Please excuse the rash of attached photos.

I had a request from someone in need of emergency assistance!



First up:

Gearing up under the Obstacle Delusion Direct roof.

Top-roping Maria Direct

Resistance 5.10 LC

The Yellow Wall 5.11

Feast of Fools 5.10

(getting arty here with the B&W)

Good old Foops ...

(off-limits as we all know)

Still reigning champ on the scanner! You go girl.

Who's this guy?

I don't know, but am guessing To be or not to be.

This site probably isn't a secret to most of you but some cool photos here

gunks photos

OK, this is interesting...
In the "Gang at the Gunks" photo, one gent is holding what appears to be a .223 cal. Ruger mini-14 rifle.

Anyone know the story behind that?

Hey, oenophore, I respectfully recant my recent explanation. Maybe this is why kids know how to use firearms! (lol)

Let's put this one to rest as fast as possible.

That's me. Yeah, on To Be Or Not To Be.

Thanks for the blast from the past, Chaz.

Post deleted by yorick...eps...

Why tell us, yorick? Speak up on the page where the photo is! By the way, it's a GREAT shot! I'm curious to find out some technicalities (like where the shot was taken from, what size lens, whether you did the whole thing a-la-mode, or undressed @ before the last pitch) but perhaps we could take that off-line. Could you PM me w/ details? Thanks!!!

GO

My buddy Dan atop Easy Keyhole (5.2). Natural Bonsai tree providing shade. Beautiful view of Nears and Milltop.

GO

Judge:

get real, who cares about that gun? look at the cannons on the chick in the middle of the photo!!!

Top candidate for 5.11 testpiece?

The Sting

Tom Andrews jumps for the jug.

Johnnybfishman on Yum Yum Yab Yum.

Here he is again on criss cross direct.

Heres our friend Aaron. This was one of his first exposed climbs.

Jeeez Toby are you trying to make me some sort of celebrity or something.........Nice photos though keep it up chief.

John

Here's my favorite climbing picture of me leading P2 of Bonnie's Roof. I'm reaching for a hold, but it looks like I'm peeling off. Scared the crap out of my mom. Ethan takes the photo credit.

Jannette

Here's Johnnyontherocks leading the crux of Modern Times.

P2 of TeDum.

wow! Ethan, that is one of the, if not the, best photo of gunks leading that i have seen!

great pictures!

Jackie



Photo credit goes to strat

All excellent photos! Nice work!

GO

Gorgeous! I mean the photo, but you're not so bad yourself

GO

Great stuff, folks! Thanks for sharing!

Toby -- what kind of camera were you using? Digital? Those shots have an interesting look to them ... like they were shot off a TV screen.

Actually I have hooked up my sony handycam to my computer using a firewire and can capture video. I can also capture still shots. Not the best shots but its cool to see things that never were real photos

More, more, more ...

Artificial Intelligence 5.12d Bonticou

Bwana's wife (Noel Damon) climbing Brave New World.

The upper (second) crux of Lanman 5.11a Bonticou

The view from the Belly Roll ledge (looking south).

you got it lester!...sunset over millbrook: best spot, best time...love the sunlight splitting those looooong shadows...

Lester:
" Toby -- what kind of camera were you using? Digital? Those shots have an interesting look to them ... like they were shot off a TV screen."

Toby:
"Actually I have hooked up my sony handycam to my computer using a firewire and can capture video."

Nice Call Lester!

More from Toby
" ...its cool to see things that never were real photos"

And to think that was giving you guys credit for actually climbing!

Mark

Now that I've posted that great picture Ethan took of me on Bonnie's Roof, time for me to post a great picture of Ethan on Bonnie's Roof (but I didn't take the photo). That 2nd pitch is one of the best photo-ops in the Gunks!

Jannette

S. C. (with camera at weird angle)

Ants

That 2nd pitch is one of the best photo-ops in the Gunks!

It truly is ... either way you finish it!

F.T.A.

Hey, Nick,
Is that a pair of doubles going thru one 'biner, or is it twins?

Great pics either way!

I wanted to ask the same question, but got pretty thoroughly squelched when I asked about using twins for climbing rock over in the gear forum. Figured I'd better shut up...

Doubles!

Love that route!

Hey ... I think I see a direct variation over the final roof!

Dude, it'll go!!!

Rope soloing Kansas City with aid.

Why didn't you just stem off the trees?

