This is a report about my October 2024 trip with a focus on climbing in The Gunks in New York. The leaves were falling during this trip - and, new to me, it seemed as though leaves might the inspiration for butterflies. Multiple times I’d be overlooking a beautiful vista to notice a fluttering specimen in the wind. In October in Austin, these flutterers are butterflies dancing in the air, harvesting the pollens and nectars - the leaves don’t fall til later. However, in Gardiner, NY at this time, the air dancers were leaves. I wondered: did leaves give ideas to butterflies on how to move around?

Belaying comfortably in The Gunks

We joyously stumbled into seeing Aurora Borealis on our last night, as we were looking for a comet which eluded us.

This post includes climbing beta and discussion of climbing accidents and injuries. Read on if you’d like. Climbing is dangerous and you assume all risk. If you use any ideas here in your own climbing, I am not responsible or liable for any injury or worse.

Planning

After my Joshua Tree guidebook experience, and because I saw a copy of a Gunks book at my climbing gym, I picked up a full Gunks guidebook by Salo, Fracchia and Ratkowski - https://www.wolverinepublishing.com/shop-all-guidebooks/p/gunks-climbing - rather than a “greatest hits” type guidebook. I’m glad I did, it was a great book which helped me orient to the environment and history.

Mar and I went on a date trip (Thanks mom!) in August. I brought The Gunks guidebook on the trip to learn. Mar and I had a good time reviewing the route names - she hadn’t seen that “creativity” before. Also on this trip, the hotel gave us 2 free bottles of liquor which got us thinking about ending our 4 year liquor sobriety. But, we didn’t.

I asked Luke and David what to practice before going to The Gunks, they said overhanging routes, traversing routes, fiddling with gear on overhanging routes. Luke also clarified that I probably didn’t need to do any specific kind of training, since they climbed The Gunks last year without training. I tried to fit in a few more overhangs at the climbing gym. But wasn’t very serious about training.

When Luke and David and I were planning the trip, we had a 2 week period to choose from - when their other friends would be at The Gunks. We chose the second week since that’s when my kids would be in school (the first week was a school break). So, we decided a Monday - Friday climbing trip. As we got closer, I realized that the Monday would actually be the last day of their school break. We tried to adjust the Airbnb, but couldn’t, so just went with the original plan. Hopefully it wouldn’t be awful for Mar.

Arrival Day

It actually was a scream-inducing day for Mar. She ran an errand for me which added to the day. She played with the kids all day, took them to soccer, had to deal with multiple nose bleeds, a broken garage door opener, a floodlight which was flashing constantly, ants in the kitchen floor. Too much.

Also my travel day took all day with the checked bags, connecting flight, layover, rental shuttle, rental car, liquor store stop and the 2+ hour drive from LGA to Gardiner. I figured I’d eat some expensive airport food for lunch or dinner, or stop somewhere for dinner, but I didn’t. I snacked on bars and nuts.

After we all arrived at the Airbnb, we hung out for a bit, catching up, snacking, and mulling over climbing routes for the next day. David had been climbing for a few days with their other friends who were staying somewhere else, so he had a vision of continuing up the grades via classic routes. So, we planned on a 5.6 and 5.7 for the next day with other routes nearby if we wanted more.

Climbing Day 1

Upon awaking, I was finally able to see the beautiful outdoors around our Airbnb, given I arrived in the dark. We were surrounded by towering trees and green grass with a comfortable blue sky. The quick drive from our Airbnb to the Gunks was similar with forest, pastures, and the mountain range.

The drive towards The Gunks, the cliffs we see through the windshield

I could feel fall on the hike in. The leaves were starting to change and flit in the crisp air. The hike and sunshine warmed us. Luke surmised that we would be able to notice a big shift in the leaf color in the 3 climbing days of the trip.

The hike on the carriage road was decorated with signage which explained the history and current ethics, some of which focused on climbing.

Frog’s Head (5.6, trad, 2 pitches)

As we found the base of Frog’s Head, we learned there was recently an accident on the route. According to a nearby climber, there might be some bodily fluids on the route. We surveyed the route and the base of the climb, and decided to climb tentatively, knowing that we might need to be cautious around recent rockfall or bodily fluids. We didn’t notice either on the route that day.

