Went to the Gunks with Joe to try some aid climbing. The forecast was for a high of 85F during the day, which is insanely warm for April. Then thunderstorms in the evening. We figured we would beat the storms and set out for what was my 7th day at the Gunks out the last 13 days.

I had done some easy A0 on the bolt ladders on Ancient Art. That amounted to just standing on slings. And I had once practiced aiding the discontinuous crack at Lindseth Climbing Wall. That was the limit of my aid experience. Joe had done a bit more practice at Lindseth... discontinuous crack, right floor-to-ceiling crack and roof. Three days earlier Joe had aided Kansas City. So he was my Guru.

We planned to get on Kansas City (5.12b or 5.8 C1) first, but there was a party on it trying to climb it free. I never see anyone on Kansas City, and now we find people there on an uncrowded Wednesday. What are the odds? So we alter our plans and head to Twilight Zone (5.13b or 5.4 C2) first. We make quick work of the first pitch of Andrew (which is a bit tricky in one place when wearing approach shoes) and establish a belay on the GT ledge. Then Joe is off leading the money pitch. Luckily it is in the shade, and even my belay is in the shade after about an hour. Joe makes good progress through what is essentially a sport aid route. There is in situ gear the whole way. It actually looks as if someone is trying to project for a pinkpoint. One of the pieces has a new 8mm mammut sling. We boost our karma points by not bootying any of the gear. Joe only has to place one alien and one or two other pieces to back up the existing gear. Still, the route is insanely hard. It has a 25' traverse, then pulls a series of roofs. Wild stuff. Joe takes about 2 hours on the pitch. He gets to the belay, fixes the rope, then it is my turn to clean. I don't have proper gear. We only have one pair of etriers between us, and they are with Joe at the belay. I have my two daisies and two ascenders, but I'm having a very hard time putting slings on the ascenders which are the correct length for my feet. Finally I give up and convert to a system of one ascender high, one prussik at my waist and one prussik for my foot. It is slower, but it is a system I'm familiar with and it works. I start making slow progress through the pitch. I'm trying to coil all the excess rope over my shoulders which only adds to the cluster of nylon and aluminum that completely obscures me from the world. I'm also trying to use the ascender properly, adding a carabiner to the lock hole, and clipping the handle to the rope when it is horizontal to keep it from twisting off. But I'm constantly taking the ascender off the rope to move it past a piece. All this extra clipping and unclipping takes time and creates more of a hassle. I decide it isn't worth the trouble since I'm always connected by my prussik and backup knot. The most difficult part for me is cleaning the traverse. I don't have gear for reverse aiding it, so I'm trying to do it on ascenders. Taking the top ascender off the rope and moving it past the piece doesn't fully unweight the piece because my prussik or even my backup knot still tends to come tight. With much struggling and MUCH whining, I continue to make slow progress. I keep jamming my top ascender against gear so it gets stuck and I have to weight the rope to get it off. After a dozen times doing this I feel pretty stupid. After two dozen I give up and learn to live with the stupidity. The one good thing is that most of the gear doesn't need to be cleaned. Basically I just have to get Joe's draw off each piece. Two times I'm able to take a four foot sling from my harness and pass it through a carabiner which doesn't need to be cleaned. Then crank myself up on a 2:1 pulley, clean the gear, release the sling, and go for a heart stopping swing 200' above the ground. My comment at one point while dangling on Twilight Zone: "People who don't climb have no idea what we do. If they had any idea, they would never ever ever ever climb." After 2 hours, I reach Joe. I'm totally exhausted and dehydrated. I have water in my pack, but wasn't able to access it while climbing because of all the rope and slings over my pack. We rappel down to the GT ledge where I pause to drink, and then we rappel down Andrew. As a warning to anyone doing the rappel down the first pitch of Andrew, a 60m rope doesn't quite reach the big ledge where the climb starts. We had to downclimb the last few feet. No big deal, but probably scary to someone who is climbing around the grade of Andrew (5.4).

It is late by now. We chug lots more water and eat food. It has been hot all day. If the aid pitch of Twilight Zone had been in the sun I think we would have actually had medical issues with the heat. As it is, my pee is fluorescent orange. I'm exhausted. Joe is exhausted. It is after 5pm. We walk to Kansas City and I start to lead.

I quickly climb up to the roof and begin the aid section. At the start of the aid section my right arm goes into spasms. This has never happened to me before and I'm a bit freaked out by watching the muscles near my right elbow contract and expand more than I could ever do consciously. I must be low on electrolytes. I massage the arm a bit and hope the food I ate will be entering my bloodstream soon. The spasms cease and I start to aid. This time I have Joe's etriers. And I've actually practiced leading aid before (had never practiced following). And I have Joe right there giving me three day fresh beta. Still, it is quite hard. The most difficult part is standing up and clipping a daisy short using carabiners. Joe had offered me his easy daisy, but I didn't want to risk dealing with a piece of unfamiliar gear. I feel like I'm having an easier time leading Kansas City than I had cleaning Twilight Zone, but I'm not moving fast. There are only two fixed pieces, but the pro is good and I can get in as much gear as I want. I'm trying to space it wide to make good progress. The biggest move is between the two fixed pieces. I saw the span and thought it was totally impossible. But Joe, who is five inches shorter than me, had done it three days earlier. I get as high as possible, push a foot off the rock, and lunge. Clipped! I keep moving out on aid to the lip. At this point I have to free one 5.8 move and I'm on top. Even with the assist of an etrier, it takes me quite a while to manage the move. I'm totally spent. Finally I'm on top. It took me about 110 minutes to do the pitch. I fix the rope and walk down to Joe. He takes the etriers, double checks his headlamp and is off to clean. Joe makes short work of the cleaning, he reverse aids the pitch, which seems like it is much easier than using ascenders on the traverse. He even clips past two of my pieces. Guess my reach could use some improvement. Cleaning takes Joe about an hour, which is 15 minutes longer than it took him to lead the pitch three days earlier. He finishes by headlamp, managing the 5.8 move with a tremendous effort.

We gather our gear and drive back to Ithaca. We pass through the storms which were forecast. Always better to drive in the rain than climb in the rain. Not that we would have noticed rain under the two huge roofs we were climbing today.

This was the most physically exhausting day of climbing I've ever experienced.

Joe and I now feel ready for El Cap. Maybe next week.

Lessons Learned:

• Wear old bike gloves.
• Keep water accessible.
• Bring sufficient etriers, maybe one of those ladder style etriers and one pair of regular per person.
• If Joe offers to let you use his GriGri to belay him when leading aid, gratefully accept.
• When cleaning, let the rope dangle beyond the backup knot (or get a rope bucket).
• Easy daisies are. If you don't have one, at least get a fifi hook.
• Learn and practice an ascender setup that works on vertical terrain and doesn't get in the way when traversing.
• Aid is HARD.