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losbill


Jul 17, 2012, 7:17 PM
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Re: [sethg] Mini slab epics [In reply to]
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Josh -- Who knows where I was. Just got tired of doing it the way I had been doing it for awhile. Vaguely remembered a number of years ago stepping out right on to the Black Dike side and up and relishing the exposure. Brings you to the big belay ledge short of the 5.8 crack. Definitely a bit harder than 5.6.

Wow!!! Sounds like a terrific time!!! Very, very jealous!!! Too bad you didn't get you were not able finish Lord of the Thais but as you point out the upside is needing to go back and get it done! -- Bill


dagibbs


Aug 9, 2012, 7:09 PM
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Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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The first weekend in August is a long weekend up here in Ontario, and I decided that was a good excuse for a climbing trip. My girlfriend was off to a wedding this weekend (who schedules wedding during climbing season?), so I planned this trip with Phil, a Brit currently resident in Ottawa. We talked about choices: Kamouraska (Quebec), the Adirondacks, but decided on Rumney.

So, Friday we drive down to Rumney and find the D'Acres hippietastic farm where we'll be staying -- he's camping, and I'm dropping my bed roll in the yoga room. While I'm setting up, I'm greeted by a familiar voice, apparently Mara who I had met in March at El Potrero Chico had ended up at the same place this weekend. Always nice to run into someone I know.

Saturday we headed for the Parking Lot and Meadows walls -- we did 10 routes, mostly 5.7 and 5.8s, though we did pull in one 5.9 and one 5.10a. We both lead the easier ones, and Phil lead the two harder ones, and I followed them, hang-dogging a bit. By the end of the day, our fingers were feeling pretty abused by the sharp edges on the Schist at these walls, though we were really appreciating how solid the feet were.

Sunday, to give our fingers a bit of a break, we we decided to drive over to Whitehorse Ledge. We'd discussed various routes: Standard Route, Beginner's Route, Dike route, Sliding Board; but decided on Dike Route (II, 5.6, one star, 8 pitches). We both soloed up pitch 0, about 100' up to a sloping ledge where we roped up. The book says there's a single-pin belay at the right end of the ledge, where the dike starts up, but we weren't able to find it -- so belayed from a sinlg ring-bolt near the middle. This made pitch 1 closer to 5.3R across the slab than the 5.2 up the dike. I lead pitch 1 and 2 easily, with pitch 2 being a long (150') run up the dike with occasional protection. Pitch 3 is where the climbing started to get serious (5.6), but it went ok. For pitch 3 & 4, the route finding was less obvious than "follow the dike", but I think we got it mostly ok.

Pitch 4, I lead out what I thought was the route, got about 50' out, and couldn't figure out how to pull the move left over the overlap, so I down-climbed (and cleaned) back to the anchor. Pulled out the guide, tried to see if there might be an easier way -- but every other choice looked harder (5.8R up to 5.11+). So, I lead out again, failed to pull, and lowered back to the anchor to let Phil take a shot at it. (Phil is a stronger climber than me, but not nearly as experienced at Trad leading, nor quite as comfortable on slab, so I'd been doing the leading so far.) Part of the problem I ran into was a lot of moss on the slab, making the friction a lot worse. Phil found a way over the overlap, and up to the next anchor.

We were now looking at pitch 5 -- an 80' traverse to the right below a big roof. It looked like a friction traverse, but again, most of the slab we were going to need to traverse across had a lot of moss on it. Also, neither of us could spot many good/clean gear placements. There might have been some along the hinted at crack at the base of the roof -- but they would be dirty at best. If it had been clean rock with iffy placements, or mossy rock with good placements, I think we would have gone for it -- but it was neither, and neither of us wanted to lead it. Also, the guide said that at the next pitch, you could rappel off with double ropes (probably 2 50m ropes, given the age of the guide, but reading the pitch descriptions, some were in the 150' range), and we just had one 70m rope. I was pretty sure (due to an intermediate anchor from another climb) that we could rappel from where we were on our 70m, and that if we made the traverse and wanted to back off, we'd have to lead back again. So... we decided to bail at this point. (I did clean a bunch of tat at this point, too. There were two new rappel-ring anchors, plus a bunch of tat on some old bolts -- with nice new bolts, the tat wasn't needed.)

