New and experienced climbers over 50 #36

Buck Rogerswrote:

Oh yeah, we know it!!!

But waiting in line for a climb at the Gunks is better than indoor climbing or not climbing at all and as I live only one hour away, it's just a quick trip to buy my annual pass and check it out with a new outdoor partner.

I'll be happy with a single climb.

And I'm keeping it 5.4 and down for my first lead there.

Actually it probably won't be a mob scene.  Memorial Day is usually much less crowded than a normal weekend.  I would love to join y'all but I need to be Nurse Ratchet this weekend.

As far as possible leads 5.4 or below:  

Trapps:

Betty, Belly Roll (not Jelly Roll as someone mentioned), Rusty Trifle Direct, Bags End (P1), Bunny (but watch the start, the gear and climbing are not as trivial as one would like), 69, Minty, Northern Pillar, Easy O, Twin Oaks (P1), Three Pines (but P3 is somewhat problematic with rope drag potential unless you run it out a bit.  You could rap after P2 but then you do miss the best part), Beginners Delight (if you're feeling good after a couple leads and have multiple small cams - or just do P1 and bail to the rap anchor atop Snookys' Return P1), Casa Emilio, if you don't mind the longish walk.  For a "feel good" bump in grade, Fingerlocks or Cedar Box is now listed as 5.6 but the gear is G.

Nears:  Yum Yum Yab Yum (Dragons knows the route, so the issue of route finding would be eliminated), or go to the far end of the Nears for Little White Mushroom, King of P (the perfect first lead) and some harder TR's off the anchors for those climbs.  If you're willing to do a well protected 5.5, you can do Punch and Judy and then TR a a really nice 5.8 and 5.9. Eowyn is 5.4, but the Gunks App gives it an R rating (but I don't think that is really deserved, maybe PG).  Across From The Fruitstand (P1) is easy, but there is a bit of a runout at about 5.1 at the top.  NOTE:  Some of these routes are not mentioned in the Gunks app. You'll need an older printed guide such as Williams or Swain.

You could also get to the top of the Gerdie Block and TR any of those climbs, or TR anything at the beginning of Trapps around Easy Keyhole area with an easy access path.

Enjoy.  Tell M I said hi !

TS

Tim Schafstallwrote:

Actually it probably won't be a mob scene.  Memorial Day is usually much less crowded than a normal weekend.  I would love to join y'all but I need to be Nurse Ratchet this weekend.

As far as possible leads 5.4 or below:  

Trapps:

Enjoy.  Tell M I said hi !

TS

Holy Smokes!  I think that you've just planned out my entire summer trips to the Gunks!

Thanks for all of that! Amazing!

And I'll pass along the greetings!

Tim I have not been on yellow ridge since about 1985  but I thought it was fun at the time???

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Tim I have not been on yellow ridge since about 1985  but I thought it was fun at the time???

Muy divertido.  But some route finding involved and a bit intimidating for new leaders.

Guy Keeseewrote:

John       Is that you doing the Turlock no hands?
The photo is before the feet were “enhanced” into thier present condition. Good job.
Balance is key. Something I no longer have, entire PT sessions are devoted to me standing on one leg and keeping my balance. I fell off a 12 inch diameter log into a creek last year, must be careful.

The top photo is Royal no-hands. The bottom one is me no-hands on Falling Ant slab at Jenny Lake. Both during the 1960s.

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Tim I have not been on yellow ridge since about 1985  but I thought it was fun at the time???

I did yellow ridge multiple times back in the day.  One of my favorite 5.7s.  The Gunks is great in that a lot of the routes in the lower grades are awesome and can feel quite airy and intimidating.

Me on Yellow Ridge in 1979 from the Shawangunk Rock Climbing book.

Sam Findleywrote:

Buuuck! Betty is much more fun than three pines. Jelly roll in my memory was funny thirty years ago.  Gelsa was one of the best days climbing I’ve ever had, and the nears are going to be less crowded than the trapps.  Horseman is fun, but the uberfall area is going to be a mob scene.

I've climbed in a lot of places and Horseman might be the best pitch under 5.6 I've ever done. It's fun even if you climb a lot harder which is unusual.

Tim Schafstallwrote:

Actually it probably won't be a mob scene. Trapps:

Betty, Belly Roll (not Jelly Roll as someone mentioned), Rusty Trifle Direct, Bags End (Enjoy.  Tell M I said hi !

TS

Belly roll? Darn it!  I’ve been calling it jelly roll for years….sigh.  I pulled out my old guidebook and the index is clear. In my defense, I haven’t had the first forty or so pages for at least twenty years

A bit harder than some of the routes being talked about and a few years after Rich’s photo

• Son of easy O 1978?

I think Yum Yum Yab Yum might be the best 5.3 anywhere. 5.10 exposure with 5.2 climbing. Disneyland is also fan freaking tastic. Lots of good easy stuff in the Nears.

GO

Yesterday my wife and I packed up a nice lunch, drove out onto the Bald Mountain Jeep trail and wandered through the boulders. I was able to get up a a few problems and as bonus we found a crack that will require a rope for me.  I almost forgot it was Memorial Day weekend until I saw the line of cars and rv's coming up the hill.  

