Climbing in the Gunks

Dave Drum, Keith House, Jorden House-Hay and Jesse Littleton rock climbed in the Shawangunks on Thursday June 20th and Friday June 21st.

Thursday's climbs were just a few single pitches for warm up.  At 7 pm,  following a 4 hr drive from Corning, Dave, Jorden and I had just arrived at the cliffs.  Here we met with Jesse and Jesse's wife Margaret.  All 5 of us climbed.  This was Jorden's first time.  He learned quickly and was soon climbing at the same skill level as Dave and me.

At dusk we drove to New Paltz and had dinner at Bacchus.  There we ate too much food and watched the last game of the NBA finals - Miami won, Jorden was happy : ).

We stayed at Jesse's and Margaret's place in Rosendale (we much enjoyed the stay, thanks for putting us up).  Jorden later reported that he woke several times that night to find Jesse's cat 1" from his face, staring at him.  On Friday we rose at 6, left at 7, and then stopped at the Bistro Mountain Store for breakfast (I recommend the mountain woman breakfast).  We also picked up some sandwiches for lunch (I recommend against the Reuben).

We started the day at the Trapps where we did a very nice 3 pitch climb called Andrew.  The views from high up were excellent.  The day was sunny and warm.  A good breeze picked up at 11 or so.  After summiting we did two rappels to return to the base.

We ate our lunches and then hiked south 20 minutes or so and crossed the highway to the Near Trapps.  Here Jesse took us up another 3 pitch climb, this one called Yellow Ridge.  Our perches on the cliffs here were mostly in the shade, which was nice because temperatures had climbed into the 80's.

As Jesse puts it, Yellow Ridge is a Gunks "classsic".  We found it to be a really interesting and fun climb.  It was the perfect challenge considering our skill levels.  Thank-you Jesse!

We hiked down from the top of Yellow Ridge and got back to our stuff we'd left at the base to find it attended by a watch dog.  He turned out to be Doug's dog and we soon saw that Doug too was there and was just starting his climb up Yellow Ridge.  The dog had been snuggled up to my coat which had a half Reuben sandwich in the pocket.  For guarding it, I rewarded the pooch with the sandwich.

After an 11 hour day of most excellent climbing we dropped Jesse off at Rock and Snow, got some food at a pizza place and then at 8 pm, hit the road for home .

            -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------

YouTube video of Jorden's first rappel

Chiggers - this from Wikipedia:

The Trombiculidae (/trɒmbɨˈkjuːlɨdiː/ (also called berry bugs, harvest mites, red bugs, scrub-itch mites and aoutas) are a family of mites.^[3] In their larvalstage, those species which bite their host and "causes intense irritation"^[4] or "a wheal, usually with severe itching and dermatitis,"^[5][6] are calledchiggers.^[7] The term "chigger" is often confused with the term "jigger", the chigoe flea (Tunga penetrans) - the name chigger originated as a corruption of chigoe. Trombiculidae live in the forests and grasslands and are also found in the vegetation of low, damp areas such as woodlands, berry bushes,orchards, along lakes and streams, and even in drier places where vegetation is low, such as lawns, golf courses, and parks.^[8]