Saturday Sport Climbing Link to Saturday Sport Climbing

Summerville Lake Link to Summerville Lake

This was my second time climbing here, but I was wholly unaware of the new parking lot. If you’re going to climb here, turn left when you hit the first fork! Going to the old lot will leave with you a 25 minute hike instead of a 15 minute hike. To make it worse, the extra 10 minutes had nothing but trees to see and felt twice as long as the first 15.

Those last 15 minutes are fantastic, though. This is a well maintained and manicured park. I would wager that more volunteer hours and money for maintenance and improvements go into the Summerville Lake climbing area than Muir Valley in The Red. On top of the gravel trails, stone laid stairs, and wooden railings, there is a stone block terrace with stairs. The last of which was finished while we were climbing. It was cool to come down from a climb and see that a barge with fill dirt appeared while I wasn’t looking.

Climbing and The Fall Link to Climbing and The Fall

Climbing here kicked our butts. Neither of us were ready for tall climbs, and I had forgotten how important it is to shake out the pump when things feel stable.

We had our sights set on Orange Oswald, but we started with She’s got the bosh, I got drilled. It was a solid climb but never felt all that exciting. The best part was the view of Moon Pie Delux. The roof on that climb was brief but required some creative movement, but we didn’t get the chance to climb it ourselves.

We took nearly an hour to hang out, eat snacks, and chat before jumping on the second, and last, climb of the day for us. With there still being a line for Orange Oswald, we jumped on Strong Arming the Little Guy. This climb was awesome. The climb starts to get difficult after the third bolt with the crux coming in between the fourth and fifth bolts.

After I made it through the crux, I took a long rest and decided that I would try to push through to the mussy hooks without resting. The section above me looked like it had enough jugs that I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. The distance will test my endurance, but it’s a challenge that I could manage. And that would have been true, if I hadn’t psyched myself out right at the anchors.

As I reached the end, I climbed up so that I was standing 3 feet to the right with my chest level with the chained mussy hooks. They dangled 6-7 links below the bolt, which made them a little tricky to maneuver, but my right hand was on a deep three-finger crimp. Other than having to extend my left arm fully, the position was bomber.

I grabbed the rope, and then grabbed more to reach all the way. And then my right elbow started to flair. I was losing my grip. With the rope in my hand, I tried to clip but I couldn’t get the rope to go in. “Why are there so many chains on these mussies?”, I thought to myself. But to Zach, I warned him, “I might fall here!!”

He responded by pulling out the slack. Which pulled out some of the rope in my hand. Thinking quickly (but not critically), I knew that I could no longer reach the hooks. So I swung my body to the left and grabbed the chains with my right hand. This is typically a last resort option when climbing. The chains are usually better to hold onto than small crimpy rock, but not in this situation. I had left a nice deep crimp for small chains. Too focused on my grip, I never tried to reclip the rope. Nor did I ever let it go for my belayer to pull. With one last finger squeezing the chains, I fell.

And oh boy did I fall! I was about 12-15 feet above the last bolt with 3 feet of rope in my hand. But that doesn’t make for a 15 feet fall. With that kind of distance, I generated 4000 Nm and pulled my belayer all the way to the first bolt; bringing my fall to being around 30 feet. If we want to include the amount of stretch in the rope (30%), it’s possible it capped out between 35-40 feet. But of all of the falls I’ve taken, that one felt like falling into a basket of blankets. It really is true, the more rope there is to fall on, the softer the fall (excluding factor >1 falls).

After doing a quick head-to-toe injury check and seeing that I was okay, I told astr to lower me. He told me that the route looked hard and he wasn’t planning on leading it, so it was funny that I had jus fallen on the section that he would have to finish. But he flew up pretty quickly and had no trouble. Though, he did give me kudos for managing the crux section on lead.

