Try to realize the truth... There is no spoon.

Five days at the Gunks with Melissa, with brief appearances by a bunch of other climbers.

With just one day at home to recover from my previous trip to the Gunks (and not much of a rest day... biking all over town, going to physical therapy, and stacking a cord of wood) Melissa and I set off for five days of climbing. We drove down early Friday morning and went straight to climb Arch. I got to lower down the first pitch to retrieve a stuck cam and attempted Arch Direct (Wick's Banana) on the way back up, but just wasn't feeling the love. We finished the climb on Wrist. Our next climb was Frog's Head, which is one of my favorites. Then we climbed both pitches of Jackie and ended the day climbing Bunny all the way to the top of the Trapps. It was ludicrously hot all day, but we enjoyed the climbing.

Saturday morning we go straight to High Exposure. Got to get Melissa up the classics. Then on to Updraft. Decidedly not a classic. This is the only climb of the trip I haven't done previously. It is stiff for the grade, and has a really, really tight squeeze chimney at the top. I HATE squeeze chimneys! Heading down the Arrow rappels, we run into Beau who was climbing solo. He took some pictures of Melissa and I to replicate the great shot he got of me and Emily back in September. Then we went to the Gerdie Block where we met up with Marah. We also saw Alex and Katie leaving for Ithaca, but convinced them to toprope with us. All five of us climbed Herdie Gerdie, Red Cabbage and Red Cabbage Right. Fun!

Melissa, Marah and I set out Sunday morning to climb Three Pines. Melissa and Marah swung leads, so I got a nice rest. Melissa's first lead! And well done at that. It took us forever to pull our ropes because I was trying to be polite to all the climbers struggling with Something Interesting. After that we climbed Arrow and managed to dodge the only rain which threatened the entire trip. Marah departed for home while Melissa and I retreated to the parking lot where we begged for water from everyone heading out for the day. I brought something like 15L and Katie got us about 4L more, yet we were still nearly out. Hot weather. Funny story... someone in an expensive car told us we could drive to the deli and buy bottled water. Right. From then on we only begged for water from actual climbers. We also ran into Ryan and Steve. Convenient because Steve and I could plan our Red River Gorge trip which was less than one week away. Also realized that I had been talking to Mark -- an old climbing companion from VA -- while we were at the base of Three Pines. We chatted a bit in the parking lot.

Monday we went to the Nears. Started on Disneyland. The tree everyone uses for a belay at the top has fallen over since I last did the climb. Then we went up Birdland. Along with Three Doves, this is my hardest lead since shoulder surgery. The p1 crux is a left hand move, and p2 is really sustained (especially doing the direct finish). So I'm excited to be leading climbs at this level right now. Returning to the base of Birdland, we run into Thea, who is conveniently looking for a partner. She fires up the first pitch of Birdland (as a sport climb!) to warm up and I get to clean the climb on toprope. Then Thea leads Birdcage like it is nothing. Melissa and I struggle up it on toprope. After finally cleaning the climb, I'm done for the day. Melissa and I go back to the parking lot to beg for water and play rummy.

Finally cooler today. Almost jacket weather. Almost. Melissa is going to get in a few leads before we head back to Ithaca. We head to RMC where I lead the first pitch and Melissa takes the second and third. Then Melissa leads Ribs (and we get a really nice view of Keith and his sister Laura climbing Strictly to Shockley's). Once down from that climb we head back to Ithaca... with the obligatory stop for ice cream.