TR: A fine West Virginny weekend
Mongo
Well, ya'll missed a fine weekend in West Virginny.....
Norman and I rolled in to the parking lot about 9:30 Sat a.m. and headed
up the trail by 10. Our mission for the day was just to try to get in as
many pitches as we could (even with our late start). The place was
packed. We wanted to warm up on "Ecstasy" since it is a fun, easy
classic, but
it was loaded with Gumbys screaming at each other -- since the route
wanders, you can never hear your partner but most Gumbys can't figure
that out and have a shoutfest. "The Burn" was open so we jumped on it
even though it was harder than we wanted for a warm up. I lost the draw
so I had to lead. It's an awkward lead and I felt a little shaky like I
always do when I drive up in the morning and and then climb. It went
pretty well, though I had a hard time with the pro at the roof.
Then we headed over and hit a couple of bolted routes, "S&M" and "TNT"
at 5.8+ and 5.9+ respectively. Once again, we lucked out since no one
was on them. They seemed really casual and just plain fun. Then we
walked back around the corner towards the West Face and realized that
the
Gumby-fest on "Ecstacy" was over and the route was empty. We jumped on
it. When I got to the first belay on the corner of the formation, the
wind was so strong it almost knocked me down! It was pretty cool.....
Norman got the classic traversing second pitch and I got the last one. I
really like climbing those hideously exposed overhangs on the last
pitch. Argh, good stuff.
We then wanted to do "Triple S" but there was a huge party scene going
on that I wanted to avoid. The only route that was open was the "Prune"
so we did it. I had heard there was a retro bolt on it but I never saw
it. Oh well. We did the four pitches in 3 and then rapped.
It was about 6:45 and the sky was getting dark when we walked over to
"Pleasant Overhangs". There was a party of two that were rapping off the
first pitch. They said that they didn't want to get stuck in the dark so
they bailed. As we were racking up, they said "so, what are you guys
doing?". We just grinned and pointed back up to the route that they had
just bailed from. They looked at us like we were crazy.
I lucked out and got to lead the third pitch. That pitch is so cool as
you leave the way exposed, semi-hanging belay and pull a bulge right
over the top of the belayer's head. As Norman says "at least there is
something soft to stop your fall". This pitch was so good, and was a
great way to
finish the day, that I had to stop part way up the final crack and howl.
We stopped briefly on the summit, and rapped past a party of two girls
who were trying to have an epic. We got to the truck at dark and drank
beer with the two guys who bailed off of Pleasant O. A good day -- 13
pitches of
fun classic climbing. The only thing that would have made it better was
if we had started earlier and climbed more!
After a couple of beers I foolishly stated my intentions of wanting to
climb the 5.10 "For Madmen Only". Unfortunately, Norman held me to it,
so on Sunday morning we did the trudge up to the base.
I forgot how dangerous the start was. Uh oh. You step off a flake 20'
off the ground and are immediately onto hard climbing -- with no pro.
You will probably break your legs if you mess up the traverse to the
crack, or if you mess up by geting to the crack but aren't able to hang
on long enough to get in some gear. After you do get in some gear you
are faced with an overhanging 5.10 crack. I
pondered the situation for a LONG time until I decided to summon the
huevos and give it a go.
With my heart pounding, I stepped off the flake and traversed to the
crack and was just able to get in a 0.5 tricam before I pumped out.
Whew, that was close! I lowered off to shake out the pump and then went
for it. I ended up hanging on the overhanging crack before committing to
the long vertical crack above. When the vertical crack ends, you have to
do a hard traverse to the right off an old, rusty, bent, twisted,
knifeblade. More Uh ohs. I backed it up with a small stopper, and
fighting the building pump factor, traversed to a crack that splits the
top of the fin. As you jam this crack you are looking clear through the
formation to the East face. Bizarre! I finished the sprint to the shuts
past my last piece, a camalot set in the umbrella position that I didn't
have the strength to set right. Norman laughed when he gently plucked it
out of the crack without even having to work the trigger. I felt that he
could laugh all he wanted 'cause I was just happy to be back on the
ground.
Then we wanted to do some more steep, pumpy stuff so we went to
"Marshall's Madness". Norman led the crux crack to the shuts and I got
to lead the next 120' of vertical offwidth and chimney. It was my lucky
day. You know you are having a good time when you get to make new scabs
along the whole length of your arms. It felt good to thrash.
I even got to yell at Norman cause at one point he wasn't giving me any
slack. It was so windy that the belay rope hanging below Norman had
blown over and wrapped around a couple of nested fixed pins below the
belay. Some guy on the ledge below soloed up 10' and unwrapped the rope
(but only 'cause Norman told them that I would buy them beer).
We finished up the weekend by doing "Triple S" - a classic finish to a
great weekend. Next weekend we're off to the New River.
Mongo
Chris Weaver
Mongo wrote in message <3544CBE0...@virginia.edu>...
>The only route that was open was the "Prune"
>so we did it. I had heard there was a retro bolt on it but I never saw
>it. Oh well.
You probably heard that in a post I made here earlier. It was a joke.
There's no retrobolt on Prune as far as I know.
Chris
Mongo
Chris Weaver wrote:
> Mongo wrote in message <3544CBE0...@virginia.edu>...
> >The only route that was open was the "Prune"
> >so we did it. I had heard there was a retro bolt on it but I never saw
> >it. Oh well.
>
> You probably heard that in a post I made here earlier. It was a joke.
> There's no retrobolt on Prune as far as I know.
>
> Chris
Good! I think a bolt on the Prune is a bad plan. I was actually glad not to
see one.
Mongo
(ps. How was Red Rocks?)