2025 GCC GunksFest Recap

GunksFest 2025 is a wrap!

It’s taken us a couple of weeks to drink in all the amazing moments that made this year’s event such a shining success for all our over 200 participants.

We’ve got a lot of thanks to dole out, but probably our biggest debt of gratitude is to whomever pulled the strings to get us the finest weekend weather window of the year, especially on the heels of 20+ (!!!) straight weekends of precipitation to start the year.

But thankfully this year GunksFest was located squarely at the intersection of sunshine and dry rock, cool and crisp temps greeting the morning like a cup of fresh coffee.

A fresh cup of coffee served just before a stellar yoga session – which is exactly how we kicked off the fest (no pun intended) with our beloved and well-tenured yoga instructor Laura Obringer (@laurayogaclimb).

Laura got the early-birds all limber for their clinics, which on Saturday had a strong focus on the technical.

Everywhere you looked it seemed there was a Gunks Guides clinic, and rightfully so. Eric and his amazing team anchored the festival with ten sessions ranging from Bouldering Movement and Spotting Skills to a Trad Climbing Intensive. We were super excited that the GG crew hosted new adventure clinics including mastering map and compass, wilderness survival, and glacier travel/crevasse rescue.

Now it’s confirmed, those wandering folks weren’t astray of the Rosendale rail trail – they were following lead guide Greg Kanter and leaning all things bearing and declination.

As usual plenty of hard-skill clinics prevailed, with a strong focus on TR anchors, self-rescue, and top-down belaying. The TR-soloing clinic was especially popular this year, an intensive clinic aimed squarely at the most introverted of climbers.

Rise Outside’s Angelo Urrico was on-hand to lead one of the TR clinics, then got folks off the deck in his multipitch masterclass. Here participants learned tactics that would raise their needle in both the safety and efficiency categories.

Perhaps the most fun was had by the crew in Mountain Skills guide Teddy Dondaville’s Climbing in a Party of Three – we can’t wait to see these three amazing ladies take down el Cap before long!

Our professor-in-residence Dr. Richard Goldstone returned for his classroom-style lectures, transforming the Center at Stone Mountain’s barn into a physics classroom. Richard’s philosophies and curricula are at the nucleus of the GCC education festivals, between his experience, teaching skills, and depth of knowledge he is a true treasure to the climbing community.

Unbeknownst to many his “How to be a Good Second” philosophy was an inspiration for the educational portion of the fest. While we are happy to offer many sold-out clinics focused on the hard hands-on skills of the climbing world, we are proud to offer a secondary path of knowledge-sharing. One that covers the skills lost in the ever-widening mentorship gaps, drawn from decades of experience.

Combined with his technical knowledge of mathematics, Richard’s “Cams: From Soup to Nuts” clinic should be required learning for all trad climbers. His mathematical approach takes the guesswork out of gear placements – at least to a degree – and his masterful presentation of the material doesn’t leave your head spinning at the mere mention of “friction coefficient.”

All of Richard’s clinics fall into the free category, which we do our best to deepen each year.

One new add was the Bonticou Ecology Hike, led by Mohonk Preserve climbing ranger and forestry specialist Evan Timony. This one went fast too, as the sold-out clinic offered free day-passes to the preserve, a guide up the famed Bonticou scramble, and Evan’s field presentation of the unique nature of our endangered dwarf pitch pine clifftop landscape.

Nature enthusiasts had the option of mushroom foraging with the GCC’s Jannette Pazer, who always puts the fun in fungus. Jannette also led her informal discussion entitled “Welcome to the Gunks,” a Q&A session for all things introductory.

“Bank Manager” Rich Romano reprised his “Philosophies on Staying out of Trouble,” a talk on personal approach to staying out of dangerous situations – which was taken one step further by the Mohonk Preserve Rangers Alan and Stu in their PSAR & Emergency Response clinic. As usual attendees were treated to perhaps the most important lessons GunkFest has to offer: their role in preventing and assisting in accident scenarios. This clinic has the added bonus of one lucky participant getting a free ride in a rescue litter…

GCC board member and local photographer/filmmaker Chris Vultaggio took a break from festival duties to lead his climbing photography masterclass. From camera gear to rigging equipment to approaches to being published, Chris covered a lot of ground as always in his full-house session.

The boulderers in the crowd got to know our resident Waterworks tour guide, Vinny Liguori. Vinny and the GCC offered four guided sessions to the tucked-away Waterworks bouldering area, sharing his knowledge of the boulders and also sharing pads over two perfect days.

Each year Dr. Migel Zavallos from Climbing Rehab joins us, offering hands-on personal injury evaluation and treatment plan methodologies. From nagging joint pain to acute finger pops a trip to this free clinic can serve everyone – even if you are just looking for practices in injury prevention.

For a more full-body treatment the next stop was Jackie Pearce of HVRapid. It was a collective effort over two days to wear Jackie out, the first NeuroFascial Reset practitioner of her kind in NY, as she offered free 10-minute massages to all GunksFest participants. We didn’t stand a chance. Even as the last film credits rolled, Jackie was hard at work, tirelessly and generously restoring our climber muscles.

