From the top of Pheobe, Ben hikes by headlamp through the woods along the top of the cliff to rap down to the chains on Nosedive and Retribution. Rufus climbs Retribution, then Ben, then Ben again on Nosedive, and then Rufus. After whoops and hollers echo all around we’ve done it! That is thirty. It’s 8:55pm.

We climbed for 13 hours and 35mins. While we had double ropes, we used only one of them (one 8.5mm rope) for all of the climbs except Welcome to the Gunks.

We found that racking each cam on a single biner made for very fast placement and re-racking. Also, and Rufus will disagree, the fact that we did NOT have small nuts I think made us go faster, since the second didn’t have to sit there mid climb futzing with an annoying and finicky tiny nut placement. We racked off our harnesses, and did not use a gear sling.

We were really tired, and I was very afraid of leading with my arms spasming as they were. It took a lot of stamina, more than I thought I had. Our attitudes were positive for then entire day and somehow we didn’t get on each other’s nerves.

To me, the whole project was a modified vision of our regular climbing area. It was as if we were seeing the Gunks in a different light. Since every climb was a 5.10, difficulty became secondary to the project. Like the way vanilla ice cream tastes after you eat too much of it. We became numb to the experience a little. And that was alarming to me. Risk melted away, and with it so did fear, necessary for proper awareness of the activity. I found myself, in my tired state, 40 feet above my last piece, not realizing I had just climbed that far with about placing anything. Mistakes are not an option at that point, and being exhausted stacks the deck in the wrong direction.

Rufus did end up heading out to Yosemite two weeks later, and while his and Ben's original plan for the Nose didn't work out, Rufus used his experience gained doing thirty 10s in the Gunks to propel him (and his partner Ruben Villagran) up Astroman, DNB of Middle Cathedral, the Rostrum, Hotline, and a few other shorter routes on a 9 day stay to the Valley. Ben used his stamina to weather the legal forms required to established his new business, Ben Carlson Lighting and Photography, LLC. (www.BenCarlsonPhoto.com)