The route was casual and enjoyable. It was sunny enough at the pitch 1 belay that my shoe’s black rubber would make my foot hot after a few minutes in direct sunlight. So, I channeled my inner flamingo and hid one foot behind the other leg - balancing on one leg while belaying and thus granting one foot a shady reprieve. A fun and easy compensation to more comfortably take in the beautiful view, breath the fresh air, and belay up my partners.

We each did the end of the route different ways - one through slippery lichen, one through a conglomerate rock pathway through lichen patch, and one through a overhangy roof section. Climbing can be done in a myriad of ways, just as with the rest of life.

Jason uncharacteristically finding a nut to place in the crack of Frog’s Head

Jason’s view from the top of pitch 1 of Frog’s Head looking down at Luke and David at the base

Jason trying to look at the camera for a photo at the top of pitch 1, Frog’s Head

A view from Frog’s Head

Jason traversing to the end of p2, Frog’s Head

Limelight (5.7, trad, 2 pitches)

The carriage road between Frog’s Head and Limelight

For the second route, we took a short walk up the carriage road to The Arrow wall. We got on Limelight (5.7) next to work our way up the difficulties, to see where our comfort and ability zones were. We had dreams of getting on Bonnie’s Roof (5.9) so Limelight would take us one step above Frog’s Head towards Bonnie’s.

Luke and I thought the first pitch crux was kinda tough with a thinner crack at the crux and were happy David led it.

Limelight’s first pitch

Notice the crossed ropes in the above photo - that was intentional as a way of keeping the ropes together before the traverse. As I followed David on the red rope and unclipped the piece above the crossed rope, the gray rope sprung out to climber’s left. I hadn’t predicted that! So it was a little surprising to me. As I started to rack the cam, I thought the gray rope position might make following difficult for Luke - either because he’d be being pulled away from crack or think we both climbed the face left of the crack. So, I wanted to reclip the gray rope to a cam.

But I couldn’t reach it with my hand. It sprung too far to the left. So, I decided to walk to the edge of the plank (near the right angle bend in the red rope where it crosses the gray in the above photo) with my right foot, hold on to something with my right hand, and lean my left foot way off to the left the few feet and grab the gray rope with my left foot. It worked, I didn’t fall, and I was able to re-secure the gray rope to the crack and we all finished the pitch.

While ascending Limelight, we saw a rope soloist nearby working some routes. It’s always interesting to see people climbing without a partner. Rope soloists climb with at least one rope to keep themselves safe from falls, in contrast to free soloists who use no rope. As we were descending Limelight, we saw a new person climbing near the rope soloists - a free soloist. But not just any free soloist, they had a full pack with rope on their back.

One of the rope soloists had a rappel rope setup on Arrow. After Luke rappelled Limelight, the free soloist asked Luke to swing a rope over to them. They were spooked. And now I was too! Luke swinging the rope over could contribute to the free soloist losing stability and falling. The swing worked; the soloist caught the rope in their left hand. And we watched, holding our breath, as the soloist struggled to get their capture device from back right of their harness, from underneath the bulky pack. And again, it was fine - the free soloist transitioned to rope soloist without falling. We all sighed relief, the soloist included. The free-to-rope soloist began soloing up the rope, capturing progress to minimize fall length. Eventually the first rope soloist offered to belay the free-to-rope soloist up. The first rope soloist came down their rappel line, and the free-to-rope soloist dropped the rappel line - a favor of reciprocity to the first rope soloist for letting the free-to-rope soloist use their rope. The first rope soloist shared that the free-to-rope soloist was climbing an easier route up to a ledge so they could rope solo another route.

Arrow (5.8, trad, 2 pitches)

Luke and I were up for more pitches, so we climbed Arrow once it was clear. The crux at the top was tough and I think I made it tougher haha. But I finished it without any falls or takes! I was bolder with my way through the crux because it’s protected by a bolt.

Moreso than for the climb or crux, I felt proud and accomplished that I was able to sit comfortably to belay Luke up based on how I setup the anchor. I remarked to Luke that I’d “made it” as a multipitch climber now. In my years of trad leading, anchor building keeps getting easier, but an aspect of building an safe anchor is one that’s comfortable to belay from :) I’m very much still working on that part of the skillset!