They aren't that close to the cliff, eh? (otherwise, they're on, right? like on Enduro Man & City Lights)

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano
Kat

is it a solo if someones else cleans it?

e

Feliz Navidad y Prospero Ano

A friend (of Cuban descent) once pointed out to me, that in the absence of the 'enya' (the little squiggle on top of the n in "Ano" - I doubt that there's any way to type it correctly here in Gunks.com-land) that what you are wishing us translates as:
'Prosperous Anus'.

!Prospero Ano! to all

¿how about just using the ñ?

here is a shot of my friend Petey who is currently working towards fulfilling his dream of becoming a "boat pirate"......If you happen to see this from whereever you are pete....Get home and climb.

John

ps. the shot is on yum yum yab yum...and it is a self portrait that he took...kids got talent eh?

I see that pic and I'm imagining a caption: "Hey!! Yell rock next time! (I GOTTA get me a helmet...)"

I think what he was saying is "Arrrrrr I'm a boat pirate, arrrrrrr!" thats petey

Must be awfully hard climbing with a peg leg and a hook (or maybe not - he probably uses the hook when he's ice climbing). And where's his eye-patch?

This is what the real photo looked like........man I should do something better with my time!

I guess his parrot flew away?

Aaaahhhh Jim lad! Avast me hearties!

Here's an entirely different sort of pirate ...

Christopher Lawrence on "Monkey Pump" 5.12d

Im Jonesing to get climbing on some good, fun, gunks routes again!!! as I type this its -9degrees outside and -21degrees with the wind chill!

heres a shot of me on a chilly ascent of retribution....the cold rain and snow was very enjoyable during the crux.....Boy that day seems like yesterday.......Nov. 1st 2002.....remember that day toby...hahahhahah. I think considering we didnt sleep the night before (halloween) we had a good day.......hahah and a fun ride back to vt....sorry for the rambling everyone else....i think im getting cabin fever. peace

John.

This Picture was taken Last February .... 30 degrees outside.

Dug up some old photos.

Here's one of the top pitch of Limelight.

Here's another.

From the same vantage point -- looking over at a party finishing up on Arrow.

And here's the Arrow rap ledge ... overlooking the valley.

Love those autumn colors!

MurphysLaw leading P1 of Limelight in interesting spring conditions (note the frozen tree!)

Casablanca 5.8

A nice private part of the Trapps to climb.

Top roping some unnamed 5.8 face near the left end of Lost City last week. Nice lycra there, Murph!

A friend of mine on Wishbone.

RR

i have some other good shots of murph in tights, alas no scanner, the shots of that dihedral came out pretty sweet for those who know what i am talking about

Here is mgs on top of hawk early on in the season.

Another Lost City classic ...


Resistance

Directissima traverse, thoroughly sewn up with gear.

CrackBoy at that mysterious place off Clove Rd (AKA LC)(historical fact: Lost City used to be called "Secret City")

CrackBoy asking the musical question, "What's up there?"

what you couldnt pick one of the shots where it doesnt look lik ei am wearing my harness up at my armpits?

Were you wearing your "big boy" pull-up harness that day?

Ah, it could be worse, at least you didn't have the ugliest clothing you own immortalized in a pic here
(and, unlike some other people named Mike, I don't take pride in owning and wearing heinous lycra clothing )

Making the committing step onto the face at the start of "Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man", an excellent-hard-continuous 5.8 at Peterskill. (photo credit - Strat)

Looks like you're wearing knickers.

Never mind...I don't want to know.

Anyone else been to this outcropping in Minnewaska Park? About 100 ft up on back side of cliff above lake.

Here's a close-up of the rock. It juts out a good 15 feet or more. Was a little wet so I couldn't go near the edge that day.

Here's Martha Stewart selecting the appropriate passive gear du jour on the sharp end.

That picture reminds me of another climb with a committing step (or leap) across.

A great old 5.9 -- anyone recognize it???

Is that Crash and Burn? or am I getting the name wrong.

You got it right!

Here is CaptainNoPro on the direct start to Thin Slabs.

Another of the Captain on Disneyland.

One more, this one is Classic.

Those pics came out pretty well toby!! Did any of the ones I took look any good?

How come there's pro in every picture?

NoPro must refer to what's left on his rack by the time he gets to the belay! =)

Leading maria the other day I kept expecting the PG part to arrive at anytime. There was so many placement opportunities I just kept throwing pro in. Incidentally, the PG section never came and I had sewn up the pitch.

The Captain No Pro comes from an old joke among my friends about our first experiences trad leading.

Personally I've never found much difference between a G and PG route. G is gear every where and PG is gear everywhere you need it. PG might actually be a little easier to climb as you dont' get overwhelmed by too many gear placements.

