Pre-Load

I had another nickname, a far more colorful one that I appreciated, but it only lasted a few short months. It had neither the pithy quality that "The Load" carries, nor its strong descriptive nature. But, for a while, I was the "Well-Dressed Waterboy."

May, 1998.  The weather in NY was warming up and as it was the weekend I did what I did every nice weekend in those years before serious romantic partners, family and other obligations - I climbed.  I had arranged to meet KW and the Voyageur at the Gunks.  This was a fairly regular event for KW and I and it was nice that Voyageur was meeting up with us.  They both lived much closer to New Paltz than I did, so after work (teaching in suburban LI) on Friday  I took off.  I had suede shoes and a button down shirt and khaki pants on.  I had my climbing gear and tent packed in the car and probably not much else.

We crashed at the campground (the old DEC dump, now an off -limits to camping dump) and went out to get beer or drank beer or did something with beer until we woke early in the morn.  I began to look around my tent and then car for stuff to wear but could only come up with a pair of rather preppy looking shorts, only slightly more casual than the pants I had.  Otherwise I still had suede shoes and a button down shirt.  I packed my gear and off we drove.  You could still park on 44/55 then, so there was an impetus for getting to the climbs early.  This particular day we headed down to High E.  High E was short for High Exposure and was (and is) a Gunks Classic for many reasons: it was first climbed by two area pioneers Hans Kraus and Fritz Weisner, they climbed it sight unseen and of course with no guidebook, they used a hemp rope and a few pitons, it's a 5.6 but one that can scare the fuck out of any beginning leader who thinks he or she is ready for 5.6 because that last pitch is slightly overhanging all the way up, it has great horizontal holds and wonderful protection, but overhangs between 5 and 15 degrees.

 Being that we were up early there was only one group on the climb before us which was quite remarkable because sometimes parties in waiting were 3 deep.  So we dropped our stuff and prepared to wait.  And the sun came out and warmed up and we realized we were low on water.  If you know the Gunks, you know there is this pipe of technically unsafe and unregulated drinking water that everyone has filled water bottles from for decades.  This pipe is located near the Uberfall - the sorta hub around which a lot of the social activity at the Gunks takes place.  So I grabbed an empty water bottle, and started running back to the Uberfall from High E (quite a ways) in my suede shoes, khaki shorts, and button down shirts. 

I'm not sure if the Adam Sandler movie had just come out then or not, but while I was running KW and V apparently decided I was the Well-Dressed Waterboy.  Quite an appellation.  They chuckled about it and called me it all weekend.  I could live with that one though.  I mean a nickname does not usually compliment a positive quality and is never chosen by its owner; those are the rules.  So if I was going to have one, I could deal with WDWb.  I kinda liked it.  Gentle ribbing at its best. 

Two months later camp started and I took Weebs, V, and Austin to Roger's Rock.  Later that day and for the next 10-15 years I was the Load.  Read the Voyageur's story on that below.