Most Terrifying Yet Beautiful Experience Of My Life In The Gunks O10

During his visit Joe from Wilderness Rocks took me on a terrifying climb up the face of the shawangunk mountains. This area is the climbers mecca where professionals climb all the time.

We started out walking through a field and I thought this was a simple walk in the park. Joe kept apologizing to me but I did not understand why. It was a simple walk.

We had our day packs and some basic survival gear with us. You should never leave home without at least some basic survival gear. Especially if you are in the mountains.

We ended up at the foot of a rugged pile of boulders and stopped. Again Joe apologized to me. I kept asking why. Then he pointed upwards and said that is where we are going.

I still did not understand and asked where the trail was. He said - right there - pointing straight up the boulders.

I was not expecting this.

We struggled and climbed up the rocks, taking breaks along the way. This is scary if you are afraid of heights. No, let me correct that. This is terrifying if you are afraid of heights. I am not bad but this did have my legs shaking at times.

There are places where you are laying down crawling under an overhang with a drop off right to your side. There are crevices like you hear about in true survival stories where people were trapped and had to cut off limbs in order to get out.

As I was thinking just that, Joe warned me to be careful where I put my backpack during a break. He said that if you drop it, you will never see it again. Great.

Eventually we made it to the top for a very beautiful and rewarding view of the area. You can see for many miles out into the countryside. You can see the Gunks around us and the Catskills off in the distance.

It was very beautiful. It was also that much better after the scary climb up to the top.

Of course professional climbers will scoff at us for our fear and the "little park walk" we did. But I have to admit, I will never be a climber so this was a challenge for me. And it felt good to make it to the top.

Joe's channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/wildernessrocksny

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