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On a clear and crisp November Sunday, Peter Darmi, a 57-year-old record producer, bites into his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"Take this climb," he says, pointing up at a climber standing under a large overhang above. "It's called Credibility Gap because it doesn't look easy. But it is."
It doesn't look easy. The climber looks comfortable, but he has to reach around a corner, or arete, and step out onto a sheer rock face, 60 feet in the air.
Exposure. It's Shawangunks's climbing in a word - paralyzing terror following the realization that there's nothing but the ground below and the only way out is up.
And it's why climbers visit the Mohonk Preserve 50,000 times a year.
"This is old-school, scary s***," says Jay Jagodzinski, 29. "The Yosemite of the East."
THE GUNKS ARE POPULAR around the world.
Jagodzinksi and Steve Law, 43, are part of a large group hanging out a few hundred yards along the base of the cliff from Darmi. It feels like a strange airport, this place, with people landing on either side and others taking off.
A short drive (less than six hours from around 20 million people), a short walk (most of the climbing is less than an hour walk from the parking lots), toilet facilities and a ranger staff with extensive training in vertical rescue draw 500 to 800 climbers to the Gunks on any given Saturday or Sunday.
On the weekdays, more bird calls than climbers' commands bounce off the Gunks' distinctive quartzite conglomerate walls.
"But the best part," says Jagodzinski, "is Monday to Friday."
THE WALLS are a big part of the draw.
"The rock quality is wonderful," says Rich Gottlieb, owner of Rock and Snow, a climbing and outdoors store in New Paltz.
The 420-million-year-old rock, first thrust into the light of day 350 million years ago, rates around a 7 on the Mohs Hardness Scale (ordinary stainless steel goes at about 6). It's durable enough that scratches from glaciers can still be seen in some areas.
This means that piece of rock you're holding onto probably won't fall off suddenly. Also, it means that the climbs are much the same as when Fritz Weissner first hammered a piton into the Gunks' virgin rock in 1935.
"I don't think anyone in the current era can understand what it was like back then," says Rich Goldstone, a 62-year-old mathematics professor who's been climbing the Gunks for more than 40 years.
"We owe a great debt to Weissner and (Hans) Kraus," says Gottlieb. "They were diplomats."
AND THEIR DIPLOMACY in promoting climbing at the Gunks, as well as their fortitude, climbing untested routes with primitive protection, unreliable ropes and hiking boots, laid the foundation for what today is one of a small number of climber-friendly, private, not-for-profit cliffs in the country.
Paul Trembley, 43, and Andy Gill, 24, have just finished packing up their gear under the Herdie Gerdie block, a half-mile in from the parking lots.
"It's like home," says Trembley, "returning to some of these climbs. The largest concentration of easy to moderate, exciting routes."
A small group of medical students sits near the Uberfall, eating lunch.
"I'm not an amazing climber," says Ayelet Rosen, 20, "and the climbs are still interesting. You have to think a lot."
Such is the hallmark of traditional, or trad, climbing.
While climbing, trad climbers clip their ropes through carabiners attached to spring-loaded camming devices - variously shaped metal nuts that wedge into cracks in the rock.
Sounds hard? Sounds scary?
"It's all about keeping your head in the game," says Russ Clune, one of the climbers on the preserve's board of directors.
"You're 100 feet up and you get to this huge roof," says Law, "and you're thinking, 'Why did I do this?'"
Those roofs - overhanging slabs of rock - and steep walls, often with large hand- and footholds, present a mental and physical challenge for climbers of all ability levels and make the Gunks unique in the climbing community.
Wesley Converse, a 20-year-old Gunks climber, says it all. "Roofs are sacred to the hard climbs."
THE GUNKS HAVE a reputation. A worldwide reputation. Jose Luis Kavamura drove from Brazil in his old Land Rover to climb the Gunks, among other places. "It's one of the main climbing areas," he says.
