Washed out weekend at NRG/Summersville - Aug 26-28

The weather forecasters have failed me once again. I'm beginning to loose faith in weather forecasting, it seem more like voodoo magic than science these days. I know there's always some uncertainties and errors to forecasting, but it's getting ridiculous. Here was the progression of weekend weather forecast as seen last week:

• Wednesday - weekend is looking good, only 30% chance of rain, high in the low 80s. Looks like great climbing weather!
  
• Thursday - oh the forecast changed. Now there's a 50% chance of rain. We can still go DWS if it rains.
  
• Friday - Ok, now there's a 70% chance of rain over the weekend. Hey what do you know, it's raining now.
  

For my 3-day weekend, Megan and I went down to the New hoping to do some climbing. But half way into the drive on Friday it started raining, and it didn't stop until Saturday evening. My tent was newly waterproofed, and we had a tarp set up over the pinic table, so at least we had some dry areas to sit under and cook. And the temperature was mild enough that I wasn't sticky hot at night. However, it was a long drive just for two nights of car camping in the rain.

By Sunday morning everything was still soaked and slimy. We generally try to make the best out of any condition, but we hiked out to one of the climbing areas, took one look at the rock, and turned around and hiked back. Nothing looked like it was pleasant to climb on. I'm getting so sick of the east coast weather.

Deepwater soloing at Summersville - day 2 of 2

The thunderstorm last night was even heavier than the night before. Megan and I woke up to a grey sky and a camp full of dispirited people. Everything was wet, especially the gear that were left out in the open. No one was going climbing, everyone was talking about bailing early and go home. I tried to convince people that there were overhangs that would stay dry even in a downpour, but everyone seemed eager to get back to a climate-controlled manmade structure with walls that would keep all the wetness, the humidity, and nature outside where it belongs. The only exception was people in Alyce's car, they weren't heading home just yet, but they were going hiking. So Val, Megan, and I went back to Summersville again.

Initially I wanted to check out Rat's Hole, which is a land accessible area that Megan and I have not explored yet. Yesterday on the boat I saw what I thought was the Rat's Hole area, and the climb there seemed very cool. We also saw quite a few people there, with no boats (that's why I assumed it was Rat's Hole). However, trying to follow the directions given in the guidebook, we ended up on two seperate private roads with "no trespassing" sign posted. Finally we give up on finding Rat's Hole, and went back to Pirate's Cove.

Pirates Cove

By now the sky has cleared up, the sun came out, and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The temperature was not too high, there was a cool breeze, and the humidity was noticeably lower. All the people that went back to DC early really missed out on a great day, probably spent the beautiful morning trying to avoid getting killed by bad truck drivers on I-81.

A beautiful, sunny day

The normally busy Summersville Lake parking lot was quite empty when we pulled in, and Pirate's Cove, normally jam packed with boats and boaters was unusually quiet as well. We talked Val into jumping off from the waterfall, I tried to climb the massive overhang under the waterfall without much success (it is hard!), and we sat around enjoy the sun and the cool water for a while, until we had to start our long drive back to DC as well.

Val attempting the massive overhang

We didn't get a chance to go moonlight DWS, but it was still a good weekend with some really good climbing.

A video clip of Megan jumping from the waterfall. (4.24MB MPEG movie)
A video clip of me jumping from the waterfall. (1.36MB MPEG movie)

Deepwater soloing at Summersville - day 1 of 2

Megan and I have been planning to go back to Summersville since our last DWS (deepwater soloing) trip. Last Friday was a full moon, so despite being a 2-day weekend, we picked last weekend to return, for a chance to go DWS under the full moon. However, the weather did not cooperate. Even though the sky was clear and the full moon was bright on the way to Summersville, getting my hopes up, a thunderstorm rolled in as we got near Summersville. It destroyed any chance of playing in the water that night, and forced Megan and I to set up camp in the rainy darkness. Val decided to sleep in her road-trip van instead of setting up a tent.

