CLIMBING IN THE GUNKS

By Cliff Ransom   Photograph by Alex di Suvero

The Shawangunk Mountains—the East Coast's greatest climbing area—are only 90 miles (145 kilometers) north 
of New York City and five minutes from a really good cup of coffee.

I  settled under a sycamore tree a hundred feet up on a ledge overlooking the Hudson River Valley is not a bad place to spend an afternoon. Occasionally, I glance at the rock face above, where Thor, my climbing partner, is grumbling and fidgeting with gear. He seems to be having a good time. Good enough, at least. So I lean back, cradle my head in a notch of smooth bark, and watch updrafts push autumn leaves into a robin's egg sky.
 
On crisp fall afternoons, when roadside apple stands sag under their loads and the foliage blazes in Technicolor, Thor and I make our annual run to the Shawangunk Mountains, six miles outside New Paltz, New York. "The Gunks," as they're called, are less a mountain range than an escarpment, some 12 miles long (19 kilometers) and 300 feet (91 meters) high, that towers above the surrounding farmland like God's own billboard. Leaf-peepers, hikers, and bikers are lured from New York City, 90 miles (145 kilometers) to the south, but no one responds as enthusiastically to the call of the Gunks as rock climbers, Thor and I included. 
 

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