Double Excitement on the Walk Back Link to Double Excitement on the Walk Back

That climb destroyed us, so once astr was done, we packed up and headed back. On the way, we found a baby turtle in the middle of the trail! The little guy was very cute, so we (astr) carried him to a safer place: an eddy near the stream that leads down to the lake. We weren’t sure if he was a water turtle or not, but leaving him some place moist and with an escape into low brush and detritus seemed like a good option for him.

In case we thought our hike back couldn’t have gotten more interesting, we came up on an ambulance. As we soon came up on the first responders helping a man walk back to the ambulance, they joked with us, “hope we don’t see you two later!” Which, thankfully, we did not.

Ending The Evening Link to Ending The Evening

After getting to the car, we went to the nearest Walmart so that I could finally get a towel and take a much-needed shower. But before showers, we needed food.

I remembered wanting to try The Secret Sandwich Society, so we walked in and were told there would be an hour wait. astr then asked if we could check out the bar, so we sat down immediately and got our food 10 minutes later. Sitting at the bar is something I don’t usually do, but I’ll definitely keep that option in mind for the future.

My brief review: 4/5 stars. Vegan patty options for any burger is appreciated, and the fries were delicious!

After getting back, we showered, played a game of blitz chess, and listened to the live music. The music was mostly covers, and continued until 10:15pm.

Sunday Bouldering Link to Sunday Bouldering

For our last day, it was time to go try the boulders that astr was excited about. Unfortunately, when packing the car Friday morning, there wasn’t enough space in the car for my three-panel Metolius crash pad. So we had to make our way back to Water Stone to rent one for the day.

While there, we got the most entertaining sales pitch and demonstration of the Pongoosestick clip that has ever been given. The other staff had to stifle their laughter, which made me wonder if it is usually that much fun to watch.

Crossing The Tracks Link to Crossing The Tracks

The instructions for getting to Hawk’s Nest Proper begins with: park in the shoulder just before the bridge on WV-16. Which is easier said than done when there are 7 cars following close behind you. Instead of risking the road rage of the drivers behind me, we parked at the “National Landmark” which was actually just a service building for the train tracks.

It was out of sight and didn’t look to be visited frequently. So it felt safe enough to park there. Even still, I left a note with my phone number on the dashboard. Just in case someone wanted to tow us.

The rest of the instructions are: jump across the barrier, walk through the woods for half a mile, then cross the tracks when you see a shed on the other side, and then climb down the hill towards the river. Which ended up being fairly easy to follow.

Unfortunately, the area was almost entirely flooded. The rain from Friday had raised the river by four to five feet and only a single boulder was accessible. The Warmup Boulder. And the only route accessible on the boulder was the overrated Son of Easy O. Both astr and I downgraded this to a V1-.

To make the most of the trip, we started playing around with the dirty side of the boulder. It looked wholly unclimbed despite having good features. Eventually we put together a traverse climb that we put at V2+ and astr named Wicked Witch of the West after getting the first ascent.

The climb starts with a pokey crimp that will hurt your fingers. The first move is up to a smaller crimp with a sharp edge. Then, there are some solid moves which set you up for the crux. There are a series of moves which involve poor feet, sloppers, crimps if you want them, and a big reach to pull you over the finish.

I struggled with the top out, even after spending some extra time cleaning it. In the end, I wasn’t able to finish the climb. My two issues were: my fingers were shredded from the first two moves, and the whole rock was a bit slippery.

End of a Tough Weekend Link to End of a Tough Weekend

This trip to New River Gorge put some things into perspective for me.

1. My focus on bouldering to get stronger over the winter worked really well. Each section of a climb felt manageable on its own.
2. I need to increase my focus on climbing endurance. I couldn’t climb more than 20 feet without gassing out. Working on this will mean doing more auto-belay, top rope, and indoor lead climbing. It will also mean working on my resting technique. Recharging mid-climb is critical to redpointing anything.
3. The rehab that I was doing for my right ring finger was effective. It was a bit sore going into the weekend from climbing the week before, but I never felt like I was risking another injury.

It’s going to be a busy summer, but I hope that I can make another trip happen soon.