Adventures during September 16-19, 2005

Friday, September 16, 2005

9:00am: We arrive at the base of Ecstasy Jr. (5.4). We rack up and I take the lead on P1 and P2. With some new found crack technique, the lead went very smooth compared to my first time on this climb two months before. Sandy followed without any problems except for the whole climbing with a pack issue. We then hike up to luncheon ledge, which is completely empty! Usually this area is a circus. A few drops of rain doesn't stop us from racking up for Humphrey's Head (5.2-5.4). I quickly lead up Humphrey's, which had a super cool and exposed summit and we rap off. The weather was questionable but no hard rain had fallen yet so we decided to summit via the easiest route: Old Ladies (5.2). For a change of pace, Sandy leads P1, her 4th trad lead ever. Being 9 grades under her sport limit, she obviously didn't have any problems with the pitch. This is a good thing because I wouldn't have wanted to fall on any of her cams. The slung rock was good and so was the #9 nut but the cams needed a little work. We swap leads and I lead P2 and P3. Then we scramble to the summit. We meet some strangers and join ropes to get down in one rappel and 30 ft of down climbing instead of the standard 3 rappels you'd with a single rope. After rappelling but before down climbing, Sandy dropped her rappel device. Amazing enough, she later finds her ATC lying in the middle of the trail. 5:00pm: We take a quick dip at the swimming hole and eat at that popular pizza place in "town." For the amount of hype that place has, the pizza was really, really bland but the view was "second to none."