As we finished the first rap, it started to rain a bit, though it stopped quickly enough that it didn't even get the rock detectably wet. I re-inforced a rap anchor at the next stage with some cord. Two of the raps tooks us within about 1-2 meters of the end of the rope, but we did get down ok. Just as we were pulling the rope on the last rappel to the ground, it started to pour -- soaking the cliff. At that point, we were very glad we'd decided to back off, rather than trying to finish the upper (friction) slabs on soaking wet rock.

We drove back to Rumney, and did 3 more easyish (5.6-5.7) climbs before calling it a day.

Monday we packed up and headed for the 5.8 crag, where Mara and a friend (Schalk) were also climbing. I brought my trad rack, because the 5.8 Crack in the Woods (5.7) looked like a fun climb. We both did 6 different routes, both leading them all, and each ended up doing a 2nd climb on one thing, for 7 total climbs. Mara and Phil both borrowed my rack to climb the 5.8 Crack in the Woods, which is a really fun climb that takes gear very well. And, yes, I realize that trad climbing at Rumney is worng. :)


jakedatc


Aug 11, 2012, 9:28 PM
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Re: [dagibbs] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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Back from the Long Trail. 18 days on trail, 1 rest day in Stowe.



gblauer
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Aug 26, 2012, 12:53 PM
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Re: [jakedatc] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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Jake, A beautiful photo!


gblauer
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Aug 26, 2012, 12:57 PM
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Re: [gblauer] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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So what's better than rock climbing naked?

Bike riding naked!

Mitch and I just rode in the 3rd Annual Philly Naked Bike Ride. Seven miles, carefully plotted to raise the most ire from tourists and residents alike.

Gotta say, I was a little nervous to shed the clothing. Once we were ready to get on our bikes, the clothes came off and I never looked back!

Totally fun, totally silly and just what I needed to do on a non climbing weekend in Philadelphia.

(We haven't been up at the Gunks for the last several weeks; Mitch and I moved and the move has been all consuming)


(This post was edited by gblauer on Aug 26, 2012, 12:58 PM)


Gmburns2000


Aug 26, 2012, 3:32 PM
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Re: [gblauer] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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gblauer wrote:
So what's better than rock climbing naked?

Bike riding naked!

Mitch and I just rode in the 3rd Annual Philly Naked Bike Ride. Seven miles, carefully plotted to raise the most ire from tourists and residents alike.

Gotta say, I was a little nervous to shed the clothing. Once we were ready to get on our bikes, the clothes came off and I never looked back!

Totally fun, totally silly and just what I needed to do on a non climbing weekend in Philadelphia.

(We haven't been up at the Gunks for the last several weeks; Mitch and I moved and the move has been all consuming)

useless without pics!

ok, just kidding, of course. so now you're no longer in that drafty old house? congrats!


gblauer
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Aug 26, 2012, 7:23 PM
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Re: [dagibbs] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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Gotta get to Rumney...I have never been there. Glad you had a fun time. Don't you love it when the gods smile on you and turn you back from a serious epic before it ever happens? I hate slab in the rain!

Are you going to Potrero this year?


dagibbs


Aug 27, 2012, 2:23 PM
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Re: [gblauer] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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gblauer wrote:
Gotta get to Rumney...I have never been there. Glad you had a fun time. Don't you love it when the gods smile on you and turn you back from a serious epic before it ever happens? I hate slab in the rain!

Are you going to Potrero this year?

I like slab, but as you say, not in the rain.

I'm not planning to head back to EPC this winter. It is lovely, but there are so many other places I'd like to climb as well. Of course, who knows what may actually happen.

Right now, I'm hoping to get down to the 'Gunks sometime this fall.


gblauer
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Aug 27, 2012, 3:24 PM
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Re: [dagibbs] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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Let me know if you are gunking. I can show you around if you would like.


dagibbs


Aug 27, 2012, 5:00 PM
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Re: [gblauer] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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gblauer wrote:
Let me know if you are gunking. I can show you around if you would like.

Will do, and the offer is much appreciated.


dagibbs


Aug 28, 2012, 1:09 AM
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Thunder Bay, Ontario trip [In reply to]
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My girlfriend (Jex) was invited to a wedding in Sudbury Ontario last Saturday, and she invited me to accompany her. Then, she declared that Sudbury (about 500km/300mi) was almost all the way to Thunder Bay (a further 1000km/600mi) and she had never been to Thunder Bay (which is up west of the northern bend of Lake Superior), so we should take the week before the wedding and go there. Also, to bribe me to come along, she said there was good climbing up there. Of course, I was hooked. :)

I picked up Thunder Bay Rock by Alex Joseph and Randy Reed (Randy actually happens to be my brother-in-law), which is the latest guide and started planning climbing -- looking mostly for easier stuff, as Jex doesn't climb as well as even my moderate level.

