New Years weekend: an adventure in driving and bushwhacking - Dec 30-Jan 1
Friday: met up with Hung then went to Franklin. The weather was cloudy and a little chilly, but not terrible. Warmed up on Shipwrecked (5.9+); finally redpointed Super Amazing Sea Monkeys (5.10d); got totally spanked trying to lead Walk the Plank (5.11a), and after Hung led it, still got spanked on a toprope. Hung led Dynosaurus (5.12a), I toproped it with lots of tension from the other end. Hung then toproped the unknown route to the left of Dynosaurus. That night Hung drove us to Pilot Mountain, NC. All the campgrounds were closed for the night, so we pulled over in a hiking trail parking lot, Hung slept in the car, and I slept on top of the covered picnic table. Around 1 am a Sheriff came by to check us out and asked for our IDs, but he left us alone after that.
Saturday (New Years Eve): Woke up, bought a jug of water at the gas station, and drove to Sauratown Mountain. We parked outside the Mountain Top Youth Camp, and hiked along the road to the top of the mountain looking for the rumored sport climbing there. There were no guidebooks covering the area, except some vague directions printed out from the web. We followed every trail we came across, bushwhacked to every cliff we saw, but we never found a single bolt. After half a day of hiking and bushwhacking, we finally gave up and drove a little further to Moore's Wall, where we climbed on some sweet bouldering problems. That night we decided to drive to Summersville Lake, WV - a place where we can find the routes. Most of the campgrounds were closed for the season, we were the only ones camping at Rogers.
Sunday (New Years Day): Woke up to a beautiful red sunrise over the New River Gorge. Drove to Summersville Lake, where we were the only climbers there the whole day. We didn't have a guidebook, so we climbed a few routes we know, and a few we didn't know. I onsighted She Got the Bosch, I got Drilled (5.10a) as a warm up, flashed BSIAGE (5.10b) after Hung led it, toproped the three-bolt Short Pirouette (5.10d, hard for short people), and hangdogged Satisfaction Guaranteed (5.11b). I took a short fall over the roof on Satisfaction Guaranteed, and swang under the roof. It was freaky. After that I was done leading for the day. Hung wanted to try Mutiny (5.11c), but it was wet from the water run off, so he got on Under the Milkway (5.11d), which was really sequency and technical. I tried toprope it, but only got about half way up before the sun started to dip below the horizon. Hung went up on toprope and cleaned it, then we began the long drive home. I got in my bed at 2 am Monday morning.
Saturday (New Years Eve): Woke up, bought a jug of water at the gas station, and drove to Sauratown Mountain. We parked outside the Mountain Top Youth Camp, and hiked along the road to the top of the mountain looking for the rumored sport climbing there. There were no guidebooks covering the area, except some vague directions printed out from the web. We followed every trail we came across, bushwhacked to every cliff we saw, but we never found a single bolt. After half a day of hiking and bushwhacking, we finally gave up and drove a little further to Moore's Wall, where we climbed on some sweet bouldering problems. That night we decided to drive to Summersville Lake, WV - a place where we can find the routes. Most of the campgrounds were closed for the season, we were the only ones camping at Rogers.
Sunday (New Years Day): Woke up to a beautiful red sunrise over the New River Gorge. Drove to Summersville Lake, where we were the only climbers there the whole day. We didn't have a guidebook, so we climbed a few routes we know, and a few we didn't know. I onsighted She Got the Bosch, I got Drilled (5.10a) as a warm up, flashed BSIAGE (5.10b) after Hung led it, toproped the three-bolt Short Pirouette (5.10d, hard for short people), and hangdogged Satisfaction Guaranteed (5.11b). I took a short fall over the roof on Satisfaction Guaranteed, and swang under the roof. It was freaky. After that I was done leading for the day. Hung wanted to try Mutiny (5.11c), but it was wet from the water run off, so he got on Under the Milkway (5.11d), which was really sequency and technical. I tried toprope it, but only got about half way up before the sun started to dip below the horizon. Hung went up on toprope and cleaned it, then we began the long drive home. I got in my bed at 2 am Monday morning.
posted by Boer @ 1/02/2006
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