West Virginia - Part One - Seneca Rocks

Our trip started early on a Saturday morning. It was a 10 hour car ride from Boston to Seneca Rocks & we had a packed car with 4 adults and enough gear to climb and camp with for a week. No lunch stop, just bathroom and gas breaks. We had plenty of snacks in the car & took turns playing music from our personal collections. And by snacks, I mean: a box of donuts, 3lbs. of Laffy Taffy, a massive tub of Cheddar Goldfish crackers, various forms of nuts, mandarin oranges & some other random items. It actually went by faster than I thought it would.

We arrived at our campsite before sunset, pitched tents & headed out for some pizza and beer at FPR (Front Porch Restaurant). The pizza wasn't great, but the beer was quite refreshing after a long car ride. After some campfire s'mores and another drink, we turned in for the night.

There were a few light rain showers overnight, but the morning was clear & sunny - a perfect day for climbing. We had some hot beverages at the campsite & then packed up to grab breakfast. With full bellies, we headed to the parking lot to begin our climb.

I didn't know what to expect for the approach & it was pretty intense. I had to stop about half way up to take the rope out of my pack & have Jess carry it.  Even though I can fit all of my gear in my pack, I'm too small and out of shape to handle my trad rack and rope for such an intense approach.

We decided on the Old Ladies (5.2) route to the summit. This was my first multi-pitch lead & I didn't want to get in over my head.  It was all easy climbing and gear placement, but well worth the effort to gain the summit.  The only part that really got my heart racing was a small chimney section on the 3rd pitch.  I also wasn't thrilled about scrambling up the 4th pitch.

The summit was amazing.  We signed the log book, took some great pictures and then had to wait awhile to rap down.  We didn't have time to climb any other routes, but I think the summit was still worth the trip.  We had planned on climbing again the next day, but there was some surprise rain overnight and into the next morning that cut our visit to Seneca Rocks short.  We packed up camp in the rain and hit the road to head to the New River Gorge area where we had a cabin waiting for us.

Gear Crazy

Oh, there are plenty of other things I could be spending my money on right now. Girly things... like clothes, or jewelry or makeup. But, somehow I find myself building my trad rack. I now have a double set of BD C4's from .5 to 2 with a couple of singles on either end of this & I just bought a six-pack of Metolius TCU's from 00-4. I'm not sure what my total investment in gear is at this point, but it's well over $1k with my cams, nuts, alpine draws, quick draws, rope, shoes, beaners, GriGri, webbing, etc...

With all of this gear, the pressure is on to actually have fun putting it all to use. I have a group climb trip to WV coming up in a week, but we will only be climbing trad for 1 or 2 days on this trip. So, without a regular trad partner, I basically have 3 choices to get some trad experience: find a random partner, hire a guide, or do some moc-leading on top rope.

I just met a "random partner" at the climb gym the other night, but I'm too hesitant to take him up on his offer to trad climb. So, this weekend I've decided to break in the newly expanded rack with some moc-leading on top rope. It feels sort of silly to moc-lead, especially when people are watching you, but its valid practice for gear placement. Can't wait to try out the new cams!

First Climb Trip of 2013: Easter in Rumney, NH

My sport lead partner Maria & I decided to go rock climbing for Easter. The weather was going to be nice & last Easter was her 1st visit to the crags in Rumney, NH so she was eager to return there this year. We arrived at D Acres around 9pm on the Saturday before Easter. D Acres is an organic farm with a hippie vibe that opens its main building to visitors as a hostel. They're located about 10 minutes from Rumney. You can either rent a room or floor space in a communal room where they practice yoga.

After laying down our sleeping bags in the communal yoga room, we proceeded to find our way to the campfire with a bag of candied pecans & a mixed 6-pack of Harpoon IPA and Negro Modela. A head lamp would have been highly prized for this mission, but we managed with the light of my cell phone and many giggles as we dredged through the snow, falling through the icy crust unexpectantly every 8 steps or so - resulting in the giggling. We finally reached the campfire and chatted for awhile with some fellow climbers from Quebec City about the climbing conditions at Rumney.

We didn't sleep much that night. It was unusually hot in the room and there were 7 or 8 of us sharing the space, including a snorer. I think on the next trip we will try camping or getting a private room. Easter morning we awoke around 8am & enjoyed a delicious farm breakfast of scrambled eggs, roasted potatoes, kale with garlic & fresh milk served out of a jar with a ladle. Perfect fuel for a day of climbing.

We packed up and headed to the crag around 9:30am. The sun was shining, but it took a little while to warm up above the 30's. We met some other climbing parties in the parking lot and proceeded to the aptly named Parking Lot Wall to start our first climb of the day. Maria was leading & started with a 5.7 slab route called Easily Amused. I top roped it & cleaned the anchor after her. She then got pretty confident & decided to lead a 5.9+ route just to the right called Easily Aroused. I was nervous for her getting to the first clip, as the party that had just jumped off of it used a stick clip. She nailed it. She was really nervous, but managed to keep it together and stick the pinchy, sharp holds. I top roped this route after her & struggled a few times on the crux. I can't imagine how scary that was on lead. From there, we moved on to The Meadows area where we both hopped on another party's top rope to climb Holderness Arete - a 5.10b route. We then grabbed some lunch & tried to find the 5.8 Crag to meet up with some friends. Somehow we got lost and ended up free climbing this steep cliff of rocks and trees, which would have required a rope to safely descend. We decided on a safer route back down which required a ton of butt scootching in order not to slip on the leaves that covered the ground.

We gave up on finding the 5.8 Crag & just returned to The Meadows where Maria continued her leading streak with 2 more routes. A 5.7 route called False Modesty, which she nailed cleanly & then a harder route, which was either Dung Beetle 5.9 or Easy Terms 5.8 - I'm not sure which. She had not taken a lead fall outside yet, so the plan was for her to take an announced fall after the 3rd clip, which she did, but I had the rope managed so tightly that it really wasn't a big fall. She proceeded to clip into the 4th clip & then started working on the crux just before the anchor. Unexpectedly, she fell on the crux and took what we both now refer to as her first outside lead fall. It was probably 6-8 feet and brought me to my tip toes on the ground. She shook it off and continued to clip into the anchor as she didn't want to leave any gear (good motivation!). After that, we decided to call it a day. The sun was tucked securely behind the clouds and the wind was picking up making it a little uncomfortable.

We packed up & headed back to the car. Next stop before making the 2-hour journey back home was Plain Jane's Diner for some well deserved, hot Easter meals. All-in-all, it was a successful short climb trip for NE in March. I didn't get any leads in on this trip, but my focus was really just enjoying the trip & getting a feel for Rumney again. Next time, I might try to lead Easily Amused 5.7.