Trip Report -- New River Gorge
Mongo
Here's a trip report from last weekend at the New River. Don't read
this if you want to hear about a bunch of way hard routes. This was the
weekend of the 10b........
It was good to be out even though it was a hot sticky weekend at the
New. Silly me, I thought the humidity was supposed to be low this
weekend. It wasn't. It was so humid you could barely see across the
gorge. I was able to convince my partner that since it was so hot we
should really suffer and go climb some hard (for us anyway) cracks.
Endless Wall seemed like the place to go. We were the first in the Fern
Creek parking lot and walked through the rhododendron forest towards
Fern Point. We started out on "Autumn Fire" a classic, 10b with a
hand/fist first section to a bulging lieback at the top. I managed to
do it clean but by the time I got to the top I was so drenched in sweat
that I couldn't even see through my glasses. It was way too early to be
so hot. Then Norman decided to shirk his duty to do something pumpy and
opted instead for "Ritz Cracker", a fun but casual 5.9. It's mostly a
5.7 hand crack with a thin corner at the top that with a couple of 9-
moves. It was over too quick and then it was my turn to lead again. We
headed over to the Orchid Wall to do a couple more 5.10 cracks. I badly
wanted to lead "Springboard" a straight-in finger/hand crack. It was in
the sun and really hot but I was psyched to get on it anyway. I
thrashed up the slightly overhanging thin crack at the bottom and
couldn't quite pull into the hand crack, so I sunk back onto my last,
partially placed, cam and took a hang. Shit, it wouldn't be a clean
lead now! I got back into the crack and managed to finish the rest of
the lead clean. It was one of those leads where I really should have
given up and lowered off after hanging but I wanted to climb this one
badly. It's such a classic line....... When I got to the top I was
shaking all over ("A full body Elvis") from the exertion and was even
more drenched in sweat than on Autumn Fire. It felt good to have done
it but it felt even better to know that Norman had to lead the adjacent
10a called "Triple Treat". Triple Treat is another classic crack that
pulls three roofs. It's one of those line that takes a LOT of effort
and involves a full-body pump. You start off by jamming and stemming a
wide, flaring crack to the first roof. You jam out the 3' roof, squirm
around the lip and get into a pumpy hand crack in a dihedral. The
second roof is pretty easy and the third one gives you some good
exposure with a couple of lieback moves over the lip. Norman had a hard
time getting started and did some pretty bizarre contortions to get
around the first roof. He started the sprint up the dihedral and was
almost to an easier section when he slimed out of the crack for a short
fall. That got his attention so he started back up and finished it but
was moving so slow at the top I thought he was sitting on the ledge
pulling in rope a couple of inches at a time. We headed further down
the wall to search for another crack but found a nice 10b arete
instead. The arete was "thoughtful" (i.e. not straightforward) and
involved palming the arete with side pulls, face climbing with one foot
right on the edge, and finished with a pumpy sprint past a bulge to the
shuts. I lead it and then it was Norman's turn. Right at the crux
bulge Norman decides to pull in a lot of slack to make the final clip
and then barn-doors off the arete. I reefed on the rope and nothing
happened so I instinctively grabbed for the non-brake side and hung on
thinking that somehow I did not have the belay rigged correctly and
Norman was going to take a 60 footer to the ground! Nope. I had the
belay rigged correctly but there was so much slack since he was trying
to make the clip that my initial pull had done nothing. I caught his 15
footer with the non-brake hand and was rewarded with some nice ropeburns
across a couple fingers of my left hand. Norman had no mercy on my
burned fingers and made me lead another 10b face that had no positive
holds. It did have lots of nice sweaty slopers though..... I lead it
clean and then we decided it was time for sitting under the Fern Creek
Falls to cool off. We hiked out and were the last one out of the Fern
Creek parking lot. We headed back to Roger's place for beer, dinner and
more beer.
Sunday it was even hotter so we went to Butcher's Branch at Kaymoor
since it gets a lot of shade. We warmed up on "High Voltage" a pumpy
10b face climb. We should have warmed up on something easier since we
both had to do a brief hang. Then I lead "The Green Piece", another 10b
face with an interesting crux undercling reach to a nice, but far away
hold. By then, the crowds had arrived and all the other 10's were taken
so we ended up doing a fun, juggy 5.9 arete called "Flight of the
Gumby". (I hate doing routes with the word "Gumby" in the route name
but, oh well). Then we did another popular 10b called "Springer". I'm
not sure why this one is so popular except maybe cause it's really easy
for 10b and not too steep....... We were running out of time before we
headed home so we tried the "Butcher Man", a short 11a arete. We didn't
think we would have a chance in getting up the thing so we drew straws
to see who would have the first try. Pete won the draw and managed to
led it with one hang, surprising all of us.
All in all it was a fun weekend. We got to climb some good routes,
sweat like fiends, take a few whippers, do a few redpoints, and drink a
few beers. Two more weeks and I'll be climbing in New Hampshire!