Eldo compared to gunks ratings

Hey MP-
Any sense if eldo's grades are comparable to gunks?
I know it's different rock but just curious as to what folks think.

Hi Dana - as a gunks climber I felt happily humbled in eldo - the grades felt somewhat close but the funkiness of the gear placements definitely added some challenge.

Eldo is a trad area with a proud history of advancing the limits of free climbing (sound like any place around here??). I'd say there's no consistent bias grade-wise vs the Gunks. So, as with any new-to-you area, start off on the conservative side.

I'm a Gunks regular and I've spent just a few days in Eldo, did the Bastille, Rewritten, Yellow Spur, and some stuff on the Wind Tower. To my mind Eldo is very similar in feel to the Gunks. The cracks are diagonal instead of horizontal but the opportunities for gear are similar and the climbing feels very Gunksy to me. Grades felt just right.

As folks have mentioned before, both areas have significant history, and both areas became established before or during the era of "5.9"

I've climbed quite a bit in both areas and they are similarly stout for two completely different reasons:

The Gunks is one of the few places where a 5.10 climber could literally get pumped and fall off a 5.4 given enough time hanging out. Would you hang out on Gelsa for 3 hours? Probably not, but the point is that your pump clock seems to always be ticking faster at the Gunks and that can be a hard on the mind when you aren't completely comfortable hanging out. You can't just "stand up" on most of the moderates.

On the note of hanging out, Eldo isn't hard due to the pump clock, but it doesn't have the obvious horizontal cracks to throw for every few meters like you'll find in New Paltz. The interesting, sometimes slick and techy movement found at Eldo can ad some extra spice when a leader, unfamiliar with the Eldo stlye is trying to fiddle in some gear in the middle of a crux.

I learned to climb in the Gunks before moving out here - I'd drop a grade or more as you get used to the different style, but difficulty wise the numbers have always felt right on track with the Gunks to me.

The regular, rotten bands of rock in Eldo are one of the hardest things to get used to I have found. Everything is solid, then you come across piles of loose rock gingerly stacked to the side by previous climbers. Oh, wait. That's almost any route on Sharkstooth in the Park.

More info than you asked for, but I'm enjoying a stroll down the memory carriage road.

1) Don't brag about your pink tricam in Eldo. Use it, but just don't talk about it.

2) Respectable poison ivy in Eldo, but no B52-sized horse flies on a mission to get a quart of blood.

3) The gunks humbled me on moderates with devious movement. Eldo humbled me on moderates with slimy movement, runouts, and spicy gear. Like Em said - the ratings feel similar even though the climbing feels different.

4) Beware the + in Eldo. 5.8+ is not 5.8. I don't remember a similar chasm between grades in the Gunks.

5) Similar numbers of college-aged students from the nearby college town tripping balls on any given day.

4) Beware the + in Eldo. 5.8+ is not 5.8. I don't remember a similar chasm between grades in the Gunks.

It happens often that the + in the Gunks is much harder than the grade, especially at .9+ as a lot of the ratings were given before 5.10 came along.

I think that's why most people think that Gunks .9's are our sandbags.

Yeah, Modern Times 5.8+ at the Gunks is just as + as anything in Eldo.

Exactly!!

P2 of Modern Times is not for the budding 5.8 leader.

So when a Gunks/Eldo climber travels anywhere else, do they get to complain about how inflated the grades are AND how there's way too much fixed gear?

Dana Marie wrote:Exactly!! P2 of Modern Times is not for the budding 5.8 leader.

Austin Baird wrote:So when a Gunks/Eldo climber travels anywhere else

Austin Baird wrote:So when a Gunks/Eldo climber travels anywhere else, do they get to complain about how inflated the grades are AND how there's way too much fixed gear?