AUG 1982, I *had* hair!

Sweet shot. I regret that I never had many climbing pictures from BITD and most of all from leading CCK.

Love the EB's...
Still got mine!!! (but, regrettably not the hair either)

Mid-late 90's, racing the sunset

Oh, I know that trick! No, not the one where you tilt the camera, you cynic. The one where you get a bold looking climbing picture in the twilight so that my ugly mug doesn't take away from the impressive position. You are smarter than the average bear, Mike.

Mike, nice shot. I have the same problems scannng slides; I have all kids of dust that I cannot get rid of when I scan. All my big wall pix from the 1990's are on slides. And everyone of them looks like I was climbing in some sort of Dandruff storm.

To me, the last pitch of CCK is the setting for one of the iconic images of Gunks climbing. I'm surprised there are no other pics posted considering the ick weather that was around this weekend. Maybe the weather was better in the Gunks than it was in eastern PA?

Hopefully the weather will be nicer this coming Holiday weekend.

You might want to read this page.

Here's mine:


I'd like to do direct this summer!

That's what I'm taking about. Nice pictures. I guess we can't use these for 'Guess the Climb'?

Not these pictures. But based on the foregoing comments (and my own experience), you could take a photo of the "real" start, per DW's books, of P2. No one would recognize it because apparently no one has ever been able to find that line off the GT ledge!

15 feet out, and no gear yet...


Like the feeling of exposure on this one:


GO

I guess I am dating myself, but the last time I lead CCK from that belay I think there were two fixed knife blades on the traverse. Definitely more committing now, but I also thought there were small wire placements available. Lately I have only come straight up from below, which is well protected once you get off the GT ledge start. Nice shots for sure.

There are definitely small opposed nut placements on the traverse. Now, whether today's 5.7 leaders know how to place them there or not is another issue.

But if you can't place a cam it's unprotectable!!!!!!
OhNos!

RE: Chip's comment - they were actually larger than knifeblades. One was an LA or Bugaboo, the other might even have been a baby angle.

????????

So I'm sure no one would mind if some ambitious soul were to go pound in some fresh new chrome-moly to bring the climb back to it's earlier state :-)

Ahh, just sink in a couple of bolts - last longer and less impact. Wait! Didn't we just have this conver....
Oh never mind.

Slopur's brother.

ps I just remembered, this is the only photo of me leading where I'm not wearing a helmet. Forgot it that day and figure what the heck, what am I going to hit if I fall?

Your head?

Note that only your and the original post photos depict the bareheaded. Although it promotes safety, most people look better without a helmet.

I have to say... I NEVER climb without a helmet.... except that day. It really was the only day ever. I feel really vulnerable without it on lead, same feeling as driving without a seatbelt.

Yeah, that was me in 1982. Raise your hand if you climbed in the Gunks in 1982 AND wore a helmet. You're not going to get a lot of responses. I never climbed with a helmet in the 70's and 80's. I once wore a stoopid Joe Brown helmet on El Cap in 100 degree temps for about 4 hours in the 80's. Once I got smart, in the 90's [believe it or not!], I began climbing with a helmet 100% of the time. I think a lot of the problem was with helmet technology. I mean, a Joe Brown weighed almost as much as the car that got flipped by the Vulgarians. Now, I wear an awesome Black Diamond helmet that might be lighter than air and could be considered a form of aid climbing.

People climbed for decades without a helmet and many never got hurt including me. Luck is a big component. Missing a helmet day here or there happens for one reason or another. If I forgot a helmet one day in the Gunks, I'd still climb but would be more conscious of protecting my melon.

I remember there being one piton still present for the CCK traverse when I led it in September or October of 2009. And unless I'm crazy, I also had a cam in by the time the feet disappear and you have to make the step out into thin territory. I recall feeling protected there but maybe I'm crazy.

I never climbed with a helmet in the 70's and 80's.

