Last weekend Chase, Tyler and I made the trip to the New River Gorge. Chase and I left Lexington Friday afternoon and met Tyler in Ironton, Ohio at about 6pm. While we were waiting for Tyler to arrive however, Chase and I had some adventures. Most interesting was our brief acquisition of a puppy. We were walking around, and this lady yelled at us "Ya'll lose a dawg?" Chase and I answered no, and she asked us if we wanted a dog. Chase's response was "I don't know, I'd have to see it" we walked up and she handed it to us and said "It's your problem now". Chase and I weren't sure what to do, then a man drove by and said "Is that there your dog?" we said no, and he said he'd take it. We then had no dog, an hour or two later Tyler and Langston arrived. We headed off to the New. We arrived at Roger's late, and set up camp and went to bed early. The next morning we got up and headed off to Kaymoor. We came to the Rico Suave Buttress. We decided to warm up on a slab called Totally Tammy (5.10a) This was, with out a doubt, one of the hardest 10's I've ever been on. After that we moved on to a NRG classic, Rico Suave, also a 5.10a. This, the three of us agreed was one of the coolest 10's we'd been on. There was a cool line beside Rico that I was able to hang draws on while cleaning. We then each got a burn on the height dependent and incredibly technical "Out of the Bag", 5.11c/d. After having our fill of technical stuff, we headed off to the Glory Hole, where we wanted to get on some classic and super steep 12's.
We decided that we would test our metal on Skull F~~k, (5.12c, 7b+)(see picture) This was a line that shot up through two large roofs to the chains. I had never done moves quite like the ones I had to do to pull roofs. Several small crimpers, at least one toe hook and several heel hooks and gastons brought me to the chains, more scared on a sport route then I've been in a very long time. "The Hole" was one of the eeriest places I've ever climbed it was dark, the perma-draws were all on chain hangers that rattled against the wall when the wind blew. After one go each we decided it was time to go check out the old Kaymoor Coal mine. We walked down 800 steps to the relics of the coal refineries. we jumped the fence and explored, then we went down to the river and swam, smoked pipes and had PBR.
The next day we headed off to Summersville lake. On the way we stopped at the New River Gorge Bridge, quite a view. After a poor start, and being lost for an hour or so we managed to find our way to long wall. We warmed up on a spicy 5.10b called "For What? aka Hot and Buttered" at 60 feet or so and 4 bolts I felt runout. Then we moved a little further down the wall and got on a route called "Maximum Overdrive" (5.11c). I have never felt so happy to onsight hanging draws. After we all sent, we headed off to The D.C. Memorial Boulder and got on "All the Way Baby" (5.12b, 7b) We all gave this a few good tries, none of us sending, but all of us coming awfully close. Because of our late start we didn't have much time so we headed over to The Colosseum to look at the climbs there, and decided that would be our destination the next time at the New! After pizza and beer at Pies and Pints, we headed home. All in all an awesome time In West Virginia!
