* GOClimb <imcracklo...@hotmail.com>:

Indeed, I did say that, didn't I? Schedules slip for lots of reasons;
mine mostly because it took me about 2 weeks to recover from my ten day
bender whilst home in NJ for the holidays.

I've updated the GunksFest page with 2004's pictures, and a few links to
some posts in this thread. Chiloe gets the award for "Only Real TR".

  http://www.tradgirl.com/areas/ny/gunks/gunksfest.shtml

As for myself, here's a half-assed summary from my end of things...

----------------------------
It was cold. Really cold. But well worth the effort to meet up with old
friends and make some new ones. Unlike the west coasters who actually
get to climb during their yearly Hallowe'en at Josh festival, the east
coasters (and those unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity during the
yuletide season) realize that our event is a farce, a nice way to spend
some (variable, yearly) time between coffee at the Bakery and beer at
Bacchus. Any climbing done is incidental, accidental, and mostly mental.

That said, any climbing that we actually do automatically becomes two
full grades harder, and we get to claim epic encounters on 80 foot
routes. If Chris Sharma wants to push some big numbers, he should come
to GunksFest 2005 and climb Frogshead:

  - summertime rating: 5.4
  - Zero degrees (celsius) ambient temperature: +0.1
  - Zero degrees (celsius) rock temperature: +0.2
  - Blinding snow flying into eyes: +0.1
  - Climbing with wool mittens on: +0.1
  - Climbing with giant mountaineering boots: +0.1
  - Last one climbing (to clean the gear) while everyone else is already
    packed and has their warm clothes on and are half way to the cars,
    and thus Bacchus, and further thus beer: +0.9
  ----------------------------
  final rating: 5.19

Thus, it is demonstrated that we who are strong in spirit, but weak in
the lost art of common sense, deserve the adulation and adoration of all
the other technogeeks out there who still know what "usenet" is.

qed.

As an extra bonus, we got to find out what "I. Chiloe" actually means.
And no, we're not telling. What goes on at GunksFest, stays at
GunksFest.

Or something like that.

/Alex