Rock Climbing --- 4/11/2009 - 4/17/2009 --- Gunks

Mountain Climbing is toatly RAD!!! i'm going to get some pitons! I especialy like repelling. my goal is to repel EVERST! I need more snaplinks first. if your not climbing than you dont know anything about what i'm saying hear. My friend is teaching me to repel aussie style which is more scary then anything but thats how they do it their. CLIMBING ROCKS!!!!

Mini Road Trip... April, 2009

I suppose one week on the road doesn't count as a mini road trip. Maybe a micro road trip. Micro is smaller than mini, right? Right. Saturday evening -- as soon as I finished teaching my photography class -- I drove down to Emily's place in Binghampton for an Easter party. Having been raised Jewish, Easter traditions always had me baffled. So we watched The Easter Bunny Is Coming To Town staring Fred Astaire (seriously), and suddenly everything made perfect sense. In any case, it was a fun party, especially the Bohnanza game.

Sunday morning I drove to Connecticut to celebrate Passover with my whole family. No claymation movies needed to explain this holiday. Though, honestly, it might be helpful. I suppose we could always watch that horrible Charlton Heston film (yes, I'm talking about Soylent Green).

Moving right along... hung out with the parents all day Monday. Then drove to the Gunks Tuesday morning. Amy had spring break, and every week is spring break for me. So we met in the Trapps for three days of climbing. Tuesday we climbed RMC, Frog's Head and Horseman. On Wednesday we climbed High Exposure and luxuriated in the sun and solitude which rarely combine on this route. Then we climbed Bunny to put a TR on Retribution. Since Retribution was near my limit before the shoulder injury, it was overly optimistic of me to expect to be able to climb it so soon after surgery. And I couldn't. Amy gave a good try at both Retribution and Nosedive. Thursday we climbed Strictly From Nowhere to Shockley's Ceiling, again in solitude. Mid-week climbing has its advantages. Then we did Sixish with the direct start. At this point Amy had to leave for Boston. Luckily Guy arrived at the exact same time. After saying goodbye to Amy, I followed Guy up both pitches of Son Of Easy O. This is currently about the limit of what I can follow. Disappointing considering how easily I could lead it back in October, but encouraging considering how recently I had surgery. The climb was also an impressive milestone: According to Guy, the first pitch of Son of Easy O was the 100th pitch he has led in his climbing career. Nice! On Friday, Guy and I woke early and swung leads up City Lights with Guy leading the first pitch and its stupid pod move. Then we swung leads on Maria. After that we found Katie who had arrived early to set tents for IORC. The three of us climbed Belly Roll which I had actually never climbed. Katie led the first pitch and Guy took the second. After that Guy departed for Ithaca to teach. Katie and I had time for one last climb. I led Frog's Head to the GT ledge (so that first pitch which is shared with Maria... I climbed it three times in four days), and Katie led a short third pitch to the top.

Happy with my micro road trip, I returned to Ithaca. I think I'm ready for Everest now.

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