Tipsy Trees

A fun, well protected route. Great for new leaders. Plenty of possible ways up the first pitch. Sep 2, 2007

Guidebook rates this climb at 5.3 and that seems about right. There is some very loose and broken rock at the start of P2. Apr 11, 2008

Only at the Gunks would anyone debate the differenc between 5.3 and 5.4 :-) Apr 11, 2008

The bulge on P1 is tougher than 5.3 Jun 27, 2011

Awesome route! Don't bother with the third pitch of Tipsy, instead, follow the ledge to the left at the top of the second pitch to the third pitch of Minty. Nice way to finish.

Be careful of people repelling since there is a rap route that puts the rap line right on the second pitch. Sep 5, 2011

You can rappel down from P2 with doubles, but watch trees/ledges. In the past, I've opted to go with multi-pitch rappel in order to alleviate potential for stuck ropes. Oct 17, 2013

I see in one of the photos someone belaying at the top of P2 from right of the rap station. I did the roof at the rap and it felt much harder than 5.3, and now I'm thinking that ending at the rap is off route.

Rapping with doubles to the ground is fine so long as no one is leading below you (Minty crosses the rap line if done this way). Since it's a busy route, it's best to do two raps and avoid people climbing on Minty. Oct 21, 2013

The giant tree at the top of pitch 2 had no leaves this spring, and shows no signs of life this fall. It's large, and I belayed off of it, but the safety of doing so might change in the future. Oct 25, 2015

Per Phredward's comment above, the big tree at top of pitch 2 is definitely dead and hollow. I walked 20 feet left on the ledge and used the anchor at top of P2 of Minty, extended it back to/around dead tree, and used a #2 C3 and pink tricam in shallow horizontal crack behind dead tree for backup directional. Be careful, lots of loose rock/scree on this ledge and all over this climb. Sep 6, 2016

Can I just go out on a limb here and make something clear. Whether this is Gunks 5.3 or Gunks 5.4 may be debatable, but this is Rest Of The World 5.6 all day, if not 5.7 (explain to me how P1/P2 of Tipsy is 5.3 and how comparably P3 of Minty is 5.2???). "Great for new leaders" if you've based all your climbing off the Gunks, know how to assess poor rock quality, and are comfortable with 20' runouts if necessary. This is a pretty serious climb for 'the grade' be advised. The P2 tree is super dead and will probably not last another two seasons. I'd climb it again! Oct 10, 2016

The corner on pitch 2 is not very well protected. I think you would need a set of micro nuts to be able to place any gear at some points in the corner. Aug 9, 2017

Accidentally went into the 2nd pitch of this climb while doing Minty. Made it interesting for sure. I liked the compressed stemmyness of it. The roof at the end was fun but yeah, protection is kind of limited and by that time I was running out of options of gear.

The trees are definitely dead not stable - appropriately named route - the trees come out of the ground if pushed for a test. I managed to stick a .3 x4 and two off-set nuts, though more micro cams could make a safe anchor there in the short cracks there.

Would definitely do the 2p belay as I linked p1 of minty and the drag was intense coming over the roof. Aug 21, 2017

Even 20 hours after a moderate rain pitch 2 was a sloppy waterfall making for a bit more adventure than I was hoping for. The rap highway above Minty is CROWDED! Consider skipping pitch 3 and going down on the GT Ledge chains. Oct 15, 2018