Fundraising and Climbing in the Gunks

This past weekend I made a trip to Connecticut and “The Gunks” New York to do a couple fundraisers and go climbing with my friends Nate McKenzie and Joan Veilleux.

I did my first fundraising event for the weekend at Rock Climb Fairfield. A few of my friends from Paradox events showed up and we had a good time just hanging out. I did my presentation and we hung out some more. Nate had the idea to tell someone if she got 12 people to come in we would supply pizza and beer if they watched my movie. Sure enough, she got 15 people and I redid my presentation without the slides and we raised $208. I met a lot of really awesome people who were genuinely interested in what we are doing. I think that’s the part I like the most is meeting people who really want to know more about me and what we are doing and they ask questions. We strike up conversations and make friends at that moment.

The next day Joan and I met up in the Gunks at Barb Treadway’s house. Barb is a great friend that I met through Paradox Sports. She has let us stay at her house in the Gunks for all of the events Paradox has had there. We all pitch tents all over the lawn and it is always an amazing time. She is selling her house but that won’t stop us from playing in the Gunks.

So back to meeting up with Joan. We timed it perfectly to arrive right when it started down pouring haha. We made the best of it and hung out at Barb’s for a bit and then went into New Paltz, NY for lunch. After we went to the Mohonk Preserve just to walk and roll the carriage road and check out the climbing routes. I decided that I would stay in the morning and go climbing with her and Nate.

That night Rock and Snow, a climbing store in New Paltz, hosted me for a fundraising event. Rock and Snow has always been a big supporter of Paradox Sports and the athletes that attend the events. They are also a huge supporter of the climbing community in general. About the same amount of people showed up to this event but I did have a few new faces that I hadn’t met before so that was pretty cool. With the money raised from Rock and Snow, we managed to raise about $500 for the weekend. We are slowly getting there but we are also working on an online fundraiser which I will announce when it is finished.

Sunday morning Nate, Keith, Joan, and I met up at the Mohonk Preserve to go climbing. I wanted to be on the road around noon since it was about a 7-hour drive home. They set up a route for me that was a combination of the climbs “Bunny” and “Retribution” that we called “the Gimp Variation”. I liked the route because it wasn’t completely vertical and had some roofs and little obstacles to deal with which made it interesting. I tend to like dragging on the rock and being forced to deal with obstacles on the routes I climb, otherwise, its just doing pull-ups. It was fun climbing in the Mohonk Preserve not only because it is an amazing climbing area but I met a lot of awesome people through Joan and just randomly along the trail and while we were climbing. I keep saying life is about the people that are in it and it really is true. Without people helping out and being interested in the same things I am life would be much more difficult and not as fun.

Sandy and I will be starting our cross country trip on Saturday. We aren’t leaving super early because we have to drop the dog off at the kennel but there is no rush anyway. We are planning to stop somewhere near Buffalo, New York the first day and then visit Niagara Falls, NY the second day. I will be persicoping and post blogs with pictures and videos each night from whatever hotel we manage to find to stay. It may not be quite that easy as the WiFi may not be that great but I will try to get things posted asap.

I am posting some 360-degree video I took with a Samsung Gear 360 mounted on my helmet while climbing. The mount was too close to my helmet so the downward view isn’t very good but it was my first attempt and I am working on figuring out a different mount. Also, the video is a bit grainy. The videos are the reason it took me until today to post. They are huge files and took forever to upload. Anyway, I hope they give you some perspective as to what it is like for me to climb and I hope you enjoy them.

I hope you all enjoy our trip as much as we will. So stay tuned and keep checking back for more exciting adventures.