I pulled the assorted cams, nuts and trad draws from my pack and began to arrange them on my harness. I retraced the figure 8 knot on my harness, dipped my hands in my chalk bag, and waited for the command: Climb on! my partner announced. after a deep breath, I began my ascent up the left facing corner of easy V, this was the beginning of my first multi-pitch lead. Placing nuts and cams as I made my way toward the top of the first pitch, a sense of pride and accomplishment came over me. I finally pulled down on the lip of the GTledge and got my first view of the sea of vegetation below me. it was quite a site and I felt great. I promptly began to build a 3 point anchor as I had practiced at my home crag so many times before then yelled to my second “On Belay!” if this isn’t living, I don’t know what is.

The weather could not have been more perfect, It was the first of May and I was at the Gunk in New York. Aside from the beautiful weather this occasion was particularly special because this was my first day of leading a multi-pitch climb. though all the climbs I lead on this trip were well below my comfortable grade, I was advised to hop on as many of the lower grade classics as I can due to there interesting moves and fun factor. My first climb of the day at the Gunks was Easy V which is short for Easy Verschneidung which is German for Easy Dihedral. Weighing in at 5.3 on the Yosemite Decimal System, this climb doesn’t offer much in the realm of dynamic moves, but what it lacks in challenge, it makes up for in beautiful gear placement and all around great learning potential. both of the pitches were more than adequately protected with nuts and Tricams. I especially enjoyed the second pitch which featured a fun chimmny climb out up to a face.

After Rappelling back down to earth from Easy V using the Rap Anchors that the Mohonk Preserve so graciously placed back in 2000, we decided to break for lunch. Bill and I excitedly scarfed down our food and made our way to the base of Andrew, another low grade Gunks classic. Andrew was a fairly straight forward climb, but I did find it to be a bit run out in spots. after reaching the top of the first pitch we decided to rap back down and see if we could get on Middle Earth.

When we got to Middle Earth two older gentlemen were starting on this climb. We started to talk to the gentleman who was belaying and he turned out to be Pat Ament, who has a bit of a climbing history. he established some of the first 5.11 routes in Colorado and Yosemite in the 1960’s. he also is a versed writer of climbing and mountaineering literature. He happened to be in town because he was showing his newest bouldering film at the climbing shop: Rock and Snow in New Paltz.

Middle Earth is what ended up being my favorite climb of the day, it reached 3 pitches and approximately 270 feet off the deck. the climb is generally rated 5.5 but felt a bit harder to me. the best part of this climb hands down was the crux of the 3 pitch which started about 15 feet off the ground in a roof that was easily protected by a hand sized cam. I got up into position after a traverse out, plugged a red camalot, and successfully pulled through the roof to a relatively straightforward pitch after that. upon reaching the top, we were greeted by a beautiful spanning view and some considerable wind gusts. we rapped back down to earth still beaming with excitement as the sun was setting on the other side of the wall leaving us with diminishing light to put our gear away with.

for those of you climbers within traveling distance, I urge you to check out the Gunks if you have not yet done so. its a great place to hone your trad skills and have a blast on some quality climbs. also the town of New Paltz offers a variety of great places to get some food after a long day of climbing.

For more info check out these great links:

Mountain Projects Gunks Profile
Gunks.com