Emil Briggswrote:

I'm in physics too. Still a male dominated field but not to the same degree it was when I got my Phd. Less than 10% then and maybe 20% now. My school was ahead of it's time with initiatives to increase female participation but as you noted the Trump administration is trying to eliminate such efforts.

It's hard to overstate the damage being done to American science now and even if everything gets restored in 4 years the long term effects will be with us for a long time.

My dad was a professor at Princeton. As chairman of the astrophysics department he hired a number of women to join the department, at a time when that was uncommon. He felt that very talented female scientists were undervalued, and knew that his department gained tremendously by having them. 

Later, as provost of the University, he struggled to convince the heads of other departments in math and the hard sciences to see it his way. They had zero female faculty, and claimed that they would be happy to hire women, if only there were any out there up to the very high standards of the rest of their department. So he offered an enticement. He found a pool of money to support one full faculty position. If the heads of these four departments could find just a single candidate between them (at least that must be possible, right?) that measured up to their high standards, the University would pay for the position. Well suddenly there were so many qualified candidates for each of the departments that he wound up funding two positions. He did this again the next year. And the next. By then the point had been made, and things changed. 

He also was concerned about student debt, and the difficulty of bringing in a diverse student body, which he felt was very important. He took a hard look at the finances of the University, and determined that Princeton could afford to pay the full tuition for any students coming from a family at or below the median household income. Not a loan, but a free ride. This was so successful that all of the Ivy League schools copied Princeton. And as best as i understand it, they're still doing it today. 

GO

oldfattradguuy kkwrote:

A bit harder than some of the routes being talked about and a few years after Rich’s photo

Open Cockpit 5.11. Looks like Jimmy Munson? Nice photo!

John Gillwrote:

The top photo is Royal no-hands. The bottom one is me no-hands on Falling Ant slab at Jenny Lake. Both during the 1960s.

I remember that no-hands route on Falling Ant as 5.10 with hands. (I never managed it no-hands.)

GabeOwrote:

My dad was a professor at Princeton. As chairman of the astrophysics department he hired a number of women to join the department, at a time when that was uncommon. He felt that very talented female scientists were undervalued, and knew that his department gained tremendously by having them. 

Later, as provost of the University, he struggled to convince the heads of other departments in math and the hard sciences to see it his way. They had zero female faculty, and claimed that they would be happy to hire women, if only there were any out there up to the very high standards of the rest of their department. So he offered an enticement. He found a pool of money to support one full faculty position. If the heads of these four departments could find just a single candidate between them (at least that must be possible, right?) that measured up to their high standards, the University would pay for the position. Well suddenly there were so many qualified candidates for each of the departments that he wound up funding two positions. He did this again the next year. And the next. By then the point had been made, and things changed. 

He also was concerned about student debt, and the difficulty of bringing in a diverse student body, which he felt was very important. He took a hard look at the finances of the University, and determined that Princeton could afford to pay the full tuition for any students coming from a family at or below the median household income. Not a loan, but a free ride. This was so successful that all of the Ivy League schools copied Princeton. And as best as i understand it, they're still doing it today. 

GO

Gabe, I'm sorry about your father's recent passing. He was obviously not only a great scientist, but inspiration to many.

I think his time at Princeton overlapped with that of Lyman Spitzer, an astrophysicist who was also a devoted climber and mountaineer. It was my privilege to have climbed with Lyman on many occasions and even established a FA with him in Joshua Tree.

GabeOwrote:

My dad was a professor at Princeton. As chairman of the astrophysics department he hired a number of women to join the department, at a time when that was uncommon. He felt that very talented female scientists were undervalued, and knew that his department gained tremendously by having them. 

Gabe, was this before Affirmative Action was in place at Princeton? That era was very roughly 1964 to 2023. I have mentioned our faculty approved hiring a young Hispanic lady of very humble origins, Hortensia Soto, in the 1990s as an instructor who then in 2000 had completed a doctoral degree and took over my complex analysis class when I retired, then went on to become a professor at a large state university and president of the Mathematical Association of America. 

Before, when the school had initially committed to AA, I witnessed first hand the abuse of the concept into a quota system that overrode faculty desires and legitimate rankings of candidates by selection committees and department chairs even when they fully supported the principles of AA, which essentially encouraged the choice of a female or racial minority candidate as long as they were included in the final list of candidates - meaning roughly equal in competence and potential as determined by the faculty.

My brother Chris and I hiked out to the remote cliff today.  Drizzle and intermittent rain, and the cliff was in the clouds, so we set our sights lower and cleaned off a couple of boulder problems. Maybe V5 and V3  from the sit start but just guessing at this point. They were mossy and algae covered so the wet and rain actually helped to keep it out of our lungs.

So, Lori's taken an interest in stemming, I see. She even mentioned Streetcar (a Josh classic V6/7). That moves me to put up a few pics Lynn Bowering took of me doing that thing in about 1995. The alternative to stemming it is to run straight at it as fast as you can. I could never get myself to even try that. I was always pretty static in my movements.