Her tent in the Vendor Village was among good company, with arts vendors, gear vendors, and even a blend of the two in Dan’s Unspoken Beta tent – did anyone among us manage to complete his hold-lifting challenge? Or check out the Finger Bouldering crew and their awesome products?

 

 

As usual we were beyond grateful to have participation from our invited JEDI groups, with strong table showings from The Amy Stone Foundation, Brown Girls Climb, Kinship Climbing Collective, NYCCC, and our local and beloved ParaCliffHangers.

Part of our mission has been to always stand up and support climbing access here in the Gunks – this takes on many forms and for more about what we do in the JEDI arena, and how you can help, see our JEDI mission .

While our relationships with all the above are what colors GunksFest so brightly, the engine behind the event is proudly 100% volunteer-powered.

We’ve got nearly 50 volunteer spots to fill each year, and are so grateful to those who show-up onsite to proudly wear our red Volunteer Crew shirts. There are those among you who continue to show up, year after year, and we can’t express enough thanks for all the hard work you do.

And fueling this amazing volunteer crew is the generous support of our sponsors – without whom there would be no fest.

Rock and Snow, you have had our backs since we became the very first national LCO (local climbing organization) decades ago. Thank you for being at the heart of our events.

Newly-minted this year is a proud alliance with Movement Climbing Gyms. As a gold-level sponsor, Movement’s support goes miles beyond financial contributions (although, in turbulent sponsorship times, we stretch our coffers as far as they can go to offer these events). If it weren’t for Movement, the festival would have looked very different this year – be sure to stop in, support, and say a huge GunksFest thank you for supporting local climbing!

Movement offered a ton of pre-event support to get the word out about our event, efforts no doubt directly responsible for the “SOLD OUT” badge on many of our clinics. We look forward to more partnerships with this amazing organization moving forward.

Athletic Brewing returned with an entirely different type of support: ensuring our participants were rehydrated and celebratory with their huge donation this year. Thanks to them we had coolers full of complimentary non-alcoholic delicious beers to cheers!

A new behind-the-scenes sponsor was Rocky Talkie, enabling the entire events staff to have a clear and immediate channel of communication – especially useful in a beautiful yet remote climbing area with intermittent cell service. Rocky Talkie also provided first-place prizes for the men’s and women’s hangtime contest, with a set of walkies for each!

 

 

And let’s not forget the 2025 GunksFest T-shirt designer, our own GCC board member, Matt Logan, and screen printer Joker Ink – who made sure you all looked your best in our GunksFest merch.

Other comp prizes were donated by our longtime friends at Gunks Apps, as well as annual memberships donated by the Mohonk Preserve.

Which brings us to yet another level of gratitude for our partners at the Mohonk Preserve. How does the local land manger support us at GunksFest? Let’s count the ways:

• They help us ensure access to the Waterworks for all our bouldering tours and clinics.
• They offer up some of their crack Ranger team to lead rescue clinics.
• Dan Cassidy, Chief Ranger, provides a behind-the-scenes look into climbing accidents during his annual Sunday MP Keynote Address.
• Members of the MP Membership and Ranger team table, fielding questions from wildlife to climbing anchors.
• The MP offers us raffle and contest prizes.
• GunksFest participants get a special Mohonk Preserve membership benefit only available to fest attendees.
• 10 passes were donated for Mohonk Preserve ranger/forestry specialist’s Bonticou clinic.
• And all the good vibes and endless stoke their team brings to the event.

And lastly, speaking of land, we’d be an event without a home without our family at the Center at Stone Mountain. Each year they graciously host our flagship festival, a beautiful landscape that brings together all that we endeavor to offer, from cliff faces to the stage.

The Gunks Climbing Film Festival, a decades-long tradition, was once again the backbone of our evenings. As usual our films run astray of the bigger-budget style productions, with a strong grassroots commitment to showing some of the most powerful stories in climbing.

The two are not mutually-exclusive, however, as filmmakers Gregory Berg and Henry Fernberger brought their local spotlight film, “Best Things in Life Are Free,” about Will Moss and his 5.14d R contribution to the Gunks to the mainstage. The two made a special trip to the event for a live fireside chat with Chris Vultaggio – shedding some light on what it took to film such a momentous (and at times quite scary) ascent.

 

Our film slate covered everything from bouldering to mountaineering over two nights of climbing cinema – set against a backdrop of a starry Gunks ridgeline, with movie treats provided by the GroundUp Food Truck alongside the trusty Rail Trail Cafe (which also held down breakfast and lunch).

Most of all, we have an incredible gratitude for all our participants, new and return, for making GunksFest such a fulfilling event. You pulled one another from crevasses, lost together in the woods, rescued each other from ropes, learned, laughed, and hopefully forged new climbing friendships.

We are so grateful for you – and hope to see you next year!