Friday I took the red-eye home from California, took a nap Saturday for a couple hours, packed, and we headed out of Ottawa around 2pm -- aiming to make it to Sudbury where we would overnight with Jex's gramma. Sunday we drove on to Thunder Bay. The drive along the north shore of Lake Superior is gorgeous -- and there's lots of rock along there. (Both Alona Bay and Old Lady Bay appear to have gorgeous cliffs dropping down into the lake, I wonder if they are climbed at all?)

Monday we planned to do some hiking and a 5-pitch trad climb in Sleeping Giant park. The Thunder Bay area has a bunch of diorite bluffs, and the Sleeping Giant is a classic example of these. The hike in isn't short, but we ran into a complication where the trail the guide book gave for access to the climbs had been closed by the park (erosion issues) and an alternate had been constructed. (The trail had other purposes than accessing the climbs, it just happened that the climbs started a short way off the trail.) The alternate trail looked to pass very close by where the climbs were marked, so we headed up it. After much uphill slogging, we got close to the climbs and found that we had, accidentally, hiked to the top of the cliffs, rather than the bottom. On a normal satellite-eyes-view of a map, the top and bottom of a rock climb are pretty close together. Oops. We were, unfortunately, too exhausted to hike back down, around, then up again to the climbs -- so we stashed the packs, hiked around on top of the giant, then hiked back out. A wasted 20kms (13 miles) of hiking with climbing gear on our backs, oops.

Tuesday we took a break to recover, doing tourist stuff.

Wednesday we headed for a set of short sand-stone cliffs just across the road from Pass Lake. Here We did several nice climbs, one sport, a couple trad (including a fun, though easy, chimney) and a TR route. One of the trad routes, Knobbly Road, was covered in candy and little toys -- balls stuffed in the crack, candy necklaces and little plastic animals on the ledges, etc. I found it made the lead fun, though Jex found having to move stuff out of the way to use holds a bit distressing.

Thursday we headed to Mount Helen, a 70m (or so) high gneiss slab with some fun two-pitch trad climbs. Not sure of how stiff the ratings were, I started with a long rising traverse up The Uppder Dike, then after getting about 45m out, built an anchor, then finished up a more direct route, with a mix of bolts and gear. We did a couple other two-pitch routes there, and quite enjoyed the climbing.

Friday was the drive back to Sudbury, and Saturday the wedding itself.

Sunday, after the post-wedding brunch, we headed for Mount Doom in Sudbury itself, where we top-roped a few climbs. The rock there was more gneiss, but covered in a black patina from all the pollution. (Sudbury is a major iron & nickel mining and smelting centre, and though the emissions have been greatly cleaned up in the last decade or two, it used to be that everything in the area looked like a blackened moonscape.) We top-roped a few routes during the afternoon, then headed home.


(This post was edited by dagibbs on Aug 28, 2012, 1:21 AM)


jakedatc


Aug 28, 2012, 1:49 PM
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Re: [gblauer] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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gblauer wrote:
Gotta get to Rumney...I have never been there. Glad you had a fun time. Don't you love it when the gods smile on you and turn you back from a serious epic before it ever happens? I hate slab in the rain!

Are you going to Potrero this year?

let me know if you want a tour sometime..


This weekend I got my ass handed to me a bit at Rumney. taking 2 months off is not good for climbing endurance. I found that my strength is still pretty good but the pump came faster and on easier stuff. need to get back in the gym

we climbed friday and sunday.. went on a day hike with Kate on Saturday and then I stayed and went on a solo hike Monday. 5 more 4000 footers off my list.


blueeyedclimber


Aug 28, 2012, 9:53 PM
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Re: [jakedatc] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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I didn't realize people were still responding to this thread, but then again, I haven't been on here much.

Here's an account of my Saturday:

Secured a partner (Brooke) about midweek, who suggested Cannon. In particular a route name Vertigo, which I have never done. Seeing how my wife hates Cannon and i don't get a chance to climb there very much, I jumped at the chance. "Woohoo!", was Brooke's response.

Brooke said she hadn't been climbing very much so asked if I would lead the whole thing. "Fine with me," I said.

