Post #296 of 1159
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My carbon fiber inserts are awesome. I feel pretty darn good when I climb (I have "creative" foot placement).
I am lucky to have MItch, he did an amazing job creating them for me.
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boymeetsrock
Aug 3, 2010, 1:59 PM
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I'm very happy for you Gail! Hope to see you out there one of these days.
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losbill
Aug 3, 2010, 2:14 PM
Post #298 of 1159
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Gail --- Straight up on Horseman is good. Once you work your way up to the top of the flaring end of the corner you have good jams in the crack above with which to climb up and out on to the face.
For someone that wasn't quite on you sure seemed to get a lot of climbing done on Sunday.
Regarding "running up To Be Or Not To Be", details please. TRed the heck out of it a couple of years ago. Didn't come anywhere close to getting the first crux and eventually hauled up on the rope to get past it. Finally made the move on the second crux after several tries but was too wasted to hang on anymore and never did get to the top of it.
Had a great day at Crow Hill on Saturday. Very refreshing to be able to climb and not be dripping with sweat! Working on a route there that I thought was Blue Angel, old 5.8 that I have never seen anyone lead. However I am beginning to strongly suspect what I'm doing isn't it, or that the historic grade is significantly sandbagged.
My partner Saturday loudly declared it to be a burly 5.10a as she worked on the strenuous finish. Later when her "head cleared" a little she thought 5.9+. I am thinking solid 5.9. It is pretty vertical with limited rests and moves up diagonally right. I end up placing three key pieces of gear in a row with the right arm elbow locked off on side pulls on marginal feet. The pump clock really gets ticking on the right hand. Once the last piece is in I have trouble making 3 or 4 moves up to the ledge above before my right hand "melts off" a hold. Then there is the overhanging, burly finish. Once I get it clean, two falls Saturday, I will get a couple of old-timers on it to check the grade. Whatever it maybe it is proving quite the challenge for me!!!
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rangerrob
Aug 4, 2010, 11:42 AM
Post #299 of 1159
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I think Gavin and Jen are our new neighbors. They're place is 4 houses down the road from us. If it's not the same people it would be a pretty big coincidence!
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gblauer
Moderator
Aug 4, 2010, 12:04 PM
Post #300 of 1159
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rangerrob wrote: I think Gavin and Jen are our new neighbors. They're place is 4 houses down the road from us. If it's not the same people it would be a pretty big coincidence!
You are totally correct...they came to a BBQ at your house.
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). 5 pieces could have reduced your danger zone to 2 metres - or less with stick-clipping. 
