TR: Spring Break...[3/3] New River Gorge
Todd Mummert
Part 3...a rainy day at the New River Gorge
Sat 03/29/97
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Finally, get up and moving about 8:00. By 10:00, we're pulling into
the Western Pancake House between Fayetteville and Oakhill in WV.
After my usual delicious breakfast here, we take stock of our
situation. Light rain is still coming down, and most areas are going
to be wet. We don't climb well enough to get any use of the routes in
the Hole, and I don't like the bouldering cave up by the Junkyard.
However, I did enjoy my one trip the previous year to the Upper
Endless Cirque, so that becomes our destination for the day.
On my previous trip to this area, we'd been the only group in the
cirque. However, with the upper central endless lot jammed with cars,
I expected a different scene today. We choose the correct sequence of
trails and soon arrive at the Miner's ladder. The Cirque is a large
crescent shaped section of cliff, over 100' tall and overhanging as
much as 30' in places. I'd only been on two of the routes in the
area, but armed with that information we headed down. Yow! A lot of
people had determined that this was the place to be today. There are
probably 20 people here, most at the near end though a couple groups
are climbing harder routes at the far end.
I point out to Chris the two routes I do know: an 11a near the left
side of the Cirque and a beautiful 11c near the waterfall on the
right. I don't know the names of either of these climbs, however.
The 11a is what is drawing the most interest from the crowd, while the
top of the 11c appears to be wet. I'd had enough trouble getting to
the anchors the previous time when it was dry, so I decide to just
hang out and see what open up.
We watched people climb for well over an hour. There is now a fun
looking traverse located about 30' off the ground to the left of the
entrance 11a. It's reported to be about 11a to the first set of
anchors and harder beyond that. Chris wants to give this a go, but
parties keep getting on it -- so we wait.
I wander around and notice that the climb around the corner to the
left of the 11a appears to be within my range, and is now bolted. The
previous year I thought this was a mixed route, though I may have
shied away from it for other reasons. With no other information than
that, I jump on the route. Hmm... a bit of a bouldery start. Ok,
we'll stick clip the first bolt. Still a bit tough, but manageable.
First three bolts aren't so bad. Now there's a traverse out right
which I try by hand jamming and bringing my knee up onto the rock
below my hands. After a couple of hangs, this sequence works and I
get up and clip the last bolt. I'm now 12' below the anchors and
there's just a blank face for about 8' to a big ledge and a very
shallow crack to the left which is a bit wet. So I commit to a
sequence and fall. Urk...as I sway back and forth, the hotwire gate
is opening and closing as it rubs against the rock. A little
disconcerting 60' above the ground, so I back it up with another
quickdraw with opposing biners. Back up and fall. I fall a lot. Ok,
three more tries. Alright, three more and I bail, really this time.
On my next attempt, I find a balancy sequence from which I can imagine
dyno'ing out of and up to the ledge but I'm falling away from the rock
too soon and miss the ledge completely. The second attempt is great,
but I'm so surprised by the size of the ledge, that I forget to hang
on and fall again. Third time's the charm, and I easily grab the
ledge and clamber up and clip the anchors.
Chris asks me if I want to know how hard the route is, and guessing
that I'm in for a bit of a shock, I finally have him tell me. Someone
had walked by and said that he thought the route was pretty hard, at
least 5.12a or so. I was psyched. I've never redpointed a 5.12a yet,
and this one felt doable. I decide to take a long rest and I'll give
it another shot later.
The traverse is now free and Chris takes a shot at leading it.
Roxanne (?) had left her draws on the route, so that made it a bit
easier. But this is one pumpy route. Chris makes it to the third
bolt, where the traverse actually starts without hanging, but after
that he was taking a rest after clipping each draw. Finally, after
about the fifth or sixth bolt, he comes off between bolts and can't
get back on due to the overhanging nature of the traverse. Not a bad
performance on a hard, endurance route.
After a long rest, I get back on my previous route. I find an easier
sequence through the handjam traverse lower on the route and arrive at
the last bolt in pretty good shape. However, even though I know a
workable sequence through the crux, I can't get balanced correctly and
my off-balance dyno is well short of the ledge. Annoyed, but sure my
sequence works, I head back up and manage to get it to work the second
time. Quite happy, but still without the redpoint, I decide to wait
for another day to try again. On a positive note, Flyin' Brian was
there with Roxanne and said that I was on a 5.12b Doug Reed route.
Looking through the guidebook later, I'm now convinced that the route
was 'Hourglass' (5.12b).
The big news is that while I was climbing 'Hourglass', Brian finally
finished his long-standing project at the Cirque, which he'd been
working on for well over a year. I didn't hear what grade he gave it,
though I believe he's calling it 'Brian's House of Cards', since
everytime he thought he'd solved the climb's crux he'd find another in
a different place, often at points he'd already climbed in the past.
The crowd has pretty much thinned out, with just Chris and I and Brian
and Roxanne around. She's working on the entire traverse, with Brian
there to make it look easy and to give her beta on some of the moves.
Chris decides to try the 5.11a at the entrance (ok, does anyone know
what this climb is called?), and climbs through three bolts before
deciding the climb is not going to go for him today. I redpoint the
climb, though I found it very taxing. As it's difficult to clean, I
lower off and talk Chris into giving it a go again. However, the
bouldery start proves to be his undoing this time and I tie in and
head back up. Way too pumped to do this route in any sort of style, I
hang a couple of time before reaching the anchors. On the way down I
decided the try the 5.11b roof that shares the same anchors as this
climb. It's fairly easy to move out to the lip of the roof on bomber
hand jams, but the moves onto pretty good edges above the roof is not
going to happen today so I lower off and we pack up our gear.
We're the last car out of the lot, and I'm beat after 8 days of
climbing with only the one forced rest day. I ask Chris if he had any
strong preferences for staying at the New to climb on Sunday, and was
relieved when he said he wouldn't mind going back that night. So
after a quick Taco Bell meal in Summersville, we head back to
Pittsburgh. After dropping Chris off at his apartment, I manage to
get home about 11:30pm and am soon asleep in my own bed. Ok, so I
checked my email first....
Summary
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-- the Red River Gorge offers wonderful, diverse climbing at all grades.
-- Bob and Pam are the friendliest climbers I've ever met.
-- don't miss 'Rock Wars' or 'The Gift'.
-- I need to work on overhanging routes, where I can't get good
rests.
-- T-Wall is a great place to climb, but the approach into Sunset is
much easier. T-Wall just feels more like a destination than Sunset.
-- that gear stuff actually works. I can start narrowing the gap
between my sport and trad leading.
-- the Cirque in Upper Endless at the New is nice when it rains. I'm
starting to climb well enough that the routes aren't too far
outside the realm of possibility for me.
-- Waffle House's rule.