Photos by jacobkosker

The slabs as seen from above. It was a hot day before the Fourth of July, 2003 but still a fun climb. I love runout slab climbing!

Yet another brave soul accompanies me on another random adventure. Here's Jodi on the Via Ferrata in May 2003.

A view of Kevin making his way up what is truly a razor's edge. It is a bit unnerving at times to see emptiness to the left and right throughout most of the climb. The old fixed hardware is even more unnerving.

The picture is fuzzy and a bit bright. Josh looks so happy now that he's seventy feet off deck. On the way up he didn't even freeze up once. Awesome first climb bro!

After she watched her nervous boyfriend we convinced her to try it. She cruised right through it! Goddamn! Can I have her Josh? I think Josh's package shrunk two sizes that day.

First the approach follows a beach and meanders through a forest. This is the only approach to the most northern section of Great Head climbs. We had no guidebook to tell us about the climbs. I had once read of the unique climbs here in an old issue of some outdoors magazine, perhaps Climbing. I had waited for this day. All I knew about the climb was from memory. All I could remember was that climbing here is tide dependant and rough. I decided to leave a fixed rope to ascend afterwards. I wasn't about to have an epic with the waves threatening to take us out to sea to join the lobsters. Is that a thousand words yet?

Up is the only way to go unless you can swin in the frigid depths below. I can't believe that there aren't any pics of possibly the tallest sea cliff on the eastern U.S. coastline!

When I finally hiked into the area of Cocise Dome I felt like this sight marked the valley of some wonderful climbing utopia where female climbers are waiting for you at the base of the rocks with cold beer. You can see the dots of two tiny climbers smack dab in the middle of Cochise Dome to the right. Kevin and I were soon to become two dots ourselves.

This climb has everything! The arch is just great.

This is the crown jewel of the via ferrata! I think it is 150 feet across and 25o feet high or perhaps vice versa. Then again maybe I'm really off. Anyways its fun. I don't think that anybody in the east coast even knows that this place exists! You have to go there!

We were on the second pitch of an easy slab climb at Whitehorse Ledge. It just kept getting better!

I took this photo from Cochise Dome after Christmas 2003. Maybe somebody out there can tell me about these rocks.

This in one fun friggin climb. It begins with a search to the approach. The first portion of the climb is really fun if you aid it by lowering off a bolt and pendelum across the face till you can latch onto some chickenheads or scales. Almost the entire climb is protectable only by slinging off big fat chikenheads! Even the belay used these big weathered plates! I have to thanks Kevin for talking me into "driving all the way" to Cochise. We just cames from the Superstitions. What was I thinking? Cochise rocks!

It was a rainy spring last year. I had hitched several times to the Gunks only to be continually skunked by the monsoon season. One morning I woke up at Camp Slime to the sound of rain spattering on my tarp. I set out to do some route-finding and scoping out the climbs. So when I finally found High Exposure I lost my sanity and decided to go it alone. Having never climbed at the Gunks nor having ever rope soloed anything it seemed like fun. I set up some sort of reverse anchor and soloed on my Gri Gri. The climb was mostly dry until I climbed out of the roof and was "exposed" to the rain. It is a bit scary trying to feed slack to oneself by holding the free end of the rope in my teeth while looking up into the rain drops. I took this picture when I was cleaning up the route and ascending the rope I had just fixed. Probably the craziest thing I had ever done. I don't think anybody believed that I did that.

This is on of my favorite memories of my short climbing career in Arizona. The route can be climbed with about three tricams and a quickdraw or two. I like to challenge myself by climbing them with less gear sometimes. Maybe some people would all this an "old school" approach? I guess I climb Trad for the art in it.