On Sunday, October 22, 2006, the girls and I had a family climbing day with Wayne and Brittany. The girls really enjoy exploring the talus caves around the base of the cliff, but are also excellent climbers and were willing to try whatever Wayne and I set up. The nicest line at Peter's Kill and dare I say, one of the nicest corners in the Gunks, is "Golden Dream", a 5.9 finger crack in a beautiful clean corner. We also set up a top rope on "Slot Machine", a 5.6 offwidth, and "Fickle Fingers" (5.10), a crack to a roof which appears to be almost impossible if you're less than 5'10" tall (no pictures of this one). All of these are easy to set up with a top rope from a short 4th class scramble around and to the right of the climbs.
All three girls climbed "Slot Machine", a strenuous and awkward 5.6 offwidth. Jasmine and Brittany took a hang at the tricky spot, coming out from a crouch and transitioning to a layback flake. Ariel managed to get through that spot by approaching it completely differently (if I recall, she basically wedged herself behind the flake, and then climbed it). Everyone agreed it was tiring.
Ariel, being the enthusiastic little 9 year old that she is, was excited to try "Golden Dream", since she loves crack climbs. Because of her tiny size, cracks avoid much of the reach issues she has. She's only 50 pounds and about the size of most 7 year olds. The hardest climb she's ever done was a very short 5.8 crack at Peter's Kill. She amazed me by successfully climbing it! She climbed her age! She did take some hangs (you'll see one of them in the movie), but wasn't hauled up any moves, and got up the whole climb with her own power. I was very impressed! No whining either, just a few squeaks, "oops", and an exclamation at the bomber big handhold in the crack, "this crack is too big for me!". I guess little hands like little finger cracks.
Jasmine (12 years old) gave "Golden Dream" a try, but about 1.3 of the way up, she took a fall while her fingers were in the crack and got a couple of nasty skinned knuckles from it. They hurt too much for her to continue, so she backed off. She tried it again later with bandaids on, but didn't get very far before she decided it still hurt too much.
Brittany also successfully climbed "Golden Dream" with a few hangs. She's having a great year, having led her first 2 climbs the previous weekend at the tender age of 11! Way to go girl!
The girls went back to eating chocolate lollipops and hanging out in their cave while Wayne and I climbed "Golden Dream" and "Fickle Fingers". I didn't do as well on "Golden Dream" as I have previously, it seemed more tiring and tenuous. My footwork and body positioning could have been better. It's a stout climb! I'm impressed that these kids did it! Wayne took some hangs on "Fickle Fingers", but eventually got through both cruxes. I knew I never can reach the 2nd crux overhang, and this time was no exception. If you're not over 5'10" tall, you have to pull up with 2 fingertip crimp with minimal feet way under the overhang before you can reach the big hold above. So, I gave it a few tries, but decided to stop before I ended up hurting myself.
It was a fun day, the girls climbed well and had a good time, and ended the day with a few laps bouldering around Wayne's truck - across the running boards, tires, bumpers, etc.. Was pretty funny that they have the climbing bug.
After today, it's clear to me that with enough motivation, these climbing kids have incredible potential to get up anything us adults can!