I think the minty rap anchor may have been a little easier, because of all the discussions revolving around the accident that occurred last year. (which, IIRC, occurred not long after I took this picture.)

That also reminds me...Last year I saw a young woman at this belay with her pants down taking a leak - all over the route below. WTF, it's not as if embarking on a gunks route is an all day affair...Try planning next time.

What, you have a problem with an entire forest growing horizontally out of a vertical "floor?" Just rotate yer monitor 90 degrees to see the "real" picture.

I do it myself, but aren't we all a little tired of climbing pictures rotated 90 or even more commonly 180 degrees to create a vertiginous effect that exists only in the mind of the photographer?

For some, one Gunks route *is* an all-day affair, or at least many hours. It happens.

FWIW - my general observation is that men have less, uh, bladder endurance than women. Of course, anyone peeing on a cliff needs to look for the spot of least impact.

Thanks for reviving this thread!

Maybe, but the fun is looking at the route and trying to guess. It would get boring real fast by looking toward New Paltz from the top of the cliff in every photo.

Careful with your accusations, RG! In my own mind, I've led up some pretty dizzyingly overhung slab routes. Must be the Heroic Configuration of my middle ear.

Yeah, me too. In fact, the HCC (heroic cochlear configuration) is the primary justification for displaying one's shots with preposterously altered perspective: do you want to see the route as it is, or do you want to experience what it feels like to be one it? It's just that after a while, the slab shot presented upside down becomes a cliche, and I get a little tired of turning my magazine upside down all the time just to see what the depicted climb really looked like.

RG is this what you are talking about?



Let me know if you still want to do what we talked about

cheers
j

John, I've had some days when I felt like that.

As for "the thing we talked about," I'm still enthusiastic in principle. There is the small problem that my estimation of my current abilities seems to be rather more optimistic than any reality-based experience is able to confirm, so I'll just have to get out and see where I am this year.

The original anniversary that started this discussion has, of course, come and gone. But I have another one coming up this summer, when I turn fifty as a climber. My first climb was the Owen-Spaulding Route on the Grand Teton in 1958, as I recently discovered from this summit register.

Wow!
Congratulations on 50 yrs of climbing!

I'm sure you would fire up Coexistence

RG --- Do you have this phrase copyrighted?



This is a perfectly accurate description of my perspective of my climbing ability. Thinking of getting it printed up on some T-shirts so as to serve as a reminder of the fact as I get ready to head out for another climbing day. Might help limit my trips to the ER.

Bill

PS

Does this mean 50 years as a climber or 50 years on this plane of existence?!?!?!?! I assume the latter since you don't look that damn old.