It had been a couple years since my last hard effort on the Whitney Gilman. As I drove up to the notch, I had considered turning around on a couple occasions due to fog and drizzle, but convinced myself to at least make it to the base and check it out. I started my watch at the climber's kiosk and ran down the bike trail and up the scree field out of breath and trying to control my heart rate but not take any breaks. I switched into my climbing shoes at the base and started up the 600ft 5.7 Whitney Gilman Route. Things were going smoothly, though certain pitches were a bit wet, so I slowed down to make sure everything was solid. I check my phone at the top of the route and saw 36 minutes. I was confident I could make it back to the car under an hour, just had to keep it together. In the end I finally cracked the 1 hour mark, something which was a goal of mine for many years. Would love to see others take a crack at this!
*Just carried a chalk bag and a pair of climbing shoes. I tied these to by chalk bag on the way way up until I got the the technical climbing section of the route and switched them back out at the top.