Rolling Like Movie Stars at Millbrook

(Photo: Will coming up pitch one (5.9) of The Movie Star (5.10+).)

I never made it out to Millbrook in 2016, not once. I hoped to correct this regrettable oversight in 2017, but for some reason it didn't happen. I let the entire year slip away, again, without paying a visit to the wonderful white cliff.

As 2018 got underway, I thought of every weekend as a chance to go to Millbrook. I was itching to get out there again. I resolved to go back to “the Bank” as soon as I got the chance.

A recent Saturday seemed like the perfect opportunity, with no rain in the forecast and temperatures expected to reach 70 degrees. My partner, Will, had never been there, and he was eager to see what it was all about.

Half of the cliff was closed for falcons but I had several targets in mind (a couple of hard 5.10’s among them) that were open.

I hoped I would feel up to climbing the harder stuff.

I'd been cruising along pretty well lately. In the Trapps and the Nears I wouldn’t think twice about trying any 5.10. But Millbrook, I knew, was different. The isolation, the loose rock, the spooky atmosphere— what Todd Swain describes as the “terrors of Millbrook”— could make me revise my plans. Once we were actually there, I expected that my bold ambitions might float off with the falcons, leaving us with few options. (There aren’t many easy routes at Millbrook.)

But I tried to put these doubts out of my mind. The last time I visited Millbrook, I’d gotten up the nerve to do my first 5.10 at the cliff, The Time Eraser. And once I finally sacked up and did it, the route went perfectly. I hoped I could build on that success with Will.

Our day began with the pleasant but long-ish hike out to the crag. We chugged along pretty quickly, but still spent over an hour on the trail. Was it the long walk that kept so many climbers away from Millbrook? Or was it the nature of the place?

We seemed to be the only ones at the cliff as we set up for the rap in to the base. Although civilization was visible beneath us, it seemed very far away. There was no road noise. The peace was disturbed only by a lone rooster, crowing away at some farm down below. I tried to imagine the crowds that were surely swarming the Trapps, even at this early morning hour, and felt so grateful that we had this huge expanse of stone to ourselves.

(Photo: Crossing the Death Ledge.)

Since it was Will’s first visit, we started with Westward Ha!, the ultra-classic 5.7 up a prominent corner system in the center of the cliff. It is everyone’s first route at Millbrook.

I led a short first pitch up from the Death Ledge to the tree at the base of the corner, so Will could then take it to the top in one pitch containing all of the great climbing.

Even though I’d done this climb twice before, I felt a bit uncertain as I led our first pitch. Was I really going the right way? The rock was so hollow and dirty. I picked my way slowly towards the tree, worried that this might not be my day to shine at Millbrook. I felt like I took much too long on what ought to have been a quick no-big-deal kind of pitch.

Will was clearly feeling the Millbrook spook too as he led off into the real meat of the climb. He was tentative and slow, but as he continued up the beautiful corner he seemed to gain confidence. By the time he disappeared around a roof up high I felt like things were looking up; we were going to have a very good day.

(Photo: Will setting off on the lead on Westward Ha! (5.7).)

As I climbed up to join him I remembered how great Westward Ha! is. There are some fun sequences in the corner. I have been working in the gym on my crack climbing skills, in preparation for a climbing trip to Squamish, BC (post coming soon). So on Westward Ha! I tried to throw a jam in whenever I could. It was fun but seldom necessary. I found the face climbing near the top of the cliff to be outstanding, on clean white rock with wonderful, grippy texture— quintessential Millbrook.

I decided it was go time. I was ready for something a bit more ambitious for our next route. We rapped back down and tip-toed our way across the Death Ledge until we found ourselves beneath The Movie Star (5.10+).

This climb doesn’t appear in any guidebook, but it is featured on Christian Fracchia’s website, The White Cliff. From Christian’s description, I gathered that we could expect technical 5.9 climbing up a leaning corner on pitch one, and then a couple of 5.10 cruxes after that. I wasn’t sure where to belay; it seemed from the photos on the website that the route could be broken into four pitches if you stopped at every ledge. I figured we would try to do it in two or three.

