This was my second visit to the Gunks, one of the oldest and most esteemed traditional climbing areas on the east coast. I was excited to climb some of the routes I'd had my eye on since my first visit but the weather really put a damper on our plans. Cold and rain conspired to give us a very limited amount of quality time on the rock which was quite disappointing as we spent 4 nights at a vacation home just ten minutes from the cliffs.
On the bright side, Andy & I were able to repeat a couple of easy classics with Dominic who had never climbed in the Gunks before. We also got my parents on some rock, snuck in a few nice crack climbs, and made the best of a rainy, damp day by exploring some more easy yet interesting routes. I'm starting to get a feel for the grades here; in my opinion they're nearly 2 grades stiffer than the average Colorado climbs. 5.5 feels like 5.7. 5.7 feels like 5.9. This may be partly due to how polished a lot of the old classic routes have become over the years.
Belly Roll (5.4, 1st pitch only)
Jackie (5.5, 1st pitch only)
Double Chin (5.5)
Horeseman (5.5)
RMC (5.5, 3 pitches)
Rhodedendron (5.6)
Laurel (5.7)
Ken's Crack (5.7)
