Terminator, Kingston Quarry, New York

Ed Keller sent us this historical perspective on Terminator, 5.14a, a manufactured route at Kingston Quarry, New York. The route was 'opened' by Al Diamond, back in 1989 or so. [Ed belayed Al sometime around then on what was likely the second ascent of Cybernetic Wall, a short, intensely powerful and overhanging .13d trad route that Scott Franklin put up back in the late 80s- and which may not have been repeated, actually, since Al's ascent. Cybernetic is awaiting a SIT START- at that point it will merit being on the 'current' tick list, as it will be between 14a and 14b]. Jerry Moffat got on Terminator when he was visiting circa '89- while Al was still creating it- [Craig Berman reminded Ed of this in a recent conversation] and said that the route would go as it was- so Al never added an extra pocket between the 2.1.2 sequence and the finishing jug, thus mandating the lunge.. Ed writes:"As you know of course all the routes in Kingston are drilled at least a bit. The crowd back around 89 was Al, Jordan Mills, myself, Dave Lanman, Craig Berman, Jeff Morris, Tom Andrews, Dave Luhan, and others- Mark Gravatt, John Blumenthal, Doug Hunter- and then a little later John Cronin put a lot of time in." Ed dropped out of the scene in '91 to go to grad school.

Terminator
Al, Jordan, and Ed worked it for a while, then Jordan and Ed projected it for over a year. This was around 1990/91. Ed went out there with Lynn Hill once, and she thought it was amazingly burly-[it is]- At the time a European guy from Poland named Mark Fabijanowski was climbing in Kingston. He was friends with Les Pawlak.

Jordan and Ed were both falling multiple times on TR linkage at the final move, which is arguably the crux- a long hard lunge to a good target hold, after a pretty hard setup sequence- the infamous 2.1.2 setup which is maybe V7-of course, getting to the final lunge is hard on linkage, V9/10 to get into the 2.1.2. Also, the final lunge went with a different foot placement than the one that Jordy and Ed were using, and Ed believes that this foothold was broken or removed subsequently.

Mark ultimately sent Terminator on lead, in 1993. Shortly thereafter, Craig Berman [19 at the time] nabbed the second ascent on TR and then on lead. Craig had gotten the third ascent [redpoint] in '91 of Jordan Mills' amazing monofest Colors, 13d, also at Kingston- which Ed TR'd the second ascent of- subsequently this climb has been modified.. Craig went on to climb hard in Salt Lake in the early 90s, then became a dancer and now is the hot young guy with the modern dance company MOMIX.

The third ascent of Terminator was Vadim Vinokur, in 1996. It was Vad's first 5.14, and he still feels it is 14a, having gotten on it last year again after he worked Biographie in Ceuse. Ivan Greene has also repeated Terminator- in 96/97-after a bout with it. Click here for a Quicktime video of Ed working on Terminator. The movie has a cut in the middle, which misses the entry to the 2.1.2 sequence, and also implies that Ed was linking the route. NOT SO.

Also, there is a line to the left of Terminator that is harder- 14a for sure, perhaps 14b- another project that Al Diamond was opening back in 1990 - that Vadim has done. Ed believes it was the first ascent but one could confirm that with Vadim. Ivan might have done this one as well.

A route or a highball boulder problem?
Having worked on routes like Scarface back in 1989, Ed believes that calling Terminator a route is a misnomer. Ed was close to linking Scarface working it on TR- his best burn starting below the mono and finishing at the exit move [the "Elvis thrutch"] onto the slab- which is basically the whole route- and he feels that no move on Scarface came close to the hard moves on Terminator. Scarface is almost 3 times longer than Terminator. Ed says: "With a couple of Evel pads one could "solo" Terminator- especially after Ivan Greene's mindblowing ascent of Death Penalty which has a much dicier landing. Yeah, it would be highball..."

Ed thinks that, probably, Terminator should be rated V11, and makes this estimate based on more recent comparisons, like working Karajo last fall; then again, it's been ten years since he was on Terminator. But comparing it to something like Karajo, it seems MUCH MUCH harder. Ed has likely spent more time on Terminator than anyone else- literally weeks- and had linkage to the final lunge over ten times... so he should be the ballpark with this rating. For whatever it is worth...

A few comments about Kingston
Ed writes, "I was part of the culture at Kingston in the beginning, and loved it- I thought that drilling in a quarry was a great idea- Coming out of a long background as a trad climber [6 summers in Yosemite and Eldorado] and a little modern dance on the side- I felt like places like Kingston offered something that climbing gets now in gyms. In Kingston we were SCULPTING and creating sequences. As regards the ethics of drilling in a quarry, I never even once questioned it. The better routes mixed natural features with the drilled and manufactured ones. I believe chipping is simply WRONG in most 'natural' areas- and bolting may well be wrong in many areas as well- but we can talk about the evolution of ethics on British Grit areas versus the eastern Euro 40 foot runouts between hand drilled bolts, until we are blue in the face- and why not!

The bottom line: the moves on Terminator are incredibly cool. [Thanks, Al Diamond- and Jerry.]"