Next morning we woke up to a camp full of people. Most of us were going DWS, but a few weren't able to secure a spot on the boat, so they were going either bouldering or sport climbing. Those of us who were going DWS drove to Summersville Lake and got our rental pontoon boat in the water. I navigated all the way out to where we stopped explore last time for our first climb. We then slowly drove toward Long Point, stopping at few spots along the way to play.

A really nice arete problem

Photo: Megan Dunn

Another fun problem with some funky moves

Photo: Megan Dunn


Unfortunately, right about the time we made it to Long Point, we started to hear thunder rambling in the distance. We got everyone out of the water (reluctantly) and hurried back to the boat launch. We weren't sure how long the thunderstorm would last, but I think more than a few people were tired and hungry, the consensus seemed to be call it a day and take the boat back. As we were taking the boat out of the water, we saw a sheet of rain coming toward us from the far side of the parking lot, it was quite a sight. Everyone ran for cover, and we were all glad that we decided to call it a day... well, for at least 5 minutes anyway. That was how long the rain lasted. The dark ominous cloud moved pass us quickly, and the sky cleared up again. But by now most people have already packed up and left, some went back to camp, some went shopping at the gear shop. After trying unsuccessfully to convince Alyce and her carpool buddies that they should come with us instead of going hiking, Megan and I headed over to Pirates Cove to jump off the waterfall and play on some bolted 5.11s (but with shallow landing). We also watched a few guys and a gal repeatedly climbing much higher on those 5.11s than I was comfortable with the landing. But at least none of them got hurt.

We came back to camp around 5:30 pm, to Terence cooking a big pot of stew, and Ocean trying to set up a slackline by the picnic pavilion. I had planned to eat dinner in town, so Megan and I waited for a few others to return and go to Pints and Pies together. But in the process of waiting, we got talked into staying and eat the group meal. We did, and there was enough food to totally stuff Megan and I. Since we only brought snack food, no dinner items to share, I peeled some mangos I brought and shared it with everyone.

Megan and I wanted to try for a full moon DWS again tonight, but we couldn't find a ride to the lake. Val was sleeping in her van again, and no one else seemed interested in the idea of going to the lake after dark. The sky seemed pretty clear, but we kept seeing lightning in the far distance (no thunder was heard). After waiting till 10 o'clock, the moon was still not high enough for illumination. We decided to go to sleep first, and see how it would be in a few hours. I woke up later in the night to thunder, lightning, and heavy rain. Thus my hope of going moonlight DWS was totally spoiled by the weather.

For more photos from this weekend's DWS, visit Megan's gallery.

A video clip of Alyce doing a flip while jumping. You have to turn your head 90-degrees to watch this video. (2.37MB MPEG video)

Make a donation

My friend Michael Wallis is running the Portland Marathon to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. His goal is to raise $2000, and he's up to $1441 to date. Please help him meet his goal by making a (tax deductible) donation! Follow the link below to his page to donate.

Michael's Team in Training

Löwenböer?

This post is brought to you by a momentary boredom in my otherwise pretty busy life.

Climbing around Morgantown

Still pretty tired from the rafting trip the previous day, Tre', Megan, and I went to a local crag near Morgantown for some easy climbing. Tre' and Megan were both having sore fingers, so it was left to me to whine on a 5.7, hangdog a 5.8 (or was it a 5.10a?), and then siege a 5.11 on toprope.

5.8 or 5.10a? Either way, Mr. Clean was having trouble getting this clean

Photo: Megan Dunn

Whitewater Rafting on the Youghiogheny River

In the morning we drove to Ohiopyle, PA from Morgantown, and after taking care of some logistics (mainly Tre's effort), we got on the Youghiogheny River in a raft. Tre' has some friends who are river guides, and he has been down this river many times before. So he was acting our guide for the trip. Megan has done whitewater kayaking and river guiding back in Australia. So I was the greenhorn in our three-person raft. However, the water was low, and even though there were class-III sections on the river, with Tre' steering, Megan and I paddling like crazy, we made it down the river in good time with no incidents at all.

