TR: Seneca Rocks Classics with Inez
Chris Weaver
Trip Report:
Seneca Rocks Classics with Inez
Driving out to Seneca Rocks by myself on a Friday felt rather strange.
Usually I spend the two and a half hours talking to my partners and
deciding which routes to climb. This weekend, however, I had arranged to
meet Inez Drixelius at Seneca while she was passing through on her
vacation, and I spent the trip scanning through the scratchy assortment of
country-western and evangelical radio stations that dot West Virginia's
eastern panhandle.
I had first met Inez through rec.climbing, and I was looking forward to
meeting her in person and attempting to reconcile the personality on the
screen with the one in flesh and blood. We met at the Front Porch
Restaurant and as we talked and ate it quickly became apparent that the
trip was going to be a lot of fun.
In the night, we were awakened by the noise of 125 tent stakes being driven
deep into the ground by a sledgehammer. The next morning we were to
discover that Phil Sidel and Mike ???, two other rec.climbers, had arrived
from Pittsburgh that evening and had found an empty site next to ours.
Phil's ancient pup tent looked like it had been with him for most of his
40-some years of climbing, and had apparently been originally constructed
to require more stakes than a vampire-killing convention.
We ate a liesurely breakfast of eggs and coffee and headed out to the
rocks. Phil and Mike had managed to make it to the base of the South End
ahead of us and were roped up on Ecstacy Junior. We said hellos and hiked
off in search of Dufty's Popoff. On the way, we encountered an odd sight; a
man and woman roped up and climbing Candy Corner, as the locals would say,
"butt-nekkid." As it turns out, this couple makes a yearly practice of
making a nude ascent of one of Seneca's classic routes. After finding out
that Dufty's was taken, we hiked back and told Phil and a pair of young
guys waiting for his route about this phenomenon, and after assuring the
guys that we weren't trying to trick them out of their spot in line, they
took off like knights in search of the holy grail.
We then hiked up the death stairs and after scoping out some climbs, we
decided upon West Pole, a mega-classic and my favorite route at Seneca.
Inez led the first pitch, an easy, low-angle affair that's used to start
several of the routes in that area. I led the great second pitch,
characterized by finger and hand cracks up a beautiful clean face, and
ending in an alcove ten feet below the route's best feature: the double
roofs. After exchanging some gear, Inez gracefully swept up through the
roof's jugs and liebacks and up the face above on hand and fist cracks and
a short off-width/chimney section. After I followed the pitch, we scrambled
up to the summit blocks and lazed around on the top, enjoying the exposure
of 300-foot drops on both sides and the fantastic view across the valley.
We repelled to the base a short time later, and gathered our packs to
prepare for another climb. I suggested Green Wall, as we had had such a
fantastic time on West Pole, a route of the same grade. We bushwhacked our
way to the base of the climb, and I led the first pitch, a short, fingery
inside corner. Inez then combined the next two pitches up the fantastic
dihedral. Brilliant green lichen shone in the sun as she climbed the steep
corner on sinker incuts, finger locks and perfect stemming edges. Combining
pitches as we did required a 60 meter rope, and when Inez got to the belay,
I had five feet of slack lying at my feet. The distance too great and the
wind too strong to hear signals, I waited until a short time after the rope
became taught and began climbing. After meeting at the top and raving about
the great climbing, we headed down to the Traffic Jam rappel station. It
was late in the afternoon, and a climbing class of six was beginning the
rappels here, so we sat back and enjoyed the scenery and sipped water.
After getting our turn to rappel, we packed up the gear and headed down to
the car.
After a pleasant evening of dinner at the front porch with Mike and Phil,
and a quick breakfast the next morning, we were ready to tackle some harder
routes. We decided that today we would do some one-pitch routes on the
northeast face, so we hiked up the tourist trail and around the back side
of the north peak. We began the day on Rox Salt, an enjoyable but awkward
leaning crack. We then set up a toprope on Streptococcus so that we could
also climb Skoshi Go Ju, a much harder climb to the right. We took turns
edging up the slanting, slippery finger crack and dashing up the large
slopers to the top on Streptococcus in the blazing sun. Another pair of
climbers tried their had on the route as we sat back into the shade and ate
lunch. After a relaxed meal, we launched up Skoshi Go Ju on small
sidepulls, highsteps, and long reaches on small finger edges. This was a
great climb, but given the heat and the grade, we were quite happy to have
a TR handy.
We then hiked down the base a bit to climb Lichen or Leave It, a classic
thin-finger crack similar in many ways to routes found in Yosemite. Tom
Cecil, owner of one of the local guide services was relaxing with a client
nearby, and we stopped to chat for a few minutes while another party
finished on Lichen. Inez had met Tom before, and we found out that he had
been on El Cap during a recent mixup she had been in regarding an
unnecessary rescue. After laughing and talking about what a small world it
was, we headed down to the climb.
Inez led through the first, low-angle section on dicey gear to a large
tree. After a quick look at the route above, she climbed up the thin crack
on slippery fingerlocks, sidepulls and small friction dishes. Inez topped
out, and since Tom had recently placed a pair of bomber glue-in Petzl
rappel bolts, and I lowered her to the base. (note: lowering to the base
from these bolts requires a 60 meter rope. A 50-meter would probably
require unroping and downclimbing a short section of 5th class rock) After
I followed and pulled the gear, we toproped a harder climb to the right and
called it a day.
As we hiked back down the tourist trail to the visitor center far below, we
spoke about the climbs we had done and agreed that we definitely had a
"classic" weekend. Shortly thereafter, Inez and I went seperate ways; I
went back through the hills of West Virginia, listening to baptist
ministers and honkytonk bands and she stayed in town and the next day
boarded a plane bound for the forests of Bavaria.