Yes, I recall few did then. As in so many other endeavors, the "stars" set the standard. The hardest-climbing Gunkies didn't wear them and used chalk, so others copied that. They even pioneered clothing fads -- Hawaiian shirts, colorful tights, painters' pants, rugby shirts, etc. -- all quite passe and remembered only by we all-too-oldies.

(Pardon the thread deviation -- I got carried away.)

<raises hand>

It was a motor scooter helmet!

Yea, I guess I was the epitome of dorkiness.

In the 1970's after a friend suffered a serious head injury while cycling, I began to wear a helmet when I went biking. When I got into white water kayaking, I also donned a helmet. And after enough chunks of ice bounced off of me, I began wearing one ice climbing. So why not when rock climbing?

Answer: the early versions of rock climbing helmets were beasts. I tried an MSR, but it kept slipping down over my eyes. I bought a Joe Brown, but it weighs a ton and has almost no ventilation. Finally, I went back to just wearing a bandana. Years later, a friend loaned me an Elios and it was the first comfortable, reasonable weight hard hat I'd ever worn. That completed my conversion.

"today's 5.7 leaders," despite the elitism that implies, still only need to know how to place C3s or other small cams. the first few moves of the traverse take all kinds of those.

Not all of "today's 5.7 leaders" are ignorant in the art of chockcraft. But a lot of them are. I was fortunate to grow up with first editions of Basic and Advanced Rockcraft. Those drawings are deeply etched into my mind. My father (who can not climb anymore and has been out of the game for a long while ) said to me recently while checking out my current rack, "What happens when you run out of those cams?" No need to worry Dad, you get creative real quick. Sorry to get off topic, but what's a thread if you can't sew a bit?

Back on topic... CCK was the cover shot of a not-so-well-known instructional book on rock climbing several years ago. Anybody know which one I'm refering to?

CCK 1975.

Did CCK Direct today. Still as fun as always. Fixed cam in the overhang if anyone is interested. Looked a little beat up. Fix tricam in the flake.

Speaking of 5.7 leaders who are ignorant of chockcraft, one might extend that difficulty range up a grade or two. The fixed cam Coppertone mentions above on CCK Direct is a yellow C3 in a crack that takes several sizes of large stopper, right above the C3 placement. The large stopper is trivial to place and is both stronger and more reliable than a small cam. The placement itself is as obvious as a stopper placement can be. At that point the leader is standing on a ledge and is under no pressure to get something in fast.

Small cams are wonderful and have totally changed the protection game. But they should never be viewed as bombproof (and please spare us your 30 foot whipper onto a black Alien stories). The entire unit is not as strong as a big stopper and the margin for error with small cams is significant and can never be entirely eliminated. Substituting a small cam for a perfect large stopper placement is, in my old-fart opinion, either ignorant or incompetent; take your choice. The fact that the cam in question looks badly stuck and is now a deteriorating eyesore is just icing on the cake.

I'll take a good nut placement anyday.

The direct in 2010.

That fixed cam was there since last spring at least. (unless this one is a replacement for the one I saw there...) Same for the tricam.

Ditto curmudgeon. Well said Rich for us oldsters.

Quite possible since I have not been on the route in the past year. Although the cam clearly looked cleanable. I didn't want to waste my time trying as I was trying to get as much climb time as possible coming back from a torn biceps tendon. Rich still does a nice job on the Sharp end for an old fart.

Note the qualification.

On the dull end, Dave is not mentioning that I tried for something like half an hour to get a nut out on Limelight, almost buried it irretrievably, finally got it back to its original stuck position, gave up, finished the pitch, lowered him down to it, and he removed it in ten seconds max.

Oopsie.

I remember climbing CCK in the early eighties. My partner always used to make smart comments to me when I was on the sharp end, like "T - wanna get a six pack when were done here?" He'd rattle me a bit, but it was all in fun. On this occasion, there were some female climbers topping out on Updraft above his belay ledge and they dropped their rope on him belaying me. He started singing neil Young's "You're such a stupid girl". I finished the climb and we went for a six pack.