As originally defined in the first guide to us PG,R, & X gear ratings:

G is gear everywhere.
PG is poor or no gear on sections that are at least two grades below the crux grade.

Another definition - I don't remember which guide it was in - is that PG can be ample gear that is "difficult to place".

I felt like classic was what I would consider PG. There was no gear for a while below the roof but the moves were in the 5.5 range so it was easy. Maria was definitely G.

What? PG? Classic is almost a sport climb.

You can't go more than 6 feet between pins or nice pro placements.
That's G to me.

Classic should probably be PG-13 because the pin at the crux move isn't gonna do shit for you if you blow it. You're looking at an ankle injury if you slip.

No. The last pin is a ways below the roof. Your going to take a good 15' fall if you come off standing below the roof even though it's extremely unlikely that you would given how easy it is.

You can get about 4 pieces between the last pin and the little overhang on Classic. If you trust an iffy hb offset off the deck you can do Classic without clipping any of the pins. It certainly makes the start a bit more exciting.

i remember getting all the gear i wanted on classic before and after the roof..no way PG or 13

the crux as I see it is the little mantel-ly move at the start. there is a pin that you clip just before making this move. if you slip (and it's pretty well worn from all the traffic), you go crash back onto the pile. This is common Gunks knowledge from other posts I've read. There is no other pro midway into that move; you just have to make the move which, once you do, you're stood up and placing all the gear you want. The potential for injury makes it PG-13. Not an issue if you're solid on 5.7, but potential problem if you're not.

Agreed - this isn't something you want to peel off of - your landing zone has got a big fat flake sticking up.

Tried this numerous times last summer, but my fingers just kept slipping out of the polished crack. If it wasn't for the landing, I would have just tried to heave myself up, and risk a fall of a few feet.

Here's CrackBoy sinking his teeth into the onsight of MF.

The standard, but still nice, shot on p3 of CCK. Thanks to Phil (no, not THAT Phil, a different one) for the photo.

funny, i don't remember there being much in the way of wide crack on MF. what's with the big ol' cams & hexes?

umm. training purposes
thought i would make myself heavier so i could be more badass?


its really just two hexes. like the 6 and 7 hexentric i think, not exactly the heaviest gear to bring up.

and since i was going for the onsight i didnt know what i would need and i am usually too lazy to actually pare down my rack for each climb i lead especially i had paid good money for that piece

Whatever,
I don't care if it was PG/G/R or X anyway. I had a great time on the route. It wasn't hard; I wasn't scared so who cares?

Get it straight.
G means you can swing your rack over your head and a piece will set itself in a horizontal.
PG means a competent, properly equiped leader should find opportunities to protect moves within 2 grades of the crux, with distances between these opportunities that injury will most likely not occur in the event of a fall. Assuming Eddie isn't belaying you.
Or you're not on Honky Tonk Woman, PG my ass.

I take back everything I said. Classic is most definitely rated G.

Classic is G. Agreed. Like most other Off-the-ground crux moves in the gunks, it is graded lower than it would be somewhere mid-pitch or higher, ie. Hyjeks Horror and many others. My call would be more like 5.8, but real fun and essentially one move. Send.

Rainy day activity.....hike to Millbrook and back before 9am, then meet Fred and Bob and hike to Table Rock and Bonticou, if you can keep up with those two!

Smike on the direct start of Nutmaster.

There is an awesome 10a roof immediately below where you snapped that picture. Looks very improbable from above, but surprisingly easy given the the roofs unrelenting horizontalness and length.

Good shot by the way

RR

"unrelenting " ...ya that about sums it up.

Finally finished a roll of film. The scanning on this image from the Millbrook Ridge trail in, um, December or January sucks, but, like, whatever.

One more lookie-loo at Lanman 5.11a Bonticou.

DisneyPoint

Couldn't resist playing with Photoshop and creating a "free-solo" shot of Grand Central.

Man, it's a long way down.

Leading Rhodo on a warm New Years Day!

Me not falling on High E


(Photo credit to murphyslaw)

Wick and Chris on a winter ascent of Maria (Direct?).

Seasonal Preserve Ranger Bob Elsinger on the Maria overhang, done as the last pitch of the excellent combo "Scunsularia" (First pitch of Scungilli, second pitch of Sultana, third pitch of Maria.)

Semi-delirious OFMC member escapes from rest home during the holidays; found wandering up City Lights.

I dunno, I bet you could do pretty well with some manual exposure settings and a neutral-density or tiffen ultra-contrast filter. A CCD may have more dynamic range, but you still lose some information when you translate to an 8bitx3 color format.