They also have a long history in what is a relatively new sport. Al Dimaria, 70, began climbing the Gunks in 1957 when local legends Jim McCarthy, Art Gran and Dick Williams, author of the newest Gunks guidebook, were on the rise.
"You knew everybody," says Dimaria. Maybe 20 cars would be parked on the road under the cliff. Climbers could camp out on the carriage road and only few small groups, mostly college outdoor clubs, came to climb.
"It was more cohesive," says Clune. "There was a certain similarity in the way people thought."
But a 1959 climbing death, and the subsequent fears of closure, led to a schism between the dominant group, the Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Vulgarians, a loose group of climbers from City College known as much for their hangovers as the overhangs on the routes they climbed.
"They climbed hard for the day and partied harder that night," says Goldstone, who climbed with the now-revered and once-reviled upstart ascensionists.
After that death, the AMC wanted to institute a rigorous certification program for climbers to assuage any safety concerns on the part the land's owners, the Smiley family.
AMC members would order 'uncertified' climbers down from the cliffs. The Vulgarians responded by, among other things, tipping over a Volkswagen that belonged to an AMC climber.
"Mostly, they were kids being exuberant," said Goldstone.
Today's climbers are different. Camping at the cliff is available but limited. Weekend warriors began to train. These days, more Clif Bars than Pabst are pounded during lunch.
"Now," says Goldstone, "it's about chasing some level of difficulty. To some extent, it's been disconnected from a larger appreciation of the outdoors."
The community still stands, it's just grown. A lot.
"It used to feel much more like a wilderness," says Alicandria. "Now, it feels more like Central Park."
But one thing will never change.
"When you get above 5.10," says Darmi, taking another bite of his sandwich, "you're betting the farm."
The wild side
The Mohonk Preserve covers 6,500 acres of semiwilderness (there are too many trails for the preserve to be considered a wilderness) smack-dab in the middle of one the most heavily populated areas in the country.
It contains eight miles of ridge line, ranging from 60 to 320 feet high and composed mainly of Shawangunk conglomerate, a 420-million-year-old mix of quartz pebbles held together with a quartz cement.
Collisions of tectonic plates 350 million years ago thrust the buried layer above the surface and years of erosion, glaciers and water seeping into cracks to repeatedly freeze and melt created the dramatic cliffs and jumbled mass of boulders, or talus, at their feet.
It is one of the most climber-friendly areas in the country, with convenient parking, permanent anchors, an extensive guidebook covering the range of routes, from easy to hard, and a ranger staff well-trained in vertical rescue.
Designated a "Last Great Place" by the Nature Conservancy, the Shawangunk Ridge is home to 51 listed species, including peregrine falcons, black vultures and rare ferns, and two globally rare ecologies, the dwarf pine barrens and the ice caves at the Sam's Point Preserve. Dramatic changes in conditions and the sudden change in elevation have created a distinct and widely varying ecology made of up many different species all living in close proximity.
Climbing dictionary
Anchor - any point at which the climber's rope is attached to the rock. A fixed anchor is permanent.
Belay - To secure a climber using a rope and either a belay device, a knot called a Munter hitch or one's body to create friction.
Bouldering - Climbing short, hard sequences of moves, called problems.
Cam - A device with spring-loaded metal lobes and a trigger the climber can squeeze to fit it into a crack and release so that it stays there.
Nuts, hexes, tricams, etc. - Metal shapes on wires or cords, designed to stick in cracks in the rock and stay there if placed properly.
Overhang - A section of rock projecting outward from the face, like the eaves of a roof.
Rappel - Descend by sliding down a rope.
Route - The path a climber takes up the rock.
Roof - A large overhang.
Yosemite Decimal System - The system by which almost all American climbs are rated, designating the difficulty of hikes. Technical rock climbing falls in the 5 category, with 5.0 being the easiest, up to 5.14. The number is based on the hardest move on the route.
