Four days in the Gunks with Carolyn, joined by Alex for two days.

8/6 Drove down with Carolyn and met up with Alex. Started on Blueberry Ledges, then climbed Mr. P's Wurst between Madame G's and Le Teton. Leading Mr. P's takes some Lowe Balls, but not nearly the Lowe Balls it takes to lead Le Teton. Our doubles got stuck in the chains when rappelling Madame G's, so I walked up to the top of the cliff to free them. Managed to pop out of the woods within 20' of my target destination, which is pretty good after a hiking all that distance. While I was doing that, Alex and Carolyn set a toprope on Delusions of Grandeur. A one move wonder which was a fun way to end the day. All new climbs for me! Don't know how long it has been since that happened.

8/7 Continued my streak of new climbs with Dry Martini (the direct version of Tequila Mockingbird). Then went to look at Dry Heaves (which I've also never climbed) but decided not to do it because of the 15' undercling traverse... not being able to turn my left hand palm up makes underclings somewhat difficult. Thought about climbing Alley Oop, but the unprotected start is scary... no... I just didn't want to disturb the nesting Black Vultures. That's all. Anyhow we settled on climbing Arrow, which Carolyn had always wanted to climb. Finally, we finished the day on Classic while we watched a party of three epic on Pink Laurel. A very refreshing swim and huge pasta dinner before falling into a deep sleep.

8/8 Climbed Sleepwalk to set Ent's Line. Alex returned to attempt this classic with us. It is my measure of shoulder recovery. I got all the way up it twice. First time with a bunch of hangs and the second time with only three. I'd love to get it cleanly on toprope. That is my benchmark for full recovery from shoulder surgery. Maybe if I get it wired enough I'll consider leading it. That would take some massive Lowe Balls. The three of us then had a great time climbing High Exposure. A few raindrops at the top were the worst of the weather we had all four days. Just as I topped out on High E, a party that had spent four hours with their rope stuck on Ursla finally got it back. I had told them I would head to the top of the climb and take their knot out of the rap station. We finished the day with a toprope on Slightly Roddey. I didn't get the roof, but I'm pretty sure it will go on a day when I haven't climbed Ent's Line twice. After burning out on TR, I had to lead all of Roddey to the top of the cliff because the intermediate rap station we were going to use to clean the route had been chopped.

8/9 A sweltering day. Carolyn and I make the dubious choice of starting up Birdland. The first pitch went reasonably well. I led the second pitch and was belaying in the shade at the top of the cliff. Carolyn struggled on the hard move off the belay and ended up with a twisted ankle. Luckily, she didn't hit anything so it was more of a rolled ankle than an impact injury. Should heal quickly. Also luckily, my slightly short 60m rope was able to reach from the top of the cliff to the ground. So I fixed the rope, cleaned the second pitch, and rappelled with Carolyn to the ground. Then I walked up to retrieve the rope, and move the car to the overlook. Carolyn was able to walk out, so we hopped in the car and drove back to Ithaca (after buying some ice for the ankle... 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off for the whole drive).