Kayakers playing in the hole right after the "Dimple" Rapid - which was the hardest section we did today

Captain Tre' starring in a low budget version of "Starship Troopers"

Megan wishing she was in a kayak

Climbing at Coopers

This was a 3-day weekend for me, so my friend Tre' (who hasn't taken any trips in a while due to knee injury) took Megan and I whitewater rafting on the Youghiogheny River in western Pennsylvania. But first, we stopped by Coopers Rock State Park near Morgantown, West Virginia, for some climbing.

Megan balancing on A Very Good Climb (5.9)

I'm jamming on Rock City Crack (5.7)

Photo: Megan Dunn


Tre' went to college in Morgantown, his friend Chris still lives there. So tonight we camped at Chris's parents' backyard. Chris cooked us deer steak and fried banana for dinner. Afterwards, we went to a tea place (Zenclay) for some drinks, then played pool to pass the night, and I managed to kick some major butt in pool with my mediocre skill.

Climbing at Seneca - day 2 of 2

Waking up Sunday morning at a leisurely hour (8:30 am), the rain has stopped, but it was humid and wet. We talked about our plan over breakfast. I wasn't sure how wet the rock will be, but I figure we can start on the first pitch of Skyline Traverse (5.3), which was east facing and should dry out first if the sun was out. At this point, the sky was overcast, and it seemed like a good idea to climb an east facing route. If the condition was good, we then can continue on Kauffman-Cardon (5.4, 2 pitches) to Broadway Ledge, then scramble to Gunsight Notch and climb Gunsight to South Peak Direct (5.4). It sounded like a good plan, so we left the tent in the campground to dry, drove to the Visitor Center parking lot, and started the hike.

No one was on the first pitch of Skyline Traverse, which was unusual. Since my plan was to climb up the South Peak and rappel on the west side, we had to bring everything with us, which means both Jason and Megan had to climb with backpacks on. The sun had come out by now, and it was getting hot. The rock was surprisingly dry considering how much it poured yesterday, so I racked up to lead the first pitch.

However someone was at the anchor for the first pitch of Skyline Traverse, and it sounded like a party of three. They must came up either Candy Corner (5.5) or Lower Skyline Direct (5.4). It was ok, the ledge below the anchor was huge, I slung a big boulder as my anchor, and belayed Jason and Megan up.

Jason on the first pitch of Skyline Traverse

Megan was not looking at full spirit, I wasn't sure if she was just tired, or maybe I was climbing too slow. But anyway, when she got to the belay, I just assumed that I will be leading for the rest of the day, since switching backpack and gear between us was too much hassle and would cause more delays. Megan didn't object my decision to lead all the pitches (normally she would), she passed me the gear she cleaned (she managed to get out a stuck nut), and I set off to lead Kauffman-Cardon.

This route was recommended to me, but I've never had the chance to climb it. Route finding seemed to be a little tricky, this route traverse across a few harder and more runout routes, it would be easy to end up on something I wasn't expecting. I took my time looking for the easiest path, traversing around an arete, a few tricky moves (at Seneca, even the 5.4s have tricky moves) later, I was at the belay.

I brought Jason up, then Megan. While I was belaying Megan, Jason told me he felt the exposure when he climbed around the arete. I don't blame him, most people would be scared of the height on their first multipitch climb. Unfortunately the battery in my camera died at the first belay for Skyline Traverse, so I didn't get the cool picture of Jason coming around the arete.

The backpack Megan was wearing was giving her trouble, because it messed with her balance and required her to put more weight on her hands. Even the easy routes at Seneca can be quite steep. Her fingers have not fully recovered from her injury, so they were hurting a bit, making her a bit cranky. Of course I didn't know all this until later, then just I thought she didn't seem to be in good spirit, I thought she might be dehydrated or hungry (I know I was!). I was concerned, but I trust her to let me know if she wasn't feeling 100% well for climbing.

I racked up to lead the 2nd pitch of Kauffman-Cardon. I traversed around another arete right off the belay, and wasn't sure exactly where to go. I thought the pitch might keep traversing to the right, but it looked too easy, and seemed like it would cause tons of rope drag. Besides, I know at some point I need to go UP. The corner had lots of chalk on it, but the moves seemed pretty hard. I starred at the corner for a while, but finally decided not to give it a go. I climbed up the arete instead.

