Christmas Break outings

Just a few little trips went down over the school break. Twas dampened a bit by CONTINUOUS snow that week.
On the 28th, Aaron, JP and I ventured north to the Adirondacks on a snowy morning to scope out a new area that JP had suspicions of greatness for. The day started out well when the business owner that we asked to allow us to park was very amicable and said, "Sure, lots of people hike back there." Good sign for future access :-)
Not ten steps into the woods, we caught a glimpse of our first decent sized boulder, from it we saw another, from that a 70 foot high wall and MANY more boulders. As we checked each boulder, we saw at least one line up it and sometimes several. The gem of the day was a 30 degree overhanging face that has a line on its left arete, one on its right and possibly a double digit line up the middle. We didn't even bring pads or shoes along, because of the snowy conditions, but we are VERY excited to return in the spring and clean the beautiful lines.
As we hopped in the car for the return trip, we were quickly engulfed in whiteout conditions, making the day that much more surreal and exciting.

On the 2nd, JP and I said, "we got lots of snow up here but lets go to the Gunks anyway." The weather forecast was for 30-40 mph winds and 25-26 degree temps, translating into about 8-9 degree wind chill factor. Ah, what the hey!
Getting out of the car was a bit breezy. The walk through the pass at the Steel Bridge was down right frigid, but by the time we got to Black Boulder, the sun was out and it was actually warm. We cleaned the top and did some warming up. We then moved on to The Following, which was very easy to brush clean and dried instantly. We played a bit but weren't psyched about the number of pads we had for such a jumbled and awkward landing. So no real committing attempts.
Next I hopped on Merrakesh and was able to go through the crux for the first time. So progress there.
Finally we walked all the way back over to the Near Trapps and JP worked The Pearl for a bit. He has dialed in the bottom section and just needs to stick the jump net time the rock is a bit warmer.

All in all, it was a decent day of playing on cold rock. It would have been nice to get some new sends, but hey, that's the game we play. And in the cold weather, I don't feel so bad about not hanging on long enough to top out. THAT ROCK IS NOT PLEASANT TO THE TOUCH.