I took my first vacation from work last week. We flew into the Hudson Valley of New York and met friends from ND (Betsy and Dexter) to climb at a place called the Gunks. Our friends are in their 60s and have been climbing at this place since they were 18 years old. Caylan has a fear of heights. He is fine climbing in the gym, but outside is an entirely different game. Caylan had climbed here with Dexter and Betsy before, and swore he'd never return. Enter me! I get scared, but climbed outside a lot in college around Austin and don't get too afraid of heights. Before our trip Caylan tried to watch a youtube video that someone had posted of climbing in the Gunks. Caylan's palms were sweating before we boarded the plane :) Fortunately, he didn't let his fear slow him down once we got to the rock.
The climbing at the Gunks is traditional climbing, meaning - the leader has to place his or her own protection in the cracks.
Most of the climbing is also multi-pitch, so it takes more than one length of rope to make it to the top.
Here is a video of me climbing.
On our second day of climbing, Caylan's sister, Scarlett, came up from Brooklyn to climb with us. She is a novice climber and had taken a course at a local climbing gym. She did great. Here she is hanging on for dear life at the top of her first climb.
Caylan lead that route, taking his favorite people's lives in his hand. He took his job seriously.
The climbing at the Gunks is traditional climbing, meaning - the leader has to place his or her own protection in the cracks.
Most of the climbing is also multi-pitch, so it takes more than one length of rope to make it to the top.
On our second day of climbing, Caylan's sister, Scarlett, came up from Brooklyn to climb with us. She is a novice climber and had taken a course at a local climbing gym. She did great. Here she is hanging on for dear life at the top of her first climb.
Caylan lead that route, taking his favorite people's lives in his hand. He took his job seriously.
I climbed a difficult route with our friends, while Caylan and Scarlett enjoyed ground level. The name of the route is Cascading Crystal Kaleidoscope ("CCK"). There are no pictures because there is no way I was going to pull out a camera. Here is a picture that I found online of the scariest part.
After CCK, we did all climbed a classic route called Horseman. It is the only route that everyone climbed successfully. Here is a video of Scarlett making it to the top.
After two days of climbing, we said goodbye to our friends and took a 1.5 hour midnight bus with Scarlett from New Paltz to Port Authority in NYC.
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