Dinner

We had homemade dinner with friends that night, talking and listening to a friend play the guitar into the night. I felt grateful the friends provided the tasty meal, the unexpected playful guitar, and interesting conversation. Since we finished Arrow, we settled on climbing another 5.8 the next day to see if we could keep pushing ourselves upward towards Bonnie’s Roof (5.9).

Climbing Day 2

Son of Easy O (5.8, trad, 2 pitches or 1 long pitch)

We decided to link the two short pitches into one long pitch. David started as the leader since he was the one who wanted to lead Bonnie’s. But he backed off because the first pitch is thin and slippery. I took over lead from the ground. I made it through the start and middle of the first pitch and was feeling a forearm pump. The overhang loomed above. I rested for some time on a nice ledge, thirsty and without water since I decided not to bring a hydration pack with me up the routes at The Gunks because they’re only a few pitches high. In that moment, I totally wished I had water :) Instead I ate a little of my sandwich. The overhang was unmoved.

After a few minutes, I went up, grateful to clip the fixed pitons where present. As I neared the top of the overhang after clipping a piton, I was feeling tired, so downclimbed and called for a take. I had to hang. As I hung, the piece right below me pulled out - oof, scary! There was a crack in front of me, so I placed a new cam and clipped the rope again there - phew, relief. After a few minutes of dangling, I got back on and finished the rest of the route.

Given how the long pitch was tiring and I had to hang, I didn’t think I was ready for Bonnie’s Roof which was a 5.9 roof route. So, we’d save that for another day :D

The Ceiling (5.6, trad, 3 pitches)

Instead we decided to pop over to an easier and infamous route. It still had a roof (as is prominent in The Gunks). David, Luke and I each led a pitch. I really enjoyed this route, a casual one, after the harder / pumpier previous one.

I led the final pitch, the one with a roof, which is how it got the “Ceiling” part of its name.

As I got to the end of pitch 3 and explored the top of the cliff, I first considered a Connecticut Tree Hitch on a tree which was a few feet back from the edge of the cliff. But, I saw a lot of loose rock between the tree and the cliff edge; so I downclimbed below the loose rocks and found a horizontal crack to build a 3-piece gear anchor and stood on a lower ledge. It worked out nicely - my belay device was high, giving me a lot of range to pull during belaying. As they arrived, I had each of them climb up to the top of the cliff on belay and then come off belay when they were a few feet past the cliff edge. I did the same, and we walked over to the Ribs station to rappel and came down near our friends who were climbing a nearby route.

Views from part of the Ribs rappel

Dinner

We decided to head straight to town after finishing The Ceiling to have dinner at a restaurant. The drive from the mountains to the town was picturesque. On the downward winding roads, we intermingled with the forest trees and spotted idyllic farms in the valley, including an overflowing pumpkin patch, and finally the older American architecture of the small New Paltz, NY.

We were headed to a Thai restaurant that turned out to be closed. But, it was still a nice stop while we re-assessed because I got to admire some raised garden beds built on a very steep slope. A fun sight to see since I have been working on a few garden beds on a more modest slope, and was elated to see such healthy beds on a steep slope.

We went to a Vietnamese restaurant instead, and it was lovely. The bubbly homemade lemonade, the noodles, the service.

Climbing Day 3

Big Chimney (5.6, trad, 3 pitches)

Seeking some variety from the roofs, I found the fun-sounding Big Chimney which is initially described by the guidebook as “Involved. A real odyssey…” It’s a route that’s seemingly avoided because the first 30ft are difficult to protect, though not enough that the route gets an “R” safety label. And we’d finish the last pitch of Miss Bailey which is more exciting than the original top-out of Big Chimney.

I led all of the pitches, it was so glorious. Would highly recommend. It reminds me of Community Pillar (5.8+) in Red Rock near Las Vegas. It’s an adventurous chimney with a 360 degree experience at times with gear placements and holds sometimes on all sides of you!

It was fun transitioning from chimney to face back to chimney back to face, pulling a roof, using ancient fixed pitons! The last pitch on Miss Bailey was exciting getting to the undercling and pulling the roof and felt like a sport pitch with so many fixed pitons. Luke and David followed. We rapped on City Lights Rappel.