End
Chris Weaver
In a moment of amnesia, I wrote:
> In the night, we were awakened by the noise of 125 tent stakes being
driven
> deep into the ground by a sledgehammer. The next morning we were to
> discover that Phil Sidel and Mike ???,
Mike's last name escaped me while I wrote up this TR. For the record,
Mike's last name is Hennessy - sorry Mike.
Chris Weaver
Michael Hennessy
In article <01bcbd26$b7439dc0$7d26...@cweaver.colybrand.com>, "Chris Weaver" <cwe...@erols.com> wrote:
>
>In a moment of amnesia, I wrote:
>
>> In the night, we were awakened by the noise of 125 tent stakes being
>driven
>> deep into the ground by a sledgehammer. The next morning we were to
>> discover that Phil Sidel and Mike ???,
>
>Mike's last name escaped me while I wrote up this TR. For the record,
>Mike's last name is Hennessy - sorry Mike.
>
>Chris Weaver
That's OK, Chris. Don't sweat it. BTW, it was only * 120* tent stakes and it
was Phill's antique piton hammer (would you expect anything else?). Also, for
the record, 112 of those stakes were holding Phill's tent firmly in place in
case of a tornado, earthquake or nuclear attack. In the event of any of these
unlikely events, we would all have been grateful for a well-anchored
safe haven.
I enjoyed your report almost as much as the climbing and meeting the legendary
Inez!
Have fun this weekend!
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
mi...@adelphia.net
kevink38
I remember lots of Bluegrass radio stations (it was pure and it was good)
while driving around West Virginia, but I don't remember a lot of
country/western stations.
Kevin
Chris Weaver <cwe...@erols.com> wrote in article
<01bcbc7a$39778f20$7d26...@cweaver.colybrand.com>...
>
> Trip Report:
> Seneca Rocks Classics with Inez
>
> Driving out to Seneca Rocks by myself on a Friday felt rather strange.
> Usually I spend the two and a half hours talking to my partners and
> deciding which routes to climb. This weekend, however, I had arranged to
> meet Inez Drixelius at Seneca while she was passing through on her
> vacation, and I spent the trip scanning through the scratchy assortment
of
> country-western and evangelical radio stations that dot West Virginia's
> eastern panhandle....
Chris Weaver
kevink38 <kevi...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in article
<01bcbf32$162932c0$778f5dcf@default>...
>
> I remember lots of Bluegrass radio stations (it was pure and it was good)
> while driving around West Virginia, but I don't remember a lot of
> country/western stations.
Toothless redneck music all sounds the same to me. :^)
Chris Weaver
Mike Worden
Michael Hennessy (mikeh@.lm.com) wrote:
: In article <01bcbd26$b7439dc0$7d26...@cweaver.colybrand.com>, "Chris Weaver" <cwe...@erols.com> wrote:
: >
: >In a moment of amnesia, I wrote:
: >> In the night, we were awakened by the noise of 125 tent stakes being
: >driven
: >> deep into the ground by a sledgehammer. The next morning we were to
: >> discover that Phil Sidel and Mike ???,
: >Mike's last name escaped me while I wrote up this TR. For the record,
: >Mike's last name is Hennessy - sorry Mike.
: >
: >Chris Weaver
: That's OK, Chris. Don't sweat it. BTW, it was only * 120* tent stakes and it
: was Phill's antique piton hammer (would you expect anything else?). Also, for
: the record, 112 of those stakes were holding Phill's tent firmly in place in
: case of a tornado, earthquake or nuclear attack. In the event of any of these
: unlikely events, we would all have been grateful for a well-anchored
: safe haven.
Well now, I've also had the chance to share a tent (note I didn't say
"sleep") with Phil and my opinion is that the stakes are to anchor the
tent against the forceful propulsion generated by Phil's snoring. On the
other hand, I suppose that you might be able to point the tent in the
right direction and end up at the base of the crags in the morning if you
were sure you would get smushed crossing the highway.
-Mike
(sorry Phil)
__Mike Worden mwo...@neurocog.lrdc.pitt.edu
o/ 630 LRDC University of Pittsburgh
<\__,Pittsburgh, PA 15260 412 624-5279
"> http://neurocog.lrdc.pitt.edu/~mworden
` -climb
p...@vms.cis.pitt.edu
"Chris Weaver" <cwe...@erols.com> wrote:
: : > In the night, we were awakened by the noise of 125 tent stakes being
: : > driven deep into the ground by a sledgehammer. The next morning we
: : > were to discover that Phil Sidel and Mike [Hennessey], ...
: : >
Michael Hennessy (mikeh@.lm.com) responded:
: : That's OK, Chris. Don't sweat it. BTW, it was only * 120* tent stakes and it
: : was Phill's antique piton hammer (would you expect anything else?). Also, for
: : the record, 112 of those stakes were holding Phill's tent firmly in place in
: : case of a tornado, earthquake or nuclear attack. In the event of any of these
: : unlikely events, we would all have been grateful for a well-anchored
: : safe haven.
mwo...@neurocog.lrdc.pitt.edu (Mike Worden) comments:
: Well now, I've also had the chance to share a tent (note I didn't say
: "sleep") with Phil and my opinion is that the stakes are to anchor the
: tent against the forceful propulsion generated by Phil's snoring. On the
: other hand, I suppose that you might be able to point the tent in the
: right direction and end up at the base of the crags in the morning if you
: were sure you would get smushed crossing the highway.
Weaver, Hennessey, Worden --
You guys got me there. But you gotta admit: between the ring of
my hammer and the drone of my snore, we really kept those bears away.
Be sure to be there first weekend in October for the trail
maintenance weekend. My wife has promised to make the trip with me
that weekend, and when we are BOTH snoring, you'll expect to find
Monongahela Forest clearcut by morning.
Phil