Matinee 

There are 2 ways to do P1. A tricky undercling, or a cartwheel, if you're tall enough, to reach a finger lock. Both end at a layback off a black horn from which you can clip a fixed pin. It's a big, but understandable, mistake to reach for the lip too soon.

P2 was never easy for me. As I got stronger over the years, the holds got worse as they crumbled away. I usually had to lunge it. There's a more elegant stemming way, which I may have done once.

A great climb with great moves. Doable at any height, but not with the same beta. My 5'0" partner made short work of it with a totally different sequence than me, and I did it differently than Ivan suggests.

Ivan's been populating the Gunks site with great stories from the day, so here's mine on Matinee:

In 1978, Barber was at his peak as the world's best on sight trad climber and the leader of the Gunks A-team. On a perfect fall day, I had finished Ape Call with a partner and settled onto the Matinee ledge to watch Henry send.

We all threw for the crux second pitch jug in those days, but Henry static'd gracefully through the corner, perfect position all the way to the belay. His belayers each roped up in turn, threw for the jug and each missed, twice.

Henry was getting sick of catching these goombahs on big falls around his waist. I asked if I could step up to the plate, got the nod, and sent it first go. Did my best to style through the corners above.

Henry saw the uncontrollable grin on my face at the stance. "Nice job" he said, graciously. A 19-year old Vassar sophmore, complimented by the world's greatest rock climber.

While I've climbed with Henry on several occasions since then, on that day he became my hero.

The photo is great, what a time capsule. How about the blue pin-striped collar shirt, with the brown sweater? Standard issue prep school look.
Great days.

What a route. This history, the variety of movement...

The anchor in the middle of the second pitch??????? wtf.

Quality climbing for the entirety of the two pitches.

Bitchin' easy if you got the guns. Maybe one of the only routes that is overgraded !!! I recall a similar photo of my man Al Rubin in similar distress wearing robbin's boots. HOLY SHIT !!! john

Overgraded?! I don't think so. I have always found Matinee to be the hardest 5.10 in the Gunks. Gives me much more trouble than Coex, Graveyard, Winter as well as few 5.11's. The first pitch can certainly become familiar and purely technical if you know where all the holds are, but the second pitch is BURLY! No way that it is overgraded. A good hard climb, but certainly not soft.

Somewhat forgettable climbing. Each crux consists of one sequence. The quality of the first pitch is significantly compromised by the slickness of the feet. More like 10b than 10d.

The second pitch is hard, but the actual climbing consists of about two moves.