Many would say June is not the best time to send at the New River and they are right. There aren’t crisp crimp, flypaper sloppers, or Velcro mono dishes. Instead you learn to embraces the sweaty bulges, the dripping mossy slabs, and the spider infested cracks.
I met up with Austin and Alex (No Tyler, cause he bailed) to do a Star Chasing Trad-riffic day. We got an early start around 7am, when the fog was thick and there was a nice sheen to the rock. Our warmup set the perfect tone for the day.
- “Handsome and Well hung” spit me off a good 15ft.
- Next, we got some dirty hand-jamming in on “Zag” next door. It had bomber/trucker/cruiseliner passive #5 camalot placement at the top.
- “Easily Flakey” gold standard in a guiding route. Nothing quite like river boot rubber smears all over the rock.
- Time for some lie backing and jams with “Jaws” (someone’s dad would later be yelling at them while on this climb, just stick your head if only we had that beta)
- “Tree-route” which doesn’t have a tree anymore, was really good and surprisingly dry and grippy. It had great stemming and balancy moves.
- A revisit to “Chockstone” was pretty dry as well, surprising what things are like when its not pouring rain.
Then we picked up gear and moved over to the Junkyard. Here we enjoyed the company of lizards and took nice one hour nap in the middle of the day. Not another soul walked by during our nap, we basically had the crags to ourselves, since everyone was sport/spring-breaking it up at Summersville.
We continued on with the star hunt.
- Revisit to “Rapscallion blues”, nothing like this to get the blood pumping immediately after a nap.
- “Four sheets to the Wind’s” polished feet still were in existence
- With no guides or top-ropers insight we got on one of the most trafficed routes in the gorge, “New River Gunks”. But for us, we had a nice surprise of a blacksnake that was curled up on the anchors. It was hand with my patented “#2 black diamond – snake charmer”
- “Team Jesus” was next up to bat and it end up exploding Alex’s Knee. It sounded like a gun shot went up we he stood above the tweaker move. It still make me cringe thinking of it.
- Then came the “entertainer” again. Encore for me.
- Then I decided to leave this plane of existence. I traveled to the far left and got “Stuck in another Dimension”. I got to place my #5(always fun), jammed and wiggled up on a crack. Stuck my head in sideways and left reality. Re-entered this world with double fist jam and cut feet at the anchor.
- To end the day, we went to “new Yosemite” and karate chopped our way out.
13 routes and not clipping a single bolt (except anchors) makes for a proud day. We ate pizza and drank high test and low test beers at “Pies and Pints.” Thoroughly beat, we retreated to our cars and slept for the sunrise of tomorrow.
We re-entered the climbing world again by heading over to the “butcher branch” clip up area, which would allow us to chase some more stars without all the extra work.
- “The Green Piece” had a Centipede on the wall.
- “Springer” was chalky slab that smelt like dihedral, but it wasn’t.
- “Play it by Ear”, I helped rescue gear for other people. The top is hard for an easy 10.
- On “Low Voltage” I got chalk in my mouth.
- “Fairtracer” is hands down on of the best 10+ line in the Gorge. It is long pumpy and has tiny abet solid gear. I cleaned the route for Alex, but doing so only made me want to lead it more. However, I was too exhaust to do it again.
We left around 2:30 and called it a day, having probably climbed more than weekend already than any other party. Sometimes mileage puts a grin on my face as much as at my limit hard climbing.
Signing off, I <3 off-widths, but still hate chimneys.
