We met Jules, John and Reesa, and Eric at the Gunks on an unseasonably warm first day of December. It was at least 65 degrees and gorgeous out! As usual, when trying to motivate and get so many little people moving, we got a very late start, but still had a great day.
Jonathan, with the kids' help, set up a tarp/tent for them to play in, but they really didn't stay in one place very long. They were busy collecting dirt and rocks to make mudpies in the plastic toy dinnerware we brought for them to play with.
While John led "P38" (5.10), I took a huge rack to lead "Radcliffe", class 4. This seems pretty silly, since it's a class 4 descent route, but we wanted to have the traverse up well protected for the kids to climb and give them the experience of seeing pro and unclipping their rope from it. I belayed from the top, and Jonathan tied into the end, with a kid tied in just in front of him so he could help coach them up or provide some hand/foot placement and tushie pushing. Reesa did a great job getting up pretty much on her own, and unclipping the rope as she went up. She got anchored and enjoyed the view from up top. Jonathan went back down and brought up Jasmine, who also did a great job climbing up. Reesa and Jasmine were lowered down, like a couple of hardcore climbers, not even a wince as they backed off the cliff, stuck their feet out in front of them and got lowered straight down to the ground. Jonathan went down yet again, and brought Ariel up. She did great, with some assistance, but chimneyed up like an expert all by herself! She was pretty nervous about being attached to Jonathan and lowered, and it took some encouraging, but she was OK once they got started on their way down. FINALLY, I got to clean up the mess on top and descend so I could get in some climbing.
By the time I got done shuttling children up "Radcliffe", Eric had shown up without his kids, and all three of them, John, Jules and Eric, had climbed "P38" at least twice! They were waiting for me to finish so I could have a turn and move the gear to another climb. I got my turn going up "P38" but had to hang twice to remove very well placed nuts which had really dug in from people hanging on them. John had left some pieces in for directionals and I cleaned since I was last. Pumpy climb to have to clean on!
While I climbed "P38", John scrambled up "Radcliffe" and moved my anchor over to "Stirrup Trouble" (5.10). Since the anchor just needed minor adjustments to move it from "Radcliffe" to "Stirrup Trouble", and it was getting late, we climbed straight up from the start of the climb, instead of the real route which traverses left to some overhangs. John top-roped it and put in some directionals, Jonathan give it a try, it was way over his limits but he did a fantastic job working his way through the first few difficult moves. I got a chance to climb it, taking one fall when I desperately reached for a hold and got my fingers tangled in a sling hanging from some pro. Had to hang again to clean some very well placed nuts. But otherwise, the climb went well, what fun and interesting moves in the beginning! Haven't tried it in years - last time I played on it, I was still only a 5.8 climber and after thrashing and eventually making it through the thin and balancy first half, burned out just as I started the overhang section. Will have to go back and set up the top rope anchor further left so we can do the official route through the overhangs. Meanwhile John was already up top waiting to take the anchor down. By the time we were both down, it was pretty dark.
We scrambled around with headlamps to make sure we had all the gear and chowed at Bacchus. The kids were half passed out in our laps and hopelessly squirmy at the same time, but well behaved. After they filled their bellies, they perked up enough to get silly playing in the dressing room at Rock and Snow. But my kids went zonk pretty quickly after we started on our way home.
Weather like this on December 1st is a gift, was great that we got to take advantage of it!