<<And you forgot to mention to our Anglo buddy the three-day bushwhack that some people end up on whilst looking for Case Emilio.>>

Oy Vey, You people crack me up. It is NOT hard to find the route. You walk down the carriage road until it makes a sharp right hand turn, at the turn, walk into the woods towards the big, beautiful, shiny, white face to your left.

When you are at the base of the cliff, take out the Book of Dick, open to the appropriate Psalm and you shall know exactly what to do.

I think someone of "first trad lead" spirit might not want to make the suggested traverse to Casablanca, but, that's just me.

If post casa E top roping were on the menu, you could do Contradance, which is a superb, short little pitch of 5.6 face climbing.

take out the Book of Dick

Or you can use the Swain guide which has that nifty little route finder feature at the top of every page.

hundreds of angle pitons were hammered into that same spot for decades.

Which spot are you talking about?

Just though I'd dredge this thread up from the murky depths to let you all know i actually managed my first lead this glorious Labor day weekend. Unfortunately I've not got a clue what the route was, and it wasn't at the Gunks.

So anyone thats been to Bolton in Vermont might be able to tell me - whats the route just to the right of the path, round the corner (climbers right) of Dead Babies. Single pitch (easy anchors), climbs a gentle right facing dihedral with a ballroom sized ledge about 10 feet from the top. The crux is above the ledge - laybacks and smearing with a big flake to the right

Anywone tell me the name or grade? My guess is about 5.2ish but whaddoiknow.

Very, very, very, very exciting. Especially since i took a lob on the crux (due to a massive Elvis leg situation) and my gear (and partner) held. So it wasn't a clean on-sight but it was the best ice breaker in history. This dreary office is a far cry indeed.

Thanks for the props (Stimpy, Dalguard) your wise words and gently coaxing were inspiring. Thanks even more to my detractors (strat, marc c) for making me doubly determined to prove you wrong.

Can't wait to get back out there. If this rain stops that is......

See y'awl
Spasmatron

A fall on your first trad lead? Great.

Yeah - I know - but it was a pretty safe spot for a fall, not very far to fall and If I'm perfectly honest, I tested the placement first (I had a vision of something like that happening). Elvis strikes again.

On the one hand, congratulations.

But OTOH, if you're falling off what may be 5.2, MAYBE you're not ready for the sharp end just yet.

Hmmmm, I hear you, and i'd kind of wondered that myself.

However, I can lead about 5.10 sport and have top-roped mid-510's so I'm putting it down to nerves. Besides, the route was mostly 5.2 but I reckon that bit was much harder - hence my original post, would be interested to know exactly what grade i do fall off at.

Hey there,

Im the guy that was rope solo aiding the climb just to your left. I met up with a friend of mine and we top roped that route. He said most people call it 5.6 but its a stiff 5.6....Welcome to vermont! The upper section was akward laybacking.

Good work and keep on climbing

Toby

P.S. was that you guys that were eating shrimp? We found a bunch of shrimp tails at the base of the route kinda gross.