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)
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.
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.
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.
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)
posted by Boer @ 8/21/2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home