Rock Climbing in the Gunks all winter?

Has anyone climbed in the Gunks in the winter months? What was your experience? Is it reasonable to hope to climb all winter there, or is it too cold most of the time?

Last year I didn't try because I was in Ecuador. :)

We've gotten some rogue 60+* days the last couple winters and so I think I've managed to get out at least once every month if not more. Not something I'd bank on, but it can happen.

David Kerkeslager wrote:

I did not climb there from just before Christmas through late Jan, but there were some doable days there. Mid December and February were the best conditions of the year. Abundance of south facing climbing makes it super doable, just don't get caught on the right end of the trapps after the sun passes around the side. 

last year there were climbable days every month of the year but if there is a big snow dump it will make climbing there pretty tough for a while. Keep your eyes on the weather and you may be able to snag some good days in December, January and February.

I found last year that taping hand-warmers to your inner wrists really helps keep your fingers warm if you're climbing gloveless mid-winter.

It's completely feasible depending on your tolerance for climbing in the cold.

We've had to snowshoe in one winter because of a huge dump a couple of days beforehand, otherwise, it was nice & sunny. You really just have to pick & choose your routes. IIRC, at least Ken's was dry but a good number of other routes were waterfalls.

Gunks rock is white and faces east, so does not soak up the sunshine that disappears when the day is warmest. You'll get better winter climbing at Trap Rock CT and Rumney NH; both have darker rock and full-on south/southwest faces.

dave custer wrote:

Gunks rock is white and faces east, so does not soak up the sunshine that disappears when the day is warmest.

To get really specific, the cliffs run southwest to northeast, thus most of the cliff faces southeast. This means those big right facing corners face NE and get very brief, if any, sun in the winter. So while the MacCarthy wall might be fine on a given day, Ants Line or Bonnies could be frigid.

The way to think about it is that, on a clear sunny day, you'll have from, say, 9 AM to 2PM in full sun, with the temps typically pretty nice by 9 and staying that way until the cliff goes into the shade at 2.  By "temps" I mean temperatures on the cliff, which can easily be 10 degrees or quite a bit more warmer than, say the carriage road.  A layer of air next to the cliffs heats up, any you can be wearing a single thin layer while people on the carriage road are wearing down puffies. This means you can't judge how delightful it is really going to be by stepping out your front door and sampling the ambient temperature, which is likely to be quite a bit lower than on the cliff face.  There's no substitute for actually showing up!

Once the cliff goes into the shade it is winter again.

Some years there has been a lot of sunny days and so a lot of excellent winter climbing.  Other years not.  There's no way to know what you'll get.

Ice climbing is super fun -- I highly recommend doing it whenever possible.

rgold wrote:

The way to think about it is that, on a clear sunny day, you'll have from, say, 9 AM to 2PM in full sun, with the temps typically pretty nice by 9 and staying that way until the cliff goes into the shade at 2.  By "temps" I mean temperatures on the cliff, which can easily be 10 degrees or quite a bit more warmer than, say the carriage road.  A layer of air next to the cliffs heats up, any you can be wearing a single thin layer while people on the carriage road are wearing down puffies. This means you can't judge how delightful it is really going to be by stepping out your front door and sampling the ambient temperature, which is likely to be quite a bit lower than on the cliff face.  There's no substitute for actually showing up!

Once the cliff goes into the shade it is winter again.

Some years there has been a lot of sunny days and so a lot of excellent winter climbing.  Other years not.  There's no way to know what you'll get.

Rich can you get a bit more time at the Nears around fat city?

rgold wrote:

Probably.  The 2 pm cut-off is my unscientific impression of the "average" time when shade happens.

Thanks - no that sounds about right for High E buttress etc. Maybe more like 4 for certain things at the Uberfall

For what it's worth, my first two years of climbing my partner and I went to the cliff virtually every weekend. It didn't matter what the weather was. We climbed in mountaineering boots and gloves, and just dialed back our expectations. Try doing Minty in big fat gloves, it won't feel quite so casual!  

The blizzard of 1996 I specifically remembe being on Horseman during the worst part of the storm. We had to smash ice out of the corner to place gear, and could barely look up, being blinded by the snow. It took us seven hours to get back to Brooklyn after we left the cliff. I sort of developed a love of mild suffering doing this, and I think it helped form my passion for alpinism. 

There is nothing like doing hard rock moves in stiff mountain boots. I felt like such an badass back then!!!  I got pretty good at climbing in boots, ticking off such notable ascents as ,Shockley's, Eastertime Too, Double Crack, Yellow Ridge. 

and of course we were rewarded for our suffering with plenty of those days RGold talked abou!!

dave custer wrote:

Gunks rock is white and faces east, so does not soak up the sunshine that disappears when the day is warmest. You'll get better winter climbing at Trap Rock CT and Rumney NH; both have darker rock and full-on south/southwest faces.

Good analysis of winter climbing.
There are other SW facing crags less far driving from NYC than Rumney, and at more southerly latitude and lower altitude than the Gunks.
e.g. Safe Harbor (and perhaps Chickies).

Ken

30 - 40 years ago, we climbed year round, was not that big of a deal if it was sunny.

This was in the middle of winter, in mountaineering boots. It works but is a different type of fun. The horizontals fill with snow which melts into puddles and any most vertical cracks fill with ice, so plan on wet hands and less gear. Great alpine training.

Skiing in is awesome and all the routes are open. It's a great time to do all the classics that usually have people on them.

For what it's worth, harder face climbing tends to have less seepage so if that sort of thing are accessible, that is often the way to go. 

Yes