I've been slacking, I know. I haven't posted in almost a year. I'd love to say that it's been a super busy year, but it hasn't. I've just been lazy. I work everyday at Virginia Beach Rock Gym, and any day I don't work, I climb. On top of the working, I've managed to go on 5 or 6 climbing trips around the Southeast. Most of the trips have been to West Virginia, going to the New River Gorge, Franklin, and Seneca. The only place that I've actually managed to climb in Virginia is Iron Gate. Turns out Franklin and Iron Gate are the exact same distance away. Iron Gate has a lot of rusted bolts, and no guidebook. Getting to the crag seemed to be the hardest part. We ended up bushwacking above the cliff line unknown to us. We ended up rappelling in on a sketchy sling. When we finally did get to climbing, we got on four climbs. An unknown 5.9 mixed slab climb, a 5.10b called Mind Games that Jonathan had told us to get on, a short 5.5, and a 5.12c called Ganja. Of all of them my favorite was Mind Games, fun movement on beautiful orange rock, with a killer view of the James River. A good trip to see what was out there, but I don't think I'll return to climb there again.
Ganja 5.12b/c
Rainbow Rocks from Iron Gate
I've also taken one very memorable trip to Linville Gorge where we got lost, and ended up getting on a random climb that we couldn't find in any guidebook. Somebody at the cliff remarked that they had never seen anybody climb it. Probably not a first ascent, but definitely a cool feeling. I thought that the climb was Little Corner (5.6). Later on we found the true Little Corner, which turned out to be a lot harder than the first climb. I definitely plan on heading back to Linville to get on some of the more classic climbs.
Lake James from Shortoff Mountain
1st pitch of Little Corner (5.6)
3rd pitch of Little Corner
Hiking in the Gorge
One of my favorite locations in West Virginia (mostly because it's the closest) is Franklin Gorge. At first Franklin seems like a pretty small area, but in reality the cliff line keeps going and going. Every time I go, I make a point to get on something new. I don't own a guidebook for the area so everything is a guess! So far I've gotten on about 10 routes, my favorite one is called "Blood, Sweat, and Chalk". It's a 5.9+ on beautiful jugs. It's pretty tall too, around 90 feet of climbing.
Most recently me and Chris Presley (Yes he's related to Elvis) went to Seneca Rocks. It was Chris' first time outside climbing, so I decided to throw him in the deep end. Instead of cragging around and looking for hard climbs, we opted to attempt to climb the whole ridge line of Seneca. This ended up being a wonderful idea. We woke up at 6am, packed up, and hiked in. By 6:30 we were at the South End, tied in and ready to climb. Once again in true unpreparedness, we had no idea where we were going. Just following the path of least resistance. Carrying packs that were without a doubt too big, we set off. The first pitch headed up a left facing corner with big in-cut jugs that was protected very easily. I cut the first pitch off at about 80 feet, so that Chris and I could both decide on what looked like the PLR (Path of least resistance). I belayed Chris up to the small ledge, and we decided that continuing up the corner looked easiest. The second pitch was the first crux, but only the first 5 feet. Awkward laybacking lead to a low 5th class slab scramble. The second pitch ended on a beautiful belay ledge that was basking in the rising sun.
Hiking up to Seneca
Hiking up to the South End
I made a habit of looking at the next pitch and saying, "This next pitch is looking pretty hard". So yes, the pitch was looking a little hard, kind of wide. In my mind I was contemplating bailing off, but I convinced myself that we had just drove 6.5 hours to do this, and damn it we were going to do it. After an easy 60 foot traverse in which I clipped three manky pitons. After the traverse I headed up to a large crack, which had a ton of face holds, and even a cool mono pocket. Instead of continuing up into the blank face, a popped out around the arete and continued onto the face to belay off a tree. 2 more pitches of easy traversing brought us to a large ledge where we had our first break, and the wonderful realization that we didn't have any food. After a 20 minute break, having deep meaningful conversations about life, we headed up to the top of the ridge.
We separated it in two zig zagged pitches and came to a pretty cool gap in the rock where we could see through to the other side. We decided to untie and free solo the summit pinnacle of Humphrey's Head.
About 20 minutes after, we continued heading up. Now facing the very intimidating Cockscomb. From our point of view it appeared overhanging on the main face. Through the center of the pinnacle was a chimney that went clear through to the other side. We opted to head through the chimney, which only took one piece of protection. To make it through the chimney we had to take our packs off and throw them ahead of us. Once though the chimney, we headed straight up onto the west face of the Cockscomb, with mostly pitons for protection. This pitch seemed to be the crux, with a weird rock over onto a bad side pull. After topping out the Cockscomb, we sat on the summit and watched the vultures circling around below us.
Standing in front of the Cockscomb, the chimney is right between my legs!
From the summit of the Cockscomb, we traversed the ridge, had one short 30 foot rock step, that spat us out onto another huge ledge, where we stopped, pretended to eat, and got into talks about life and climbing. After our break, we headed up to the South Peak, traversing the scary ridge, eventually hitting an anchor, and calling it a day.
Somewhere near the South Peak
Climbing makes me dance!
South Peak Ridge
Descending through hip deep leaves!
Climbing trips are a great way to get in some serious power bonding. It's really either going to make or break a relationship. On most climbing trips I've been on, I've made amazing new friends. Monsieur Presley was no exception. Happy Climbing!
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