If you have heard of Vertigo, then you know about the infamous Half Moon Crack. Mountain project has this to say about it:

{Pitch 4, 5.9R: The Half Moon Crack. Routefinding is not an issue on this pitch: simply climb the wide crack. Pro can be placed at the start of the crack, but after that, there is no pro for the rest of the pitch since the crack is just too wide for gear. All goes swimmingly until the final few moves when the crack trends rightward and the angle steepens.

Do not underestimate this pitch. I did and scared myself silly at the top when I found myself desperately thrutching up the crack all the while contemplating a 60 foot fall onto the slab below. It's really a memorable lead.}


When you get to it, it doesn't look that hard or long. Really its all about the last few feet. Most climbers without any off width experience would probably be able to wiggle their way up most of it. BUT, and that's a big BUT, does not do you any good when you are faced with the last several feet of off width, knowing that your last piece of pro is a long ways away.

This position, just a few feet away from a big hold outside of the crack, is where I found myself sometime this Saturday afternoon. Without being able to make upward progress, I was left to contemplate a few things:

1. I am not a very good off width climber.
2. I bet I am facing the wrong way (something I confirmed later having top roped it facing the opposite way)
3. Once you are facing the wrong way, it seems impossible to turn around.
4. Next time i do an off width, don't wear shorts. Or a t shirt. And tape your ankles.
5. Am I going to die today?
6. How much skin have I lost so far?
7. I thought VMC direct was easier.
8. I like Cheese.

Finally, after several attempts to wiggle up those last few feet, I weighed my options. Although reading that Cams would not fit in this crack, we brought a # 6. I actually got it in at the bottom and moved it up as I climbed until it didn't fit at all. Rather than leave it lower, I decided to put it back on my harness, leaving me basically unprotected. But as I said earlier, the bottom half is much easier and I felt solid at that point. I also read on Mountain Project that you could get a .75 cam in a crack at the back. I did lower in the crack, but as you gain height, the "back" gets further away. Whoever said that must be 7 feet tall, because it didn't take long before I couldn't reach it at all.

So, here I am, near the end of the crack, unable to make upward progress, when I have an idea. I decide to take the #6 off my harness in the hopes that maybe the crack has constricted a little. I put it in and it tips all the way out. I give it a good tug and two of the cams stick (sideways). I tug it again and it feels fairly solid. I wouldn't want to fall on it but a little "discreet tension" was all I need to move my feet up and reach the hold. It was a solid hold but by this time I was pretty pumped. I exhaled and found a decent body position. From there I was able to get a red alien in a crack above my head. I pulled up onto the slab and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

After Brooke followed, I informed her that I didn't have the energy to go do a few pitches of VMC direct today (which, believe it or not WAS our plan). So, we decided to toprope the Half Moon. WHen I was in it, I did not have the desire to ever come back to it. But now, it feels like unfinished business. And, after top roping it twice (facing right this time), I decided to come back and send it. That is, after my skin grows back.

There is more to the story but I will try to sum it up with just a few words. Rain. Waited. Rain stopped. Decided to keep going, since the guide book lists only 2 more pitches. We did 7. Through wet, loose, choss. And blueberry bushes. I knocked a rock off that Brooke had to dodge. A little more rain. And Thunder too. Although it was far away. Ran into a rope soloer. Finished on Moby Grape. Did not have to bushwhack this time. The trail seemed longer, though. Got down just as the sun went down. Good Day.

Smile

Josh


Gmburns2000


Aug 28, 2012, 10:24 PM
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Re: [blueeyedclimber] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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Vertigo scares the crap out of me.


dagibbs


Aug 29, 2012, 2:12 AM
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Re: [blueeyedclimber] Another long weekend in New Hampshire [In reply to]
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Wow, that sounds like quite a lead!


dagibbs


Sep 4, 2012, 2:50 AM
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Falling rock sure can chop rope! [In reply to]
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There were supposed to be 4 or 5 of us up at the cottage at Lac Sam for a weekend of cottage and climbing, but Jex hurt her shoulder and couldn't climb and Phil had work interfere. So, it was just K8 and me for the long weekend, with Hue joining for one day on Saturday and Mike for a day on Sunday. So, Saturday and Sunday we climbed on the mostly developped stuff -- though I trundled a few rocks and scrub some more lichen and moss off the cliffs both days.

But today, Monday, with just K8 and me, we decided to see if we could get in to one of the really big looking faces -- hard to tell for sure, but could we're guessing somewhere in the 30-50m range. But, there is a bunch of broken rock/trees in a band above the clean rock. And, of course, there is the problem with judging just where along the top of the cliff you actually are -- and this section had no obvious or clear sight lines I could figure out to establish where the right spot was.

