Re: favorite Gunks climbs

Dave:

I was a Gunkie for eight years.  Here's a selection:

5.6 

Disneyland, Madame Grunnebraum's Wulst, High Exposure

5.7

Classic, Taste of Honey (incredible), Yellow Ridge, Limelight

5.8

Son of Easy O, Pas des Deux, Modern Times (wild!), Arrow, Annie Oh,
Pilgrim's Progress, Bonnie's Roof, Birdland, Birdie Party (first pitch
only -- has rap-off), Farewell to Arms (rap anchors set up TR for To be Or
Not To Be)

5.9

MF, Jeckyll and Hyde, Ant's Line, The Spring (first pitch), Roseland (a
must!), Commando Rave

5.10  (the premier grade in the Gunks)

Fat City (the best), 10,000 Restless Virgins, Star Action, Coexistence,
Erect Direction, Ringwraith, Wegetables, Tough Shift (scary), Birdie
Party, Transcontinental Railway, Disney Point, Welcome to the Gunks,
Stirrup Trouble, Frustration Syndrome, Mellow Yellow

5.11   (this is when things get real hard!)

Yellow Wall, Reign of Terror, The Sting (close to 12a), No Man's Land,
Shake Your Booty (great Skytop TR or lead), Fissure Ramins, On Any Monday,
No Comment (brilliant climb, can be TRed), Bird Brain (5.11+ can be TRed
after doing Birdland), Persistence

5.12

Bone Hard, To Be or Not To Be (TRable, best face climb in eastern U.S.
imho), Supercrack, Eraserhead, Brave New World, Project X  and many
others.

5.13

Survival of the Fittest (this is 5.13a and is sustained 5.12 climbing --
one of the very finest climbs anywhere.)

CCK-Bonnies roof direct-High E-Shockleys ceiling(nude if yer brave)
klime safe-pack out yer trash, and I swear to GOd I will hunt down and
kill the next person I see flicking a cigarette butt into the
woods......(sorry if yer already low impact)

In article <4081ip$cp4@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, MplusK writes: 
 
>and I swear to GOd I will hunt down and 
>kill the next person I see flicking a cigarette butt into the 
>woods...... 
 
Those bloody butts at the belays as well. All over the place. 
 
*********************************** 
jfass@pipeline.com (NY) 
Compuslave 70303,556 
***********************************

In article <408n4t$jhk@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, mkword@aol.com (Mkword)
writes:

|> 
|> 5.11   (this is when things get real hard!)
|> 
|> Yellow Wall, Reign of Terror, The Sting (close to 12a), No Man's Land,
|> Shake Your Booty (great Skytop TR or lead), Fissure Ramins, On Any
|> Monday,
|> No Comment (brilliant climb, can be TRed), Bird Brain (5.11+ can be
|> TRed
|> after doing Birdland), Persistence
|> 
|> 5.12
|> 
|> Bone Hard, To Be or Not To Be (TRable, best face climb in eastern U.S.
|> imho), Supercrack, Eraserhead, Brave New World, Project X  and many
|> others.
|> 

So I guess we're not counting Foops here eh?

Bruce Bailey (Dr. OW)

DMurrayPA (dmurraypa@aol.com) wrote:
:   I being a devoted Gunks junkie would like to know other climbers
: favorite classic routes. I am headed to NY in a few weeks and want to hit
: the classics. I would appreciate everyones input. Thanks in advance. 
:      Dave M

Three Doves 5.9 
Roseland 5.9
Pas de Deux 5.8
Son of Easy O 5.8
Wegetables 5.10-
Classic 5.7
Arrow 5.8
Ape Call 5.8 -- watch the first pitch, and you can do a *really*
                neat hang by your feet in the overhang!
Transcon 5.10
Disneyland 5.6
Gelsa 5.4
Never Never Land 5.10
-- in fact all of the "Land" climbs
Pick anything on the McCarthy Wall area; MF, Birdie Party,
Coex, Staraction, Try again, etc.
Ring Wraith 5.10-
Drunkards Delight 5.7
Commando Rave 5.9
Simple Suff 5.10-
True Grip 5.11
FOOPS 5.11
No Exit 5.10+
The Spring 5.9
Summer 5.11 (TR) right next to the Spring
Wasp Stop 5.12-

Bonnie's Roof 5.8
Ant's Line 5.9
High Ex. 5.6

Gads I could keep going... :)

Cheyenne

Bruce:

Never meant to leave Foops out of the line-up ... sorry!

>>Summer 5.11 (TR) right next to the Spring
>>Wasp Stop 5.12-

Though the book calls The Summer 5.11 ... I have to say it seems a lot
more like 5.12a if you do the direct start..

And Wasp Stop I found to be one of the few Gunks climbs I would return to.
 Basically a very hard one-move John Stannard boulder problem.  When I saw
Mike Freeman finally pull it off after numerous falls, he said two things
--   1.  "Twelve minus my ass!"   2.  "Now I don't ever have to come back
and climb this again."

The Sting is just to the right and is 100X better.  If you are not leading
5.11+ you can climb the first part of Lisa 5.9 (great route in itself) and
then traverse over to the anchors on The Sting to set-up a TR.

Two other great 5.11+-5.12a top-ropes are The Man Who Fell To Earth  ---
and ---- Bullfrog.    Both in the Trapps.

And two more great little 5.10's --- Cheap Thrills (slightly scary 5.10+)
and Turdland (bolt at 5.10 variation).

It probably means nothing, but I've noticed that as people post responses
to this question, the grades go up. 
 
Started out with lovely 5.3's, now people are talking 5.12+'s. 
 
*********************************** 
Thronx from the Bronx 
jfass@pipeline.com (NY) 
Compuslave 70303,556 
***********************************

Up-draft is ONE HELL of a great climb! Nice 5-6 and the crux is at the
near top! It's left of CCK which has a tweekin crux on the 2nd pitch The
only downer to up-draft is the first pitch, only 5-3 5-4 most start up-d
on the cck climb!

Westward Ha!....The best 5.7 ever.

HMAN

>>Westward Ha!....The best 5.7 ever.<<

Westward Ha! is a great climb in a great location.   But ... have you ever
tried Taste of Honey out at Skytop?    I consider that the best 5.7 I've
ever done by far.

First pitch is a nice 5.6 stemming/handjam warmup.  The second pitch is
brilliant.  Move up to enormous tiered roofs then stem and pump along the
upside down corner where the roofs meet the left hand wall.  The crux is
transitioning from the roofs to the wall proper and it's stiff little
move.  Glorious layback moves up the steep wall take you to a bomber
horizontal and the knife-edged arete on the left.  Swing around the arete
(beautifully exposed) and start up the face on the other side.  From there
the moves are 5.5-5.6 but the route forces you to stay right at the very
edge of the sharp arete.  120 feet of air below your right toe.   Move
cautiously past a loose block and you are at the ultra comfortable belay
at the top -- on an alcove/ledge directly above the giant roof system that
under-cuts beneath you.  Give yourself enough room to lean out with your
anchor slings and you can watch your partner follow your path with big
bug-eyes.

:D

That tale of sky top is good, but last year there was 3 good Mondo Wimpers
taken off of Up-draft, the one at the end of last season almost cost a
wonderful girl from Eng. (Rose) her life, all she ended up losing was most
of her hair which was caught in her ATC. Im telling you UP-Draft is a
blast and I feel is highly UNDER-rated. Hey what the heck, most other
areas for climbing are OVER-rated. Except maybe SENACA.........look out
WV.