Whynot's trip reports

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Location: ohio

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Whynot's trip reports

Peter racking up in the snow

Winter Climbing

It didn’t start out the way I had in mind. I got up to go climb at 7 but when I walked out of the house it was still dark,really cold, and it was snowing. There was already an inch on the ground and the road. I made it downtown OK before I turned around. The interstate was closed. My truck turned around all by itself. Seriuosly. The roads were slick as snot. I headed home. I only made it a little way up the hill going to my house. I walked for over a mile in the blinding wind and snow and left my truck there. I should think about getting something with frontwheel drive.
It was 3 in the afternoon when I made it to Red River. I was to meet my partner at 9:30 that morning. We met up at the climbers hostle later that night. I love staying at the hostle. You just can’t beat the atmosphere. Nice people to sit around the fire and chat with, a cozy bed and a killer breakfast to get you going the next morning. It was single digit temps that night and still below freezing the next morning but the sun was out and the forecast called for 32 degrees, so we went to Muir valley for the day.
Peter lead a sweet new 5.7 trad route at a new place called West Wall. The rock wasn’t too cold with the sun hitting it but jamming numbed the fingers. At every rest stance I slipped my tips under my arms between my shirt and jacket untill