Also fun was the second party behind us on the route were so stoked for the route - they are locals - so they brought a friend on the route and were SO surprised to see anyone on the route. It doesn’t get as much traffic as other routes - a total shame for a great route.

And back at the base we met some folks from Vegas who helped with the rescue on Frog’s Head the week prior, so we learned more about the accident. One of the climbers was taking practice falls on lead. After falling intentionally a few times on a multi-piece anchor, the rock surrounding the anchor exploded away and the leader fell with rockfall and sustained severe injuries and was in a coma, last they heard. The belayer was physically uninjured. I’m sad for the victims - the climber, the belayer who was certainly traumatized at least emotionally, their spouses, and their loved ones.

Dinner

We had a delicious dinner at a brewpub deeper into the mountains. I had a smash burger - a very popular thinner burger style these days - and a coffee since I drove 2 hours to NYC after dinner.

Reflections

How do we learn to fall?

Learning to fall is a hard skill to acquire in climbing. Books spend substantial time on the psychology of falling (see Vertical Mind and The Rock Warrior’s Way).

I’m not sure I really learned to fall on my sport gear, or my trad gear, in a way that was safe and productive.

Sure, I’ve fallen. But have I really learned skills around falling?

Firstly in bouldering at the gym. What did I learn? How to interpret the signals from my body that I’m about to fall, and later how to read a route to know how to climb it with balance so I wouldn’t fall. Now, it’s very unlikely that I fall without knowing it’s a strong possibility. My body knows the beginning feelings of falling and counteracts - with a flag, tension in the core, etc.

Secondly, I’ve fallen in sport climbing. Most lead falls don’t result in an injury. In and around Austin I’ve fallen leading sport climbs many times. I’ve jumped back to the ground before the first clip. Mostly without injury. Sometimes with injury (8ft fall, sprained ankle). Sometimes on the upper sharp end - higher up on the route above my last clip. One time I fell and swung hard into the cliff injuring my left ankle, an injury which still reminds me of our past to this day.

One sport climb fall, I was leading Captain Morgan (5.10+) at Seismic Wall which, to my recollection, has a path like a question mark. A move before clipping, I find myself tired in the middle of the top of the question mark, needing to go left to clip the chains. I’m in a double gaston - a very compromised and weak position. I reach a few feet to the anchor chains on my left and tap them. Alright, I got this, I can reach just fine. So, I grab the rope from my waist and move to clip the rope to the anchor chains on my left. After I pull the rope, I realize my right hand is going to lose grip from the awkward gaston. In a panic, I grab the anchor chains with my left hand. Awesome, I haven’t fallen! But, then I realized the climbing rope is looped over my hand

• thus keeping all of the slack out - my belayer cannot take in the slack or I’ll be pulled off. At this point, I’d probably been climbing for a year or so. Inexperienced and panicked, and having ruled out the possibility of my belayer taking in slack, my only option seemed to be to fall. The main problem was the tree below me. If I fell, I was going to hit this big tree branch that was 10 ft below me. I couldn’t keep holding the gaston or the chains - I was too pumped. So, I told my belayer that I was going to fall. I did, and hit the tree. Luckily, I didn’t break anything, I just had a big scrape on my left shin. What did I learn? Before you pull out slack, be certain you’re ready to make that next move with the slack. And gastons are tough, moreso tough when you’re already pumped - perhaps switching the right hand to a side pull, or finding a way to hang/rest before making the anchor clip would have helped.

And, falling in trad deserves an entire post on it’s own. But, the way I learned to trad climb, you avoid weighting your gear except the anchor, and do that as slowly as possible. So, this doesn’t leave a lot of room for learning to trust that the gear you place will hold an unexpected fall. I have a lot of room to grow here. First and foremost, I can hangdog on trad gear like we do on sport gear. While leading, it’s possible to hang! Now, this may not be the safest option since you’re not sure the gear will hold. But, at least you might be able to slowly weight the gear.

All of this leads towards the fact from my own climbing experiences: climbers fall and climbers can benefit from practicing falling more explicitly to learn about the nuances in a planned way.

