Gunks

So this weekend I went back to the Gunks for the first time since I started climbing about three years ago. As part of the AMC new seconds program, I took these two astrophysicists I know, Jessie and Liz, on their first multipitch rock climbs. Anywhere else, that would be an utterly absurd statement, but as I write this, I feel perfectly calm, a condition I tried to replicate on lead. I've led some ice which most reasonable people would consider a bit scary, and felt OK, but as a relatively inexperienced trad climber, the 5.0-5.7 terrain we were on felt hard enough to get my attention. I write those grades not only because the Gunks grades are notorious sandbags but also because I haven't climbed that much on granite. Or maybe it's nerves. So, I'm 20 feet up on a delicate, muddy slab with a nice ledge with blocks on it, and my last piece was a marginal #0 C3 30 feet ago? How nice! I think the climbs we did were actually PG rated, but probably PG for someone who really knows how to find gear very well. As it is, I still haven't learned the art of placing offset nuts or tricams. I just found out there are two sizes below the pink, which are black and white, so I'm psyched about that.

Well, the leading was exciting enough, but the guiding aspect of things was really interesting. Now Jessie and Liz are very smart people, but they're definitely new, so I tried to make their experience as safe and pleasant as possible. We got on Ribs (a good 5.4) and Red's Ruin (a terrible 5.2). I would like to have topped out on Ribs, but there were a zillion people on the GT ledge just waiting to continue up the third pitch (which I think is the same as Arch or something). By contrast, there was no line on Red's Ruin, but then I found out that was for a very good reason--the climb is an incredibly chossy pile of shit, with loose rocks, lichens, mud, and slugs everywhere. I think I even found a dead mouse on it. Anyways, I think I managed to hit a good difficulty level, despite my complete lack of familiarity with the area.

Liz looking serene on Ribs (5.4).

It was their first time lead belaying, too, so I climbed like I was soloing and tried to protect them as well as possible by placing lots of gear to protect traverses. Sometimes I'd clip both double ropes to the same piece. Alternatively, I'd ask the first simulclimbing second to unclip their rope from a piece and clip the other rope into the same piece. (Yes, I'm well aware that's an entirely inappropriate use of the word "their." And I know you're not supposed to clip both double ropes to a piece, but it seemed like a reasonable enough thing on easy terrain.) And I'd watch them coming up the tricky parts and try to help them along with beta, or order one second to stop while the other one continued climbing to make sure one climber couldn't hit another.

There was definitely some excitement caused by rope drag and rappelling. I wove back and forth seeking out gear and avoiding these damn flaring pockets, and even with sling extensions, there was a ton of drag. I still haven't figured out what to do in those cases. Sometimes I just gave up on getting a marginal nut or whatever, and ran it out. I think I'd rather run it out with a loose rope, confidently climbing, than "protect" something and have horrendous rope drag, and barely be able to climb. It's that, or quit, I think. So I used a standard guiding technique to set up my "clients" for rappel, which is to place their belay devices on tethers off their belay loops and have them pre-rigged for rappel. That way, I can go down with an autoblock, untangle the ropes, and give them a fireman's belay. Then, they'd just unclip from the anchor, and always be "on belay" with a system that I had personally checked first. I thought I had explained this pretty well, but evidentlly, they had never done it before, so were feeling a bit antsy about it. There was another party on the GT ledge which chose (unwisely) to climb with a single 50 m rope, and wanted to use our double 60 m ropes to get down in one rappel. So they decided to "help" by re-rigging my seconds. Although everything worked out fine, I wasn't too pleased about this, because if anything got messed up, I'd feel very responsible. But I explained everything better for the next climb, and it worked out fine. There was a definite "cross your fingers" moment after we rapped, because although the rope went down in a straight line, it crossed through all these branches and bushes. So I just used the minimum EDK/overhand knot, with no backups, to hopefully let the rap knot flip over any obstructions, and fortunately, it did. It was pretty cool to actually watch it flip over branches and stuff on its way down. In the end, everything worked out pretty well. Liz and Jessie were totally great, and I've decided they're good, nice people, which is...a substantial statement, at least from me.

So, it rained all night, and it totally soaked the rock, my tent, and my shoes. I put a tarp down under my tent but so much water somehow got in between my tent and the tarp that it felt like I was on a water mattress after a while. I'm pretty impressed that my tent only felt a bit damp afterwards. Now I have to hang the whole thing out to dry so that mildew doesn't get into it.

Jessie, left: "I'm so upset with you right now. When are
you going to put in a nut so I can use this brand new
nut tool?!" Sorry, Jessie. I let you down on that pitch.

Anyways, over dinner, we were all talking, and somehow things turned to Top Gun. Now I thought Top Gun was a boy movie, about fighter pilots, loud motorcycles, and raw testosterone, but I found myself corrected. Actually, Jessie says, it's a relationship movie, with a conveniently awesome backdrop of half-naked Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer (here, she takes a moment--to do what, I'm not sure). Well, then. I think all the climbers in the club should adopt awesome fighter pilot-style callsigns. That way, when we're yelling at each other on the cliff, no one will mistake one Dunbar for another (there are too goddamn many Dunbars in this world, I swear!). There are so many options: maverick, goose, viper, wolfman, stinger, ice man... Which one do you want to be? The roster is wide open...