My next stop was one of the few states I have never been to –
West Virginia. My friend M and I were going to the Chicks with Nuts trad clinic in Seneca Rocks, WV over the weekend, and decided to do some climbing at the New River Gorge on either side of it. Our friend D joined us for some climbing at the New. I got into Fayetteville in the afternoon and grabbed couple of sites at the AAC's campground for us. Since M&D weren't going to be arriving until after midnight, I went to the store and bought some glow sticks to mark their site so they could find it without waking me. (Having taken such measures, I was wide awake when they arrived at 2am.) The campsite is still under development, but the tent sites themselves are very nice, and the wooded location kept the morning sun from cooking the tent too early in the morning.
We eventually woke up and fueled ourselves with coffee and breakfast fajitas (thanks to the leftovers from the family vacation). We picked the Beer Wall at Bubba City for our introduction to the New, since it was nearby, in the shade and had numerous climbs in our grade. We started with Micro Brew and Gilded Otter, then stepped it up a few notches with St. Pauli Girl, a 5.10b that looked intriguing and D was particularly stoked to try. He worked the bottom well and looked great, but eventually got shut down at the crux. M gave it a shot, and I thought she was going to get it, but she backed off. Pretty sure I wouldn't have got it, but it started raining, so I left a bail biner and cleaned the route. We hiked out, grabbed dinner and said goodbye to D as M & I drove to Seneca Rocks for the weekend. We arrived at Seneca House, a sweet hostel, and set up our tents, noticing we were the only folks who opted not to sleep inside. Oh well, it was a nice night to camp.
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| D on St. Pauli Girl |
There was a very nice rooster that made sure we didn't oversleep on Saturday. Everyone gathered at Seneca Rocks Mountain Guides before tackling the rocks with their guide. M & I worked with the awesome Kelly. We spent the morning, with its threat of rain, working indoors on gear placement (they have a cool rock wall) then headed across the road for more learning (knots, ground anchors and other stuff) and climbing (Ecstasy Junior) in the afternoon. Dinner back at Seneca House was fabulous. In the raffle, M won some alpine draws and I won a sweet Chicks with Nuts t-shirt.
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| Climbing Ecstasy Junior |
Sunday was a perfect day for climbing, and we spent it learning how to escape the belay (among other things) and climbing Old Man's, a nice multi-pitch. The day seemed to fly and before we knew it, it was time to go :-( At least we had one more day of climbing left at the New.
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| Seneca Rocks more photos from the clinic |
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| View from the top of Geisha Girl |
I took advantage of having a dark, air-conditioned hotel room and slept in. I spent the afternoon performing the laundral arts and Febreezing the car, both of which made it smell much better. (The laundry was extra toxic for some reason.) I went back to Fayetteville to camp, explore and hike for a couple of days before I went to New England to visit my old workmates.
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| Cathedral Falls more pix |