Still, I picked out a spot, rigged and anchor, tied a pair of my older 60m ropes together, coiled butteflied on into a sling on each hip, and lowered off into the unknown. As I was going down, I was trying to push the most egregious loose rock off. I knew K8 would be coming down after me, but even without that, the rope could easily knock stuff loose, and I did have to get back up out again.

I cleared a bunch of small to medium (say up to basketball sized), then came to a piece about the size of my torso that looked really loose. I pulled it off easily with one hand (it was delicately balanced), but it must have caught a loop of one of my ropes as it fell, because after it went, I was looking down about 4m at what used to be a loop -- but was now two new ends to my rope. Oops. Hauled them up, tied them back together, and continued downwards.

Found a ledge or two, but it looked like, unfortunately, I had misjudged my point on the top of the cliff, too. So, I decided not to continue descending, but instead to haul myself back up my ropes through the ledges and scree, to the vertical section, then climbed that very carefully and delicately (lots more loose rock) back up.

So, now what was a 60m rope is two ropes -- about 28m and 32m. Yeah, managed to chop it pretty close to the middle. Oh well. At least it was one of my older ropes, and the one in the worst shape that got chopped. Quite amazing, too, how cleanly cut it is.


Gmburns2000


Sep 4, 2012, 3:08 AM
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Re: [dagibbs] Falling rock sure can chop rope! [In reply to]
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I saw someone chop his rope near the top of Strictly's in the 'Gunks a few springs ago. thank god he was leading with doubles, as he would have had to finish the crux sans corda.

that was a scary moment for everyone.


dagibbs


Sep 4, 2012, 4:15 AM
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Re: [Gmburns2000] Falling rock sure can chop rope! [In reply to]
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That's far scarier on lead! Double definitely a win, there.


gblauer
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Sep 4, 2012, 3:09 PM
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wow, that is a super scary story. Glad you are safe.


gblauer
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Sep 30, 2012, 11:24 PM
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So, how is your fall season going? Are you sending?
I have been gunking mostly every weekend.


dagibbs


Oct 1, 2012, 3:53 PM
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gblauer wrote:
So, how is your fall season going? Are you sending?
I have been gunking mostly every weekend.

I've lost the last couple weekends to business travel, sadly.

But, I'm headed down to Rumney this coming weekend, with maybe a stop in the 'Dacks on the way home.


gblauer
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Oct 9, 2012, 2:23 AM
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Was at the gunks from Tuesday to Monday AM. Rained Tuesday, Weds, Thursday and finally stopped on Friday. Cliff was climbable by mid day on Friday. Saturday had some seepiness, but, mostly pretty dry.

Had lots of fun, but, didn't get nearly the climbing that we expected due to the crazy weather. Instead we did Bonticou twice, rode our bikes from Gardiner to New Paltz and back. Went to Yoga, ran the stairmaster etc. Hopefully the rain is gone for a while and we can get back to climbing.


dagibbs


Oct 11, 2012, 4:30 PM
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(Canadian) Thanksgiving [In reply to]
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Last weekend was Thanksgiving up in Canada, so long weekend means road-trip. Trevor, Jessica, Kate and I headed down to Rumney on Friday, planning on two days at Rumney and then a run up Chapel Pond Slab on the way home (since it is not-too-long a detour).

We arrived quite a bit later Friday evening than expected -- traffic in Montreal, slow border crossing, and getting selected (randomly we're told) to be searched. But, arrive we did, staying at D'Acres farm.

Saturday we decided to hike up to Jimmy Cliff, since I had not climbed there and there was a bunch of easy-to-moderate climbing. Trevor and I headed up Pine Tree Crack, an easy multi-pitch trad since Trevor had little trad experience and no multi-pitch trad, so this was prep for Monday's climb up Chapel Pond Slab (800ft trad slab). Then we decided to simul-climb Clippity-do-da and Lady and the Tramp, 5.3 and 5.4 two-pitch slabs. Lots of fun running up them, and wow can you move fast when not waiting for belays or switching off. We then headed for the right side, as it started to rain a bit, climbed a couple more there until it got too wet. But, on the way down we notice that The Sand People on Darth Vadar wall was dry, so climbed that, too.

Unfortunately, on the way down, Kate slipped and sprained her ankle. This kind of changed plans for the next couple days.