Saturday, September 17, 2005

8:00am: After some rain during the night, we wake up in hopes of being able to climb despite the rain. We decide it would be fun to summit the North face via Roux (5.3). The approach up the steep "scramble trail" turns out to be quite strenuous. The guide books estimate of 10 minutes uphill was way off. After getting a little lost, seeing a snake, and getting stuck with carrying the rack and the rope, we arrive at Roux. Sandy: "I hate all this hiking. I'm never coming back to Seneca." Sandy decides she wants to take the lead and make this her first full multipitch lead. I show her a bit more about placing cams and try to sell her on passive tricams, which are the greatest thing since sliced bread. She runs out the first 20 ft of face moves and enters the left facing corner. Instead of staying in the 5.3 corner she climbs the much cooler and airy outside edge of the corner. She places a decent #4 C4 (this giant cam fits on almost every pitch I climb) and slings a nice rock and tree. The #3 C4 still needed some work. At the top of P1, Sandy: "I take back everything I said about Seneca, it's so beautiful!" She then takes off on P2 which was mostly class 4 moves but required some good route finding skills as we didn't really know where the summit was. She handled it well and belayed me off some tiny tree. In an attempt to get down, we climb some exposed 5th class terrain unroped and Sandy sticks me in some chimney that she expects me to stem my way through. I didn't sign up for stemming through this mess with a 30 ft fall under me. Hey, what a great time for a picture! Somehow she caught me smiling so it must not have been that bad. We take the walk off and Sandy naps at the observation deck using my precious cams as a pillow while I hike back to get our packs. 3:00pm: After getting lost looking for the Lower Slabs, we come to this sweet looking hand crack with a big tree at the top and a reasonable scramble to set it up. Who cares where we are, this climb looks great and is easy to setup. I climb it first on top rope and enjoy all the perfect jams in it. When I get down I guess it's a 5.7. Sandy then dances her way up the crack avoiding jamming like the plague and relying on the tiny face holds. Some strangers come by and tell us we are on Scuttle (5.5). So much for my 5.7! I top rope it once more and we head out. 5:15pm: We take another quick dip at the swimming hole then we head out to the New River Gorge. Sandy suggests we eat at this shady looking place called the "Alpine Motel." Never in a million years would have a considered a place that looked like this. Well, they had prime rib and I was hungry so I ordered it despite the fact the waitress told me "bud and bud light" when I asked her what imports they had. Amazingly, the food turned out to be damn good so we stuffed our faces and headed to Roger's Rocky Top Retreat for camping at the New. Now I'm not a sport climber and this is the first time you're going to catch me traveling a distance to go sport climbing so of course I'm going to judge this place. Camping at the Gunks is almost real camping and camping at Seneca might be "car camping" but this place is just out of hand. It's literally this guy's backyard. Each tent is about 2 ft from the next tent. It just felt trendy but then again I was just looking for reasons not to like it.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Of course, I couldn't go three days in a row without an epic. 7:30am: Wake up and head to the Cathedral Café for a banging breakfast then to the gear store, where Sandy picks up a new pair of climbing shoes and I get the latest guide to Bubba City, a popular crag here at the New. 9:00am: We arrive at Bubba City and head for the Beer Wall which has lots of sport routes in the 5.5 to 5.8 range. Toward the end of the approach, I notice ladders and ropes on the class 3 down climb. At this point, I lose all respect for this place. Yesterday we were soloing exposed 5th class moves 400 ft above the deck and now we're at a place that gives you a ladder to get down 3 ft of low angle rock! Well I had no idea what the grades were going to be like here. Sandy takes the lead on the class Daisy Cutter (5.7) which had some sweet chimney and layback moves. After seeing her have a tad of trouble with the route, I figured there's no way I should take the sharp end on it so I top rope it. It might have been 5.7 but it was sustained at the grade. We then both lead various routes from 5.5 to 5.7, including the "easiest route in the gorge" Micro Brew (5.5), which Sandy almost refused to lead because it was too easy. Sandy then rope gunned a handful of 5.8s while I tackled most of them on top rope. Damn, they were hard. Now Sandy's quads aren't in the best shape so she likes to use "hand holds" while hiking. On the way back to the car, Sandy was hiking across some slippery terrain using a tiny tree as a "hand hold" and she slipped… Right into a giant mud pile. We have pictures, I'm still waiting for her to send them to me. 5:00pm: All this sport climbing is making me sick, you know I had to sneak in a trad route. So we head over the Junkyard Wall in search of Themeland (5.6). After spending some time looking for it, we decide it was too far away and then take a look at New River Gunks (5.7). Well it didn't look like it hand much protection so I didn't mind that people were on it. Now, we snuck our heads around the corner and found Jumping Jack Flash (5.7+), a corner/chimney climb that is "a gaser" according to the guidebook. Sandy: "Why don't you lead this?" Thoughts in my head: "1. Because it's a grade and a half harder than any trad route I've lead. 2. Because it's the end of the day and I'm tired. 3. Because I could barely top rope 5.8 here." The only reason I could come up with was "f**k it!" So I rack up and jam myself into the dirty corner and chimney. After a few moves, I place a #2 C4. A few moves later I sure could use another #2 so I take out my first one and put in up higher (sneaky). I make a few more moves and get right under the crux. I place a #1 C4. Ok, I'm jammed into this chimney with my right thumb pressed way right against a small crack and my right foot smeared way right and high on some really poor hold. Now I push real hard with my left hand to exit the chimney. As my crappy right foot takes all my weight… slip. FALLING!!!! About 6 to 8 feet lower, "hell yeah the #1 held like a champ." Sandy, who never caught a trad fall before: "I wish you didn't fall." Hahahaha. Me too. I need to fall once in a while it keeps me humble and it reminds me that well placed gear can hold a Mac truck. Now that I'm nice and frustrated, I charge through the crux, placing a green alien along the way. About 5 feet above the alien, I'm jammed back into the chimney with my right foot sliding all over the place because it's wet after standing on a wet handhold. I can't do anything stupid here because if I get a few feet higher and fall and the alien pops, I'm heading straight for the deck. "I'm too tired to place gear. TAKE. Taking f**king hard." I down climb a few moves until I decided the fall is clean and drop onto the alien. Hell yeah. Another piece held. I get lowered and explain a bit about the dynamics of the fall and why the pieces behaved the way they did and then I scramble up top to set up a top rope. Sandy climbs up and cleans the gear and says that climb was way too strenuous to place gear on. That made me feel a little better. We finish up the day with some pizza and drinks at "Pie-n-Pints" and call it a day.

Monday, September 19, 2005

7:00am: After another breakfast at Cathedral Café (yes it was that good), we hike into Kaymoor, so Sandy can lead the classic "Flight of the Gumby" (5.9). After a good 20 minutes of hiking, we arrive at the climb and I realize I forgot my shoes. This sucks! No matter, Sandy takes off and makes some "sketch" moves before the first bolt. Eight bolts or so and a take and she's at the anchor. Nice lead, I wish I could I have climbed it too. 11:30am: We still have enough time to hit up Summersville Lake. The 15-20 minute approach takes us over an hour as we took a down climb we shouldn't have. Eventually we arrive at the "Orange Oswald Wall." The climbs are really cool because they are literally 10 ft from the water. In fact, you can free solo some of the climbs and just fall into the water! I take a quick lead up "That Eight" (5.7) then Sandy leads the finally "Chunko Goes Bowling" (5.9). She had a few takes but this climb was so pumpy that I would have hung on every bolt. On the way out, we take a quick swim then head to the Charleston Airport to get Sandy on her flight. We get there with time to spare, Sandy catches her plan and I drive a boring 450 miles back to reality. Neither of us got hurt and we're both slightly better climbers. Another successful trip!