Rock Climbing --- 6/12/2009 - 6/14/2009 --- Gunks

The four of us drove to Sarah's Dad's house Friday night. Greg and Drew met us there and Zupes and Beth arrived a bit later. When we departed Ithaca, the weekend forecast was not too bad... 30% to 40% chance of rain and thunderstorms both Saturday and Sunday. Worth the risk.

Saturday morning we wake and check the forecast. It is now 70% chance of rain all day with thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Sunday is supposed to be beautiful. Zupes is bummed because he has to go back to Ithaca Sunday morning to work a wall shift. We are already here, so might as well drive to the Gunks and climb until the thunderstorms start.

Emily and I start on Frog's Head. Then we climb both pitches of Jackie. Then we climb all of RMC (I link the second and third pitches). After that we climb the first pitch of Baby which I haven't climbed in years. I force myself to climb it using offwidth technique and don't layback any of the moves. Then we meet everyone at the Uberfall and set a toprope on Red Cabbage Right. It is a bit wet at the top which makes the final moves more interesting. Done for the day. Hmmm... no rain at all. Strange. Back to Hugo's house for a potluck dinner and a TV show about blueberries (which I sleep through).

Sunday morning we wake and again check the forecast which has changed a bit from the perfect weather which was forecast just 24 hours ago... "90% chance of rain all day with thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. No kidding this time! It will be biblical! Yeah, we lied before, but seriously you had better not climb today. For real. Build an ark or something." We are already here, so might as well drive to the Gunks and climb until the thunderstorms start.

We start the day on Disneyland. The bottom is damp from rain the night before, so I place two pieces of gear before the first piton. Better safe than injured. Mike and Sarah follow Emily and I up this climb and I hang out at the top to take photos and film an advertisement for my website. Then we walk down and head over to Birdland. Mike has never been on the climb before and he leads both pitches. Excellent! I lead the first pitch and then clean my gear because Emily isn't in the mood to do the climb. Cleaning the gear is a pain because some clueless people are toproping with their anchor attached to the bottom chain links (and doing the exact same thing on the next anchor to the right). Sigh. So I lower off Sarah's biners and pull my rope before she starts up the second pitch. We take a look at Gelsa, but it has water pouring down it from rain the night before. It is a three pitch waterfall. So Emily and I head to Squiggles, which I've never climbed. The polished start is pretty darn hard for 5.4 in my opinion.

It is time for us to head home. We stop in Ellenville for dinner/ice cream and then drive back to Ithaca. And the torrential deluge? Maybe it was obscured by the blue sky and moderate temperatures we experienced all day long.

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