I'm not facing it... I'm still in denial

Higher Stannard, Gunksfest 2003, Session b. The photographer and the subject have more than eighty years of climbing experience between them...

It ain't got nuffin to do with digital vs. film. That's all about exposure. A fast lense, UV filter and manual exposure will do the trick just fine ... probably even get a better color balance.

Fun rap!

The dynamic range of some digital sensors is at or slightly exceeds that of Slide film. The leader for dynamic range is still slow speed (ASA 100 or less) print film. What makes digital files look like they have more dynamic range is that you side step one major contributor to loss of dynamic range which is scanning film. So in the end you really can get better shots with digital. Also as Lester states perfect exposure is a must.

Nice photos btw, almost makes me want spring time rock climbing again... well almost.

What makes digital files look like they have more dynamic range is that you side step one major contributor to loss of dynamic range which is scanning film. So in the end you really can get better shots with digital.

I don't get it; could you explain this further?

Scanners (low to mid level) have a lower dynamic range (the # of shade differences from black to white they can record or discern) then do most good digital camera's. So when you scan in film you will loss some of these shades present in the film and the dark area's will look darker and the light area will look lighter giving you less to work with.

So it's the scanner, the most common means of digitizing film, that is the weakest link in the photographic (camera -> monitor) process. Since digital photography bypasses that, it is superior. Is this what you're saying?

It's superior in the sense that with digital there are no intermediate steps that reduce resolution or dynamic range or any quality of the photo. Any time an image has to be "interpreted" there is usually some loss of data in the image.

OTOH, what an experienced photographer can do with slow speed slide film and what a less experienced shooter might do with, say, a 2 megapixel digital camera are often worlds apart.

Getting the right exposure is key. If you take a great photo with slide film (or negative film) and you've got a terrific exposure that yields maximum density, that photo is going to look awesome if you scan it directly through a quality scanner. And it will almost certainly look better than most photos taken with a low to mid consumer level digital camera ... especially if the exposure on the digital shot is off even a little.

The variables all change with the equipment and the process. There are lots of different types of digital cameras with different capabilities. Lost of different types of film to work with. Lots of various scanners or film scanners with various levels of quality. But still the most important variable is the person pushing the shutter button. Knowing what to shoot and how to correctly expose the shot is what separates the great shots from the okay ones.

Farewell to Arms. This was NOT taken last week!

Nice shot, Mike.

What a great 5.8!

I've viewed all of the photos on this thread 3 or 4 times.... You guys are making me insanely nostalgic.

Man, I miss the Gunks somedays.

Zach

With this prolong cold weather I somehow I'm feeling a little sympathy for those that do no dare venture out and wish for a warmer day.

Here is a picture of when Tim (Browndog) Mike Rawdon, and I where at Lost City beating the 100 degree heat this past summer. Mike is on Texas Flake 5.10b (I think?)

you climb with him and complain about me smelling bad?

Hey Mike Rawdon doesn't smell so bad! besides whatthe hell are you doing sniffing peoples pits anyway!!?!??

edk

5.9 corner

some people you don't need to stick your nose in their pits to smell them. they have their own aura. and yep mike rawdon doesn't stick

That corner is one of my favs. Anyone else think it was 9-?

So just where is the 5.9 Corner?

a) i wasnt talking about mike rawdon
b) you can smell tim about the same time that the Dog starts trying to hump your leg...

5.9, 5.9- i agree. it's in the lost city

Post deleted by rickcee

Hi, knowing zere about computers, going to try this
Everyone puts in their 5.xx here's my type 5.

well, came thru. looks just a little small. Quiz - what climb ( magnif. glass needed)

Takes a little of the challenge out of it when you have Gelsa in the picture title.

There are some great photos in this Thread. For those of you interested there is a photo contest this month where you can win some cool Patagonia Gear!

If you want to submit photos see: ClimbNYC.com

I hope to see some of these great shots!

-T

doh!

eyywallah, ne yapabilirim? yani, turkiye'dayim, amerikalilar cok az konusyorip ve bizim scents of humor unuttum...

This was taken last weekend from the Bermuda triangle between Pine Bush, Gardiner and New Paltz...

The day after x-mas I went climbing w/ a group including our own Mike Rawdon. Here's Mike on Arrow, the first lead of the day. It wasn't exactly *warm*. So here's a chilly Mike fiddling a tricam into place with numb fingers.



GO

Where to next?



GO

An "action" shot - Mike "making the clip".



GO

Mike had one request: Make sure you get a photo documenting the ice. Voila: mike heading up into an icicle-infested maw.



GO