New River Gorge Update

Well, I've been at the New for almost a week, now. I spent the first two days sitting in the rain. Well, actually, it mostly cleared up in the afternoons both days. Regardless, though, there weren't any climbers around that I could find.


This is Rain Shelter 2.0, now with Water Resistance!

I spent some time hiking around, looking at climbs, and generally checking out the area.

It's a little hard to tell what is going on here (there was no way to get a good angle to photograph it from without being able to fly...), but it appears that this tree fell over and hit an overhanging sheet of rock, which had previously formed a sort of cave, or rock shelter, knocking it backwards and exposing the dirt and roots underneath. I was just amazed by this sight. It really gave me an appreciation for the massiveness of the tree and the sheer power of the force that knocked it over. I only wish I could have captured it better to share with you.

This is the New River Gorge Bridge, the world's second largest single-arch bridge, and second highest vehicular bridge (perhaps number one in one or both categories in the U.S.). One day a year, they close the bridge to vehicular traffic and people BASE jump off it and stuff (Bridge Day).

Thursday evening (the first nice day I was at the New), I drove by Bridge Buttress, and, lo and behold, there were actually people climbing! I stopped to talk to them and they offered to let me climb with them, so I took them up on it, of course. Laura, Karen, Kristen, and Jay (who, it turns out, is j_ung of rockclimbing.com...he writes reviews and articles for them, and was running the site for a while) were super-friendly and I had a great time climbing with them. I managed to get four climbs in despite not starting until 5:30 or so.
This is Bridge Buttress. The crack up the middle of the face is Zag (5.8 trad), and the arete on the right is Angel's Arete (5.10b trad).

Friday, I climbed with a guy I met through rockclimbing.com, Matt. Matt had only top-rope climbed before, so I taught him to lead climb and lead belay. He was a quick study and did a good job...though I didn't test his belay too thoroughly.... My only fall on him was deliberate, and he was expecting it. Still, I felt safe with him, and will climb with him again if I get the chance. We climbed at an area called Bubba City which has a lot of moderate bolted routes. Unfortunately, I failed to get any photos while we were out. It's hard to get pictures in a group of two...one climber and one belayer means no photographer....

Saturday, I climbed with Jay and his friend, Bryce, who was in town from North Carolina. We ended up climbing at Bubba City again, but I got to get on some different climbs from the day before, at least. In the course of the day, we saw a baby copperhead, and two black snakes...one of them in the crack I was about to hand jam in! I saw him just before sticking my hand in the crack and hand to change plans and do a long reach to the next pod where I could get a jam. Good thing that hold wasn't critical!

Here is Bryce belaying Jay on Cerveza Verde (5.8), which is one of the climbs I did on Friday.

Sunday, I climbed with Jay, Bryce, and Jay's wife, Wendy, at Fern Butttress, in the Star Trek Wall and Orchard Buttress areas until Wendy aggravated a shoulder injury, and she and Jay headed home. Bryce and I got a couple more climbs in before calling it a day.

Here is Wendy near the top of Transporter Crack (5.6 trad) at Star Trek Wall.

Route List for 4/23-26:

• Zag (5.8 trad) (TR clean...well, technically, I hung to remove a stuck cam, but I would have gotten it clean!)
• Angels Arete (5.10b trad) (TR)
• Butterbeans (5.10a trad) (TR clean)
• Chockstone (5.9 trad) (TR clean)
• Near Beer (5.6) (Onsight)
• Cerveza Verde (5.8) (Onsight)
• Gilded Otter (5.7) (Onsight)
• Daisy Cutter (5.7) (Onsight)
• Wunderkind (5.6) (Onsight)
• Beer Wench (5.8) (1 Take...the start was pumpy!)
• Werewolf (5.10a Mixed) (TR)
• Peanut Bubba And Jam (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
• Transporter Crack (5.6 Trad) (TR clean)
• Crack of the Klingons (5.6 Trad) (TR clean)
• Hysteria (5.8 Trad) (Onsight)
• A Wild Hair (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)
• Beech, Beech, Beeeech! (5.6 Trad) (Onsight)