What can I say about this trip? It was just about perfect. We did some of the most
incredible, classic climbs I've ever done. Four of us: Dave King, Dave Brandenburger, Rob,
and myself, left in Dave's little Toyota Corolla SR5 and arrived 3 1/2 hours later at Camp
Slime. I spent a fitful night of little sleep trapped between Burger and Rob, who were
both snoring loudly, not to mention the raindrops blowing down from the trees overhead and
the hot, humid, and sticky air.
Nevertheless, I awoke ready to climb. After a not-so-speedy trip into the New Palz
bakery, we were finally ready to hit the rock. We all headed straight for Madame G's to
start the day, but it was occupied so we chose V-3 instead. Dave and Dave went first, then
I led up the first pitch through some interesting climbing through an overhang. The next
two pitches were 5.1 and 5.2, but there was a third pitch variation that looked
interesting at 5.7. Rob led the long 5.1 pitch, and I sprinted up to the belay, then he
led again through the well-protected ceiling on jugs. A quick rap, and the first route was
finished.
Madame
G's was open by now, so Rob and I went for it while the Daves tried out Le Teton (5.9+).
Madame G's starts with an easy 5.4 pitch, which I led, then goes up two sustained 5.6
pitches, the second one being very steep and overhanging in sections. I remember thinking
that climbing must not get much better than this at this level. At the top I found
blueberries to munch on while Dave K. told me his story of woe. Apparently, he had not had
a good time on Le Teton. He got pumped out trying to place some gear, dropped a nut, then
fell on a nut and couldn't get it out. Too bad...Iain had had an almost identical
experience on this climb on an earlier trip to the Gunks.
After rapping from the wild Madame G Buttress (a lone pine hanging out the side of the
rock), Rob and I were both in the mood to do something a little harder. Ideally, I wanted
to do CCK, then High Exposure, but both climbs are extremely popular and I figured our
chances of doing both were pretty slim. But, with a little searching, we found the base of
CCK and it was completely deserted!
I led up the first 5.5 pitch to the GT Ledge, then Rob started up the second pitch with a
few route-finding difficulties. The regular route described in the guidebook seemed
untraveled, but the direct variation at 5.7 or 5.8 (R) had more chalk. It looked a little
scary, but Rob stuck it out and pulled some good moves on pro that was less than ideal and
reached the belay. Following that pitch was even a bit scary.
From the belay, the route traversed right with incredible exposure on thin holds, then
went straight up to a huge roof and escaped right from underneath. This is a perfect place
for some incredible photographs. It was my lead, and I gingerly stepped out, clipping a
pin or two before reaching the vertical crack that led to the roof. Here I found two fixed
rocks, one which came out with ease. I happily added the booty to my rack as Rob mentioned
that someone must have been having a bad time here. A few layback moves and I was right up
under the roof, and a hand traverse to the right finished the pitch. I really must come
back and do the 5.9 variation that goes straight up and over the roof.
We searched for a rap station, and, finding none, opted to rappel off a convenient
tree. This worked splendidly, and we reached the ground again safely to head over
to...High Exposure! By now the sun was sinking quite low, and the base of High E was, not
surprisingly, empty. I led the unremarkable first pitch at 5.4, and Rob led the second,
slightly more remarkable pitch, also 5.4. The belay here was an awesome ledge with
spectacular views and exposure. I reached the belay, then started up the overhanging face.
Wow! This was so cool I just didn't want it to end. High Exposure truly lives up to its
name. I set up a belay at the top and watched the last rays of the sun reflect off of
Skytop to the northeast. It was the perfect time to finish this classic climb.
On the walk back down the carriage road I was surprised to see a copperhead slithering
almost under my foot. I had almost stepped on him, but jumped back just in time. I hadn't
even known there were pit vipers this far north. You learn something every day. Then Rob
with his "good eye" spotted a descent trail to the hairpin turn below (where we
were supposed to meet Gretchen, Dave's sort of girlfriend). On about my fifth step down
the "trail," I slipped on a rock, gouged a dead branch into my chest and broke
it, and slammed my shin into a rock-all in one smooth motion. Rob then admitted that his
trail seemed to be less of a trail and more like a jumbled collection of rocks and trees
defying gravity. The crux of the descent was at the finish, however. The trees and rocks
disappeared, and a foreboding slope of loosely packed dirt awaited us. We traversed right
in hopes that the slope would become more manageable, which it did, sort of. I carefully
placed each downward step, then lost my footing and slid on my butt the rest of the way.
That night we all ate at The Last Stand and chatted with Natasha, the Russian waitress
in the Mexican restaurant, then bought some groceries and went back to Camp Slime. We
picked a much better campsite this time, in a clearing at the top of a hill, underneath
the moon and stars.
Shockley's Ceiling was first on our agenda the next morning, and this time Rob got to
lead the good pitches. We did the 5.7 first pitch variation, which was scary to second
because of groundfall potential. When we reached the start of the final pitch, a young
couple was already there. The guy said he was backing off because he had already tried the
crux five times. They wanted to see us climb it in hopes of getting up the nerve to go for
it. Rob racked up, went up to inspect the crux overhang, found some absolutely perfect
hand jams, (prompting our frightened friends to query incredulously, "So he's just
got his hand stuck in that crack?") placed some pro, then went up and over. No
problem. Following this crux seemed to me like the hardest 5.6 moves I had ever done. I
ended up heel-hooking the thing, which was fun.
Continuing with my checklist of must-do routes, we went looking for Son of Easy O. This
route turned out to be the most sustained climb of the trip, with two very solid pitches
of 5.8. Rob led the first pitch, a technical, fingery, thin crack. I led the second pitch,
a pumpy jugfest over steep rock and a big overhang. We agreed that we had each chosen the
right pitch to lead. This route rates in my book as one of the best in total quality.
To finish the day (as it turned out) we did something interesting-we climbed Something
Interesting. I feel like the first pitch of this route is one of my best leads. The
climbing was fantastic and I felt completely solid and in control. The first pitch is
long, too, which I think is nice. I brought Rob up as I watched two guys try to get up The
Dangler (5.9), an outrageous hand traverse out a humongous roof. The leader made it,
placing pro while hanging by one hand and a heel hook, but the second fell before he could
remove the cam. I think the first pitch of Something Interesting followed by The Dangler
would make one hell of a good route. The first section of Rob's next lead was pretty good,
though, but the last half of it was rather dull and vegetated. At the belay ledge we ran
into Gretchen and the Daves, who had been on Three Pines (5.3) ALL DAY! I could only
sympathize with them, because Rob and I had had a tremendous day of climbing. OK, the
Daves did do Strictly from Nowhere (5.7) in the morning, but the rest of the day had been
spent on Three Pines. I think I would have gone nuts with all the great climbing around
that I wasn't doing.
It was around 6:30 when we finally got down, so we decided to call it a day. Gretchen
went back to Connecticut, and the four of us hit 87 North at around 87 miles an hour. The
cop that pulled Dave over only wrote him up for 80, though.
