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What a great day! After a full 2 year hiatus (thanks to child), my good friend Mike decided to get back to climbing. We hit the the Gunks early in the morning. After a full winter’s layoff getting back to rock is always a fabulous experience. The day always begins with questions of do I remember the double fisherman’s or the figure eight? How do you set an anchor properly? Oh and of course, the rock shoes don’t feel so bad (rock shoes are brutal on the toes, think chinese foot binding).
Rock climbing is an interesting experience. When your climbing it is a simple battle between you and the rock. You go through stages, as you prepare you begin bragging about flashing the route in no time flat. Then when you grab the first hold you think maybe this is going to be a bit tougher than I expected. The hardness of the rock is immediatley apparent. You fear decking out (hitting the ground) on the first few moves because your so close to the ground and the rope stretches when you fall.
After a few moves you get into this incredible zen-like state, you feel completely connected. But then mother mountain presents the crux (a move or series of moves that presents the most difficult point of the route) and you begin wondering if your partner is watching you closely or if you might pop-off.
But what a feeling when you overcome the crux! The feeling is indescribably and delicious! Reaching the summit feels great, task accomplished, but it is actually anticlimactic to the crux.
We chose (actually wrangled) one of my personal favorites, Ken’s Crack. This is a sweet layback slightly overhanging right leaning crack. The crack is nice because it sometimes requires laybacks and others deft finger jamming (my finger are sore). Most people think rock climbing is all about upper body strength, usually this is not the case. Instead its the da feet that are the key.
We did Ken’s three times following slightly different routes and using a variety of techniques, then moved on to Boston (sweet & simple) & finished up with Fitchen’s Folly.
Beers afterwards are particularly tasty….