Click here for all Guidebook posts
Click here to return to the 'Gunks Route Index
Horseman (5.5) - One pitch - Trad - Gear anchor
- Approach: In the Uberfall area, look for the obvious right-facing corner that starts just right of the first large roof along the carriage trail. The corner itself is about 30 feet up and is capped by a roof.
- Horseman (5.5) - 110 Feet: Climb the crack directly below the corner. Climb about 20 feet above where the corner meets the crack (about midway to the top of the roof) and then traverse left to the arrete where it is obvious to do so. From there, step right to a crack directly above the roof, then follow the face straight up to the ledge.
- Descent: Rap with two 60m ropes all the way to the ground, or walk right about 100 feet to the easy scramble back down to the path.
Easy-Baby Linkup (5.6) - Two Pitches - Trad - Mixed anchors
- Approach: Take the third path up to the left after the outhouse, at the split in the trail head right, and once at the base of the cliff head left to the edge of the dropoff that is below a chimney / offwidth.- Pitch One (5.1) - Trad - Bolted anchor - 80 feet: Climb the right-facing flake, step left, and then follow the chimney to near the top. From there, step left and follow the face to the bolts at the ledge above. Please be careful with all of the loose stones that are on this ledge.
- Pitch Two (5.6) - Trad - Tree anchor - 60 feet: Climb the closest, left-most corner from the bolts (basically directly above) and follow the left-facing corner through the roof to the ledge above. This ledge has even more precipitously placed loose stones. Again, please be careful.
- Descent: Either rap off the sketchy tree anchor all the way to the bottom with two 60m ropes, or rap twice using one rope and the bolts at the top of the first pitch. Or, if you feel like using a better rap station, walk right about 30 feet to a path that leads down to the edge. Walk around the jutting rock that sits low above the edge to find the bolts on the face on the left. Rap once with two 60m ropes or twice with one rope using the bolts mid-way down.
Hans Puss(5.7) - Three pitches - Trad - Mixed anchors
- Approach: Take the 12th path after the East Trapps Connector path that goes down to the right (if you get to the overhanging Andrew Boulder then you've gone too far). At the top of the path, head uphill and to the left to the base of a massive left-facing corner / roof that is yellowish and orange in color.
- Pitch One (5.6) - Trad - Bolted anchor - 80 feet: Climb the corner to an obvious ledge that would allow for fairly easy traversing back to the arrete. Traverse right along the exposed ledge and step around right of the arrete (mental crux) to the bolts on the face.
- Pitch Two (5.7) - Trad - Gear anchor - 110 feet: The picture shown here is a bit of a false photo, so read carefully. From the bolts, follow the chalk way out right to a shallow left-facing corner. This corner is probably a good 50 feet to the right of the bolts, so it is NOT the two corners that are somewhat directly above. I found it easy to climb up to the roof, traverse right under the roof until it ended, and then downclimb a few feet and continue to traverse on good hands and feet to the shallow corner.
From there, climb up the face following the path of least resistance to the ledge. This part of the climb might have been one of the most exciting sections of rock I've ever been on at the grade, and I also found that route finding is key. Often times, staying left of what seems the most obvious worked the best.
- Pitch Three (5.5) - Trad - Tree anchor - 80 feet: Climb the obvious, weird-looking crack / offwidth to the next large ledge. Once on the ledge then climb the corner (see photo), again with route-finding a necessity, until you get to the slabby sections that lead to the right. Head up right on the slabs (following the pitons) until you get to the right of the obvious hand traverse. Stay low with your feet and adjust your hands high or low as needed while traversing left and up to the ledge.
- Descent: There are rap anchors on the tree at the top, but where the anchors are on the GT ledge below is unclear. We took the easy route and walked left (had to do a tiny bit of bushwhacking and scrambling upward in the beginning) about 50 feet to the Arrow anchors, which are on the nice ledge where the white rock is. Rap with two 60m ropes all the way to the ground or rap twice with one rope using the bolt at the top of the first pitch of Arrow.
2 comments:
Two suggestions:
1) Please don't suggest that people rap off of Baby. Enough rocks get dropped from movement around the belays; let's not add rappellers, rope and pull-downs to the mix.
2) P2 of Baby doesn't have a roof on it.
1) Thanks for the suggestions. I actually noted that one shouldn't rap off Baby in the Guidebook description of the route. I suggested rapping off City Lights instead due to the rocks and crappy station. But I suppose that I could have noted that in the blog post, too. Duly noted.
2) roof, bulge, overhang. I know the Williams guide says they are different, but I kind of see them the same.
Post a Comment