The arete and the face to the right of it was pretty easy, with big holds. But soon I discovered that the protection was sparse. With no abundant gear, the moves suddenly felt much harder. I kept my head in check, placed as much gear as I could find, breathed keep, pulled a few tricky moves, placed more gear that wasn't all that great, clipped a bolt that certainly was off route, then pulled the final runout to the Lower Broadway Ledge, breathing a big sign of relief when I got up there. Later on I found out it was Cardon's Rib (5.4 R) that I climbed instead of the second pitch of Kauffman-Cardon, it certainly deserved the R (for runout) rating.

I then belayed Jason and Megan up, they didn't think the pitch was too hard. Oh well, everything just felt harder on the sharp end. A look at the watch showed it was already 1 o'clock! I took forever to lead just 3 pitches. We had a quick lunch, coiled the rope, then traversed the length of Broadway Ledge and scrambled up to Gunsight Notch (5.0).

Both the Gunsight to South Peak (5.3) and Gunsight to South Peak Direct (5.4) were free. Since I've been wanting to do the direct version for a while (having done the regular version last year), I started on the direct route. On this route you are climbing right along the knife edge of the South Peak, it felt much more exposed than the non-direct version (which climbs a corner on the west side of the ridge). This is probably one of the most exposed 5.4 in the country. I did enjoy the exposure.

However the gear wasn't so great, at least not in the beginning. Shortly after leaving the belay, I was faced with placing some protection in a thin flake and pull on it to continue the climb. The flake was reasonably thick at the bottom, but near the top where it was mostly detached it was maybe the width of a finger. I did not believe it would hold bodyweight, but having no other choice, I placed a nut at the base of the flake, then gingerly stepped on the flake while trying to put as little weight as possible on it. Once I got above it I immediately placed another piece.

After the Loose Flake of Doom (Ok, ok, "the American Death Flake of Doom"), the rest of the pitch was much better with more solid holds and gear placement. There was a long sling over a big block, I wasn't sure if it was someone's emergency rappel anchor, so I left it along, opted to place some gear in the crack instead. I got to the belay, clipped one of the anchor bolts (saving the other one for Jason or Megan), slung a rock, and then sat myself in the Captain's Seat to bring Jason and Megan up. The Captain's Seat is the sitting belay on Gunsight to South Peak Direct, with a commanding view of the North Peak of Seneca and either side of the South Peak. It was a great spot for a belay.

After some confusion at the belay station, in which Megan decided to anchor in using an American Death Triangle much to my dismay, I set off to lead the last "pitch" with order from Megan to climb fast. So I placed a not so great green Alien to protect the initial move off the belay, pulled onto the summit ridge, and basically walked over to the true summit while dragging the rope with one hand.

Jason posing on the summit ridge

The summit ridge is about the size of a sidewalk, with a couple hundred feet of air on both sides. The guidebook describes the last 50 feet as "walk, crawl, or slither south to the true summit". I have yet to see slithering, but I have seen some crawling. Jason came up, and walked (for the most part) to the true summit. Megan came up as well and properly walked over to the true summit.

Jason looking at the summit register, I'm really sorry about the sunburn, dude!

We were the only party at the summit, but there was no time to sit and enjoy the view. We saw a thunderstorm moving toward us from the west, and heard thunder rumbling in the distance.

Time to go down as fast as we can! But not too fast. Falling down to the ground may seems fast at first, but the result generally is not really favorable. If it was Megan and I, we would just down scramble from the summit to the West Pole rappel tree. However, since this was Jason's first time on a multipitch route, I decided to set a "safe" example and had all three of us on belay scrambling down from the summit. I was the last one down from the summit, so I just continued on scrambling down to the rappel tree while still on belay. But Jason and Megan decided just to scramble down to where I was, unroped... so much for setting an example. Oh well.

