Orange Oswald
Before heading out to Jay’s Bachelor party weekend in Deep Creek Maryland, Nathan and I loaded up his truck with climbing gear and drove down to Summersville, WV to meet Alexis for some climbing. The plan was to spend 2 days down there swimming and climbing before the party weekend.
The drive down was uneventful, except right when we got into Summersville and stopped for provisions at the local Wal-Mart. For the past week the state of WV was without power, and people were going mad. As Nathan continuously argued for food that was the least crappy option (meaning spends more $). West Virginians were swarming all over and loading up on ice.
With food obtained for the weekend, (most local and organic options one can get at Wal-Mart), we met Alexis at the Summersville crag trailhead. While shopping another huge storm rolled through and soaked the entire area. We decided to hike in anyways and try some climbs. Hiking down the path and descending the ladder, we walked past lots of climbs but all were soaked. We found one 5.9, that was slightly overhung, so 90% of it was dry. The very last move was an algae growth pod that slimed you up to the anchors. We everyone had a go, and I think everyone had fun, even though conditions were terrible.
Looking through the book, it gave suggestions on what dries out fastest, so we made our way to the Orange Oswald Wall. The wall sits about 6 feet from the edge of the lake, so it was perfect for climbing and swimming. We did the route named “Orange Oswald”, and tried to lure more bikini clad vixens to cheers us on. Alexis did her part as best she could, but no other vixens showed up. We saw some really could salamanders that were bright orange at the base too.
After swimming we went to try some easy 5.8s, but they were still wet. We still put them up and everyone had a hard time on them. The only real fun section was the brain, a giant gray-matter rock formation at the top, which was actually dry. Oh and by this time Nathan was dawning his best formalwear Under Armour boxers. (Also I solo’ed up to get a bail biner, my first, but karma got me in the end). We also scouted lines in the Narcissus cave, for my future hardman routes.
We made camp at a weird local camp ground. Almost thought we were going to be murdered or eaten, but instead we just had some terribly difficult conversations with the grounds keeper. Alexis horribly killed bugs with her electric zapper.
The next day we went to the Endless wall, (Fern Buttress area) to do some easy climbs. We hiked around and down some latters and bushwacked our way to the Star-Trek wall. Here we climbed a couple nice cracks and saw a box turtle. The last route we climbed was wide crack/chimney. Climbing this to the top (everyone had to get to the top) would save us a terrible hike back to the anchors. The route probably hasn’t been climbed in 4-5 months, so I had to make use of trusty spiderwand, cleaning the crack and protecting the climb as I went. I swear I locked eyes with some spiders the size of a squirrel (ok maybe chipmunk). At the very end of this climb after hauling up bags, and belaying Nathan and Alexis, on the very last move of cleaning the anchors, I dropped one of my favorite quick draws. Karma came full circle, “the New” giveths and takeths away.