The usual rotten band off of the Death Ledge didn’t look too bad, and as I got started most of the rock seemed solid. It wasn’t long before the features forced me to the right and I found myself in the leaning corner depicted in Christian’s photos. Moving up the corner, I encountered thoughtful, continuous climbing, with no "stopper" moves. Before I knew it I was mantling onto a comfortable ledge where it seemed natural to build a belay. This was a very nice pitch; I might give it a rating of sustained 5.8 rather than 5.9, but regardless of how difficult it is, I found it quite enjoyable, with good gear.

(Photo: Will on pitch one of The Movie Star (5.10+).)

I knew I was about to hit the hard climbing. The right-facing corner system continued above me, with a pretty blank-looking section right off the belay. When Will joined me on the ledge I took the lead again.

I got through the first problem pretty fast. It took only a few delicate moves to reach some good holds at a shallow overhang, and once I was over that I was cruising up again towards another ledge. It seemed too early to stop, however, so I continued past the ledge into what was clearly the crux of the route, another even blanker corner capped by another overhang.

I knew I had to get to the top of this corner and then move left— a standard Gunks roof escape. But how? The corner was very smooth. I looked around for a while and eventually settled on something resembling a foothold. Stepping up, I managed to make some kind of Houdini move to the top of the corner, where I found good hands and could place gear.

Now I was stuck at the overhang. I had to figure out how to move left around the outside corner, and I struggled. I couldn’t find any feet, and I started to get pumped, just hanging on. I wanted to commit to something and move around the corner but I couldn’t see anything; no hands, no feet. I was in a stalemate with the rock. I remember uttering a number of sounds, along with a “f*ck me!” or two for good measure.

I was considering taking a hang when I finally spotted a foothold I’d missed. With no time to waste, I planted my toe on it, matched hands and moved blindly around to the left, where all became clear. I found more holds and gear, and then made it up to another little ledge, where I exhaled and decided to build an anchor.

Calling down to Will, I asked if he had seen my struggle with the crux.

He said he couldn’t see me but heard a lot of grunting going on!

I felt proud. This was a tough on-sight. I’d give it a 5.10+ for sure. And such good moves! The Movie Star is an awesome climb, very worthwhile. It is destined to be a Gunks classic. We all owe Christian a debt of gratitude for making this climb known to the general climbing public.

(Photo: Will between the two crux sections on The Movie Star (5.10+). I'm standing just above the hard moves around the corner.)

I think Will would agree about the quality of the climb and its difficulty. When he got up to the crux corner, he struggled too. He was having no trouble during the early going, but then all of a sudden I heard “oof, how did you DO this??” Along with “nice lead!” and a bunch of assorted curses. Eventually he figured it all out and made it up to join me.

I kept on leading for pitch three. It wasn’t entirely clear where to go but I followed the path of least resistance, taking a (5.8?) jog to the right around a little overhang and then heading straight up a dirty, vegetated gully to the top. Looking at Christian’s pictures that evening, I saw that I could have avoided some of that dirt by stepping left after the first part of the pitch. But even though it appears I went the wrong way for the final fifteen or twenty feet, I don’t think I missed much.

(Photo: View of the Trapps and Skytop from a perch near the top of Millbrook.)

As far as we knew, we were still the only climbers at the cliff that day, but as we emerged from The Movie Star at the top of the cliff we encountered a group of about ten hikers sitting around just above the top-out. This is another unique feature of climbing at Millbrook. There is a popular hiking trail from Minnewaska (called the Millbrook Mountain Trail) that dead-ends at the cliff's edge, so throughout the day groups of hikers reach the end of the hike, take a break, have a snack, and then turn around and hike back. (I've done the hike with my kids.) Where the hiking trail hits the cliff, close to Westward Ha!, the "summit" area is set back a ways from the edge, but further south by The Movie Star the slabs run pretty much right up to the precipice.

When Will and I stepped over the lip, surprising the group of hikers, I felt like we might as well have just come over the Visor on Half Dome. We were greeted with awe and wonder. One shocked hiker asked the most intelligent questions he could, under the circumstances, such as "How was your climb today?" and "How long did it take you?" I tried to explain that there are many routes to get from the bottom to the top, that we'd already done two of them that day, and that were going to go back down for more.

Then we marched off as heroically as we could.