Besides discovering that something had chewed on one of the rappel slings around the West Pole rappel station, we didn't have any other problems rappelling back down to the ground. We quickly made our way back to the car, then back to camp, where Megan and I broke some speed record taking down our tent and packing everything up. Another stop at the Seneca Climbing School to inquire about Megan's camera ("Ah, it's in someone's car. That person isn't here right now, but come back next week and we should have it."), and then we were in the car driving back to DC and introducing Jason to O'Dub.

Our timing was just right. Shortly after we got on our way, it absolutely poured. I've never seen it rain so hard at Seneca before.

Climbing at Seneca - day 1 of 2

My left elbow has been bothering me again lately (I have tendonitis from climbing too much), so Megan and I decided that this weekend would be a good time to take someone who has never done multipitch out to Seneca and do a weekend of easy climbing. I posted this idea early in the week to the DCORC group, and Jason Chapman replied with interest.

We were suppose to meet at 8 am Saturday morning in a parking lot off I-66, so I can leave my truck there. But I got a late start, coupled with the fact that the highway construction people closed the I-495 on ramp for my intended direction of travel, I had to go in the complete opposite direction, then turn around at the next exit. By the time I got to our meeting place I was about 20 minutes late. If Jason was annoyed by this, he didn't show it. I've never climbed with Jason before, but he seemed nice and easy going.

We piled all the gear into Jason's car then took off for Seneca. It was a little before noon when we arrived. After a quick inquiry at the Seneca Climbing School about Megan's camera ("oh, ummm, I think someone send it off for repairs. Why don't you come back later and maybe speak with him"), we hiked to the Southern End of Seneca. I planned for us to climb the first pitch of Totem (the first pitch is 5.4ish) and then rappel, just to get Jason familiar with climbing in a team of three, and see how he react to the height.

Megan led the first pitch of Totem, Jason climbed second, and I climbed third. We then rapped from the anchor, everything went fine, Jason seemed to be a pretty competent climber, and handled the height well.

Jason rappelling from P1 of Totem

We then moved over to Ecstasy Jr (5.4). I planned to take all our gear with us and climb it to Luncheon Ledge, where we can then choose to climb something else. I've never done Ecstasy Jr before, but it's a 5.4, right? The first section was just a scramble, I didn't place any gear until I get to the traverse, then decided to place small cams. I traverse over to a vertical crack, the moves looked easy, but since I didn't have much pro in, I placed another two pieces right off the traverse with the intension of back clean them once I placed some pro higher up. That was what I did.

Of course it made for slow climbing, by the time I got to the belay ledge, I could hear thunder rumbling in the distance, and the wind picked up. A thunderstorm was coming. I called down to Megan and told her that only one of them should climb and clean the gear, and we were going to rappel from this pitch. So Jason climbed and cleaned gear, since another party was rapping from the bolted anchors off to the side, we set up the rappel on the big tree with sling far back on the ledge (I didn't see the glue-ins right below the ledge). The middle mark on my single had fallen off, and I haven't had a chance to replace it. We yelled down to the party below to see if our rope reached the ground, and they told us that both ends were off the ground. Oh yeah... this was one pitch in Seneca a single rope doesn't quite reach, I remember now. No problem, we can easily down climb the last bit. So I sent Jason down first, asking him to be extra careful. He made it down fine. I went down next, spotting a nut just resting on a bush next to the rappel line as I went down. I went over and picked it up, and was confused to see it was one of mine! It must have fallen out of the biner when I was taking a biner full of nuts off my gear sling for a placement, but I never noticed that it had fallen out. Well lucky me I guess. I got to the end of the rappel, got on a stance, pulled one strand of the rope through my belay device, tied a knot in the other end, and downclimbed while pulling the rope with me. We then quickly packed up and moved over to the Cave area, where a whole bunch of other climbers were hanging out waiting for the rain to die down.

But it never did. After goofing around in the Cave, showing Jason how to place gear and stuff, we eventually got tired of waiting and hiked back to the car. Then it was setting up camp in the rain, cooking a way too early dinner, playing cards, until it was finally dark, and the rain finally stopped. The forecast for tomorrow didn't look very promising, but we decided to wait and see in the morning.