Perhaps a super safe option would be to be on a slack top rope, and lead fall on your trad gear. This would give you the experience in falling on gear you placed and therefore gaining the feedback you need to understand how solid your placements are, all from the safety of a top rope. I look forward to practicing this soon.

I made it

At the top of Arrow which I led, I was able to sit comfortably and belay up Luke. I remarked that I’d made it. I’d been not-so-explicitly wanting a comfortable belay, and they remain generally elusive to me. But for whatever reason, this anchor worked out, and I got to sit comfortably with my legs dangling over the cliff while I enjoyed the view and the casual (but safe) belay.

A comfortable belay, a dreamy and long sought after position for me

Water during multipitch climbs

I’ve tried all sorts of things with drinking water during climbing. For the gym or sport or 1 pitch climbs, I normally have water at the base. Recently at Enchanted Rock, I was half way up leading a 5.9 and wanted water haha.

In years past, I’ve climbed 6 pitches without water, and just drank when I got back to the ground. I’ve also tried carrying a water bottle on my harness - I only ever tried a clove hitch around the bottle neck. It never fell on the route. But one time it fell off of my harness as I got back to the ground. So, after that, I started carrying up a water bladder in a backpack up multipitch routes. I’ve tried all sorts of different packs. The one I’ve liked the most is an ultramarathoner’s backpack that holds a 2L bladder. It’s lightweight & small so I can still use my lower back while chimneying. But it’s large enough that I can fit in emergency supplies (blanket, batteries, extra layer) and snacks. Aside from a bladder breaking during a chimney, it’s been a good pack. I opted against carrying the water pack up in The Gunks remembering previous climbs where I hadn’t had any water in 6 pitches plus a descent.

I probably want to bring a hydration backpack or some other small Capri Sun-like water bottle on these types of climbs near / at my difficulty limit when I’m not immediately lowering to the ground when I’m done with the pitch.

The Gunks as a climbing destination for me

I enjoyed The Gunks! It was beautiful. The approaches at the Near Trapps are easy. I feel spoiled to make this reflection, but I was a little annoyed at the time it took to get from home to the lodging for the trip. It was a full day of flying, shuttling, driving-a-rental-car. It’s definitely the price us climbers pay to get into beautiful places with climbable rock. But, I want the Red Rock travel day of a 3-hour direct flight and a 30 minute drive to Red Rocks.

I also want routes with more pitches, at least my next routes. We lose a lot of time bouncing between routes at The Gunks.

So, I must make it to Red Rocks in 2025 :) You coming with?!

Full Guidebooks and Mountain Project

I enjoyed reading the full guidebook for The Gunks prior and during the trip. It was rich with history and routes in a way the “best climbs” book I used for Joshua Tree understandably had less of. I think I’ll steer towards full guidebooks (and away from “best of” books) from now on.

Emotional synchronicity

I’ve climbed around other free soloists - I see them on nearly every climbing trip I go on. Mostly, they’re calmly cruising up a multipitch climb with just a chalk bag and their shoes. I mainly felt calm and strongly wanted to be still and quiet - as not to mess with their flow.

On this trip, it sure was relieving that the free soloist already had their harness on, and they had the gear to help them transition to rope soloing. Apparently as I write this, I’m having a hard time breathing - Mar just asked me if I was ok since I was periodically grunting :) Huh. I guess this trip’s free soloist viewing experience was more stressful - the soloist was more stressed, and so was I watching them. And so I’m also stressed while reliving the experience during this writing. Are emotions contagious? Yes, yes they are.

Appendix

My life, my writing, and my interpretation of reality is influenced by my environment. So, here is some of what was going on around me during writing of this post:

Consuming

• (podcast) The Great Simplification - systems thinking, energy, toxicity, climate change, species loss, meaning crisis, etc
• (podcast) The Sharp End - climbing accidents
• (book) If I Must Die - Refaat Alareer (Palestinian author/professor)
• (book) Light in Gaza - an anthology from Palestinian authors
• (book) The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates latest, including his experiences with Palestine.

Doing

• Enchanted Rock Climbing
• Physical Therapy for neck flare-up after The Gunks trip
• Writing new journals for and with my kids. My mom got me a few journals as a gift this holiday season.
• Writing journal entries with my mom and sister

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