Sunday we headed to Parking Lot wall, rather than another longish hike up to somewhere, and mostly climbed stuff to the right. For warm-up we re-climbed a couple easier ones, then Trevor lead Juan Valdez (5.10b) and after a couple false starts, I managed to follow it clean. Then we tried Espresso (5.10d), followed that as well, but with a few rests. Lead another couple routes (5.8, 5.9) but took a fall on each of them.

Monday we headed for Chapel Pond slab, but due to getting started a bit slow, some traffic and construction on the way, and other delays got there a couple hours later than planned. We were doing it in a group of three (rather than 2 pairs) since Kate was out, so I figured on trailing two ropes from the leaded, and having two people follow at once rather than caterpillaring to save time. After I lead the first pitch+ (went until I had no rope on a 60m), and brought the other two up, I decided we should call it at that point. It was late (3pm), the cliff was in the shade, there was another group of 3 ahead of us, and I figured we might get the climb done by dark, the descent is a bit messy and I didn't want to risk it in the dark, with dampness from the previous day's rain. Also, this was the last easy point to bail -- since it could be done on a double-rope rappel, and there was a convenient horn to sling for the final person to rap from. It was, though, one of my more nervous rappels off.


gblauer
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Oct 13, 2012, 2:03 AM
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Re: [dagibbs] (Canadian) Thanksgiving [In reply to]
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I guess it's always good to be flexible...sometimes things don't go as planned.

Hope the ankle is better!


donald949


Nov 15, 2012, 5:20 PM
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West Coast Weekend Warrior Update [In reply to]
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Time for a little West Coast update. Help keep the warrior thread alive.

For a month, we were planning a Vets Weekend Red Rock Trad climbing trip. But Thursday night the rain is coming down, the weather radar shows heavy rain on the RR's, and the local gym there says don't come here. Thanks Brutus.

Well we did make it to Josh over the weekend. Drove out Sun, came back Mon. Over all very good.

Sunday we jump on a "5.4" Final Act on Playhouse rock. From the ground the pro looked ok, but actually the pro went very well. However, the climb went a fair bit harder than 5.4. At 120-130 feet, I had to belay everyone up from the top, in the shade, and cold wind. Buddy said I looked blue. After that we drove to the section of the park that had cell reception so one of our party could reach her freinds to bum a ride home. After floundering around for a bit, the sun set, it got cold and I gave up on trying to set up another climb. We sent two of our party on there way, the one get her ride, and called it a night.

On a side note, looks like Santana's has upgraded their burritos. One guy got the 1 pound burrito. It was literally 1 pound of meat. By the end, he was hurting, but he killed it.

Monday my buddy wants to climb a 4 pitch 350' 5.5. Alright, should be doable. But the projects says the first bolt is 30 foot up, with some marginal gear before that. Well that should work, I've gotten on some climbs that are 25 feet to the first bolt with no gear. We make the little hike out there, scout the area, find the climb. There is a second well up the first pitch in the main crack, I watch. More OW thrashing where they're at, but looks doable. Turn my attention to the bottom. About 15' of 5.1 steps to a small ledge. Then a high mantle onto another small ledge. Then off to the right to a groove that turns a crack that probably takes one small nut. Then back to the left for about 20+ feet of smooth featureless low angle slab to first bolt. Then 10 feet up to the main crack and some gear. The 30 feet to the bolt turned out to be really closer to 60, the one crack looks to take one piece fine, but is listed as marginal. Wouldn't protect from crashing onto the ledges at all, and is well to the right of the fall line. Wouldn't protect from ground fall near the bolt. Ledges are not wide enough to protect from tumbling off. The ground is a small boulder field. The mantle and slab look way committing. All that to get to one tiny little bolt way up the face. But still, only listed as 5.5. Should be doable. Scout it out some more, nope, still not any better. Look it over again. Gonna have to take a pass.

Buddy suggests Trash Can Rock, where we got cell reception Sunday. Its short, only 40 feet. But its in the sun, and we could be warm. Yes, being warm would be great. I climb B2, more easy OW thrashing, and set a TR. Buddy does the climb, and cleans the gear. Then he TR's the 10a to the left. I do the 5.8 all feet on the prow in between. Cool climb. He does the prow, and the climb to the right. I do one last lap, break down the anchor and walk off the back. I must say it was good to be warm that day.

Good day all in all. Good weekend at Josh, even after having to bail on Red Rocks due to rain, getting blue from cold, getting stuck by a thorn just outside the tent, and having the insoles of my shoes crack open. Can't wait for the next trip.


(This post was edited by donald949 on Nov 15, 2012, 5:21 PM)

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