We had time for another full-length route. Will was still getting used to the semi-alpine quality of the rock at Millbrook, which dictates that every hold must be treated with some skepticism. Given this reality, Will wasn’t too keen on leading anything hard, at least not yet. I understood his reticence; I had been there! But I wanted him to be able to lead something so I suggested we try a moderate climb called Again and Again (5.7). I was eager to do the second pitch, a fifty-foot traverse under a huge ceiling. And I knew that after the second pitch we’d have the option of finishing with an easy scramble to the top, or if we felt up to it we could do something harder: the 5.10 third pitch of Cuckoo Man, over a roof.

Again and Again is easy to find if you know what to look for: a massive, radically overhanging right-facing corner. This corner is so big, you can quickly pick it out from as far away as Bruynswick Road down in Gardiner. The corner houses a legendary 5.12 route called Happiness is a 110-Degree Wall. Again and Again starts about twenty-five feet to the right, at a smaller but equally obvious right-facing corner that forms the right side of a pedestal leaning against the main wall of the cliff.

(Photo: Will on pitch one of Again and Again (5.7).)

Will led pitch one, a perfectly pleasant climb up the side of the big pedestal. The route-finding on this pitch couldn’t be easier, and the rock seemed pretty solid, with good gear.

After I joined Will atop the pedestal I took the lead for pitch two. This is truly a great pitch. It is marred slightly by dirt and bird shit in the early going, but the position and exposure soon make up for these trivial shortcomings. The long, rising traverse takes you across a smooth face under a gigantic overhang. The traverse stays below the roof level, on the seemingly blank face, for almost its entire length. You keep thinking the holds will run out, but as you move laterally, a magic row of footholds just keeps on going, with fun move after fun move. And while Dick Williams’ book gives this pitch an R rating, I thought with modern gear the protection was plentiful.

(Photo: Looking back at Will from the end of the long traverse on pitch two of Again and Again (5.7). Behind Will is the enormous, leaning corner of Happiness is a 110-Degree Wall (5.12).)

Once you finish the traverse there are some more fun moves up a corner on beautiful white rock.

This climb deserves to be popular. It is the Gunks’ answer to Seneca’s ultra-classic Pleasant Overhangs (5.7).

(Photo: Finishing Again and Again (5.7).)

Now that we were done with pitch two, we had a decision to make. Should we scramble up an easy gully to our right, reaching the top of the cliff and the end of our day? Or should we do the third pitch of Cuckoo Man, just above us?

I decided I was up for the Cuckoo Man challenge. Will said he was game to follow it.

All three pitches of Cuckoo Man have 5.10 cruxes. The whole climb is on my to-do list, but the first pitch off of the Death Ledge seems like a committing proposition, since it has a long 5.8 runout before the (well-protected) 5.10 roof section. I took a good look at this pitch as we walked over to Again and Again. I think I'm ready for it but there's only so much time in one day. It can wait.

Pitch three, our goal for today, appeared to have good gear throughout. It looked to me like an easy traverse under the overhang to a difficult roof problem.

When I got up there I found out that the traverse is the real business. There is good gear but it can be strenuous to place and/or remove. As you move to the right the handholds get smaller and smaller and the feet fall away to nothing, over an empty abyss. It is exciting.

I was happy to work my way through it on the first try-- I would say this pitch, like The Movie Star, is on the "plus" side of 5.10. Once I finished the traverse, getting to the notch in the roof, I found the moves upward to be easier, maybe 5.9+.

This is a quality pitch on great rock, and a nice way to reach the top of Millbrook without having to dig through a dirty gully to get there.

(Photo: Will making it over the roof on pitch three of Cuckoo Man (5.10).)

Our day had come to and end, sadly. I had expected us to make it to the Gunks Climbers' Coalition barbecue that night, which ended at 8:00 p.m. But when I looked at my watch atop Cuckoo Man I was surprised to see that we were running late-- it was already almost 7:00, and we still had to hike for over an hour just to get to the car. So we missed the barbecue, which I regret. At Millbrook, a land that time forgot, the hours have a way of slipping away from you.

As we hiked out I resolved not to wait so long to go back again! I am excited to do so many routes there. I feel like I've graduated to a new level of comfort at the cliff and I'm ready to tackle the climbs I've always wanted to do. In addition to the rest of Cuckoo Man (5.10), my targets include Swinging C (5.8 or 5.10 depending on the source of information), The White Corner (5.9/5.10), Lessons in History (5.10), High Plains Drifter (5.10), and Square Meal (5.11-), just to name just a few.

Adventure awaits!