Mountain Skills Climbing Guides and Gunks Rock Climbing Instruction
Gunks Rock Climbing – 845-853-5450 – www.mountainskills.biz – Guiding the Gunks and BeyondArchive for August, 2008
Peterskill Top Rope Building, Rappelling, and Rock Climbing
Building top rope anchors and rappelling safely
I had taken Daniel up to the Peterskill in the Minnewaska State Park Preserve about a month ago to teach him top rope anchors, rappelling, and knots. Daniel is getting ready to start college next week and really wanted to be able to hit the cliffs at the Gunks and to climb knowing he was doing everything correct.
Bronto Plater 5.6 Peterskill
This time we went back to the Peterskill to see if Daniel could do everything he had been taught on his own. Daniel had been practicing his knots at home in Long Island on his piano bench. He built two point anchors from his bench, equalized everything and imagined he was at the top of the cliff ready to rappel and climb. Thetime he had to digest everything he had learned really helped him be efficient and clean with his anchors and transitions into safe rappels and on to bottom managed climbing sites. Daniel really did a great job and if he focuses on college like he did his anchoring skills he’s going to really excel at college. Good luck Daniel.
On a other note, Roger and I did a road clean up in the Catskill Mountains by an ice climbing area we like to frequent during the winter.
Adopt A Highway in the Catskills Roger Ennis
Adopt A Highway in the Catskills Doug Ferguson
Frost Valley YMCA at the Gunks
We took out the Frost Valley YMCA to the Mohonk Preserve to climb on Friday and Saturday. Friday we went to the Trapps and climbed all the Uberfall routes with the kids and counselors. On Saturday they climbed at the Near Trapps.
Boston 5.5 The Trapps
The kids already knew how to tie the figure 8 knot, lowering correctly, belaying, and the correct commands for starting a climb and finishing a climb.
Frost Valley kids at The Trapps
These kids are a real treat. They are all excited about climbing and respecting nature. The counselors really do a good job keeping them under control and minding their manners during the day. We all enjoy taking these summer camps climbing. It’s fun to interact with the kids and to show them the things we like about being outside.
Hudson Valley Mountain Rescue training
Mark Folsom at Hudson Valley Mountain Rescue training
Mountain Skills Climbing Guides trained with the Hudson Valley Mountain Rescue squad on Wednesday in the northern section of the Mohonk Preserve. The training was really just to get people more aquainted with the command center operations and sending teams into the woods on a mock search. Mountain Skills Climbing Guides Mark Folsom, Ralph Schimmenti and I set out as a team to search for a fake child who had been lost since the night before. Our area to search was a sub ridge line up by the Larson property. We set out on our mission and hiked the ridge line looking for the clues the DEC had given us that morning. After hiking and searching for about 40 minutes or so we found the big prize waiting in the woods. It was actually a DEC Ranger and not a small child. We were all pretty happy that we found the subject in good condition and did not have to carry anyone out. Even though this was a easy exercise in search and rescue it was fun and fairly educational. The Preserve Rangers, DEC Rangers, and volunteers did a great job putting everything together and making this training work.
Ralph Schimmenti at Hudson Valley Mountain Rescue training
Amazing day at Gunks rock climbing
We took a group rock climbing over at Bontiqou Crag on the Mohonk Preserve northern end this weekend. The weather was perfect September Gunks like weather. The clouds were puffy and multi colored and the Catskill mountains view was crystal clear. Oh yeah and one more thing. Nobody else was at the cliff rock climbing. Had the place to ourselves.I love rock hopping though the talus field below and the hike in is a good warm up for the day.
Hiking the Talus at Bontiqou Crag
Thong on pitch 2 5.5 at Bontiqou Crag
Spending just about everyday outside I realize Fall is noticeably creeping forward right now. The air is a little crisper, the sun comes up later and goes down earlier.
Brendan Mealia belaying at Bontiqou Crag
Connie climbing 5.7 at Bontiqou Crag
It really won’t be long until the leaves are going to start changing and that famous Gunks fall climbing season will be at hand.
Mohonk Preserve rock climbing
I took Connie and Thong out for their first multi-pitch climbs. Both have done a lot of top roping with super fun Outdoor Bound based out of New York City. It was time to set them free into the world of classic Gunks’ exposed rock climbing. We hit the cliff around 11:30 a.m. It had rained pretty hard the night before so the late start was actually fairly helpful. I racked up and went over some logistics about the climbs and started up pitch 1 of Jackie 5.5. Those guys had a blast sweating and scaring themselves up the route and threw the overhangs. Pitch 2 of Jackie is a nice mellow corner with a good amount of exposure to spice things up a bit. We all decided to walk off the Uberfall decent route (the blueberries on the top of the cliff are peaking right now) since a group was top roping below us. After we got back to our backpacks and ate some lunch I decided to climb Frog’s Head 5.6. Connie and Thong were blown away buy the steep, moderate climbing on pitch 2. The view from the ledge with the puffy clouds floating by was amazing. Beautiful pastel tones on the horizon told me it was getting past 5 p.m. One 200 foot belay assisted rappel back to our packs and the day was coming to a end for us.
Jackie 5.5 pitch 1 The Trapps
Jackie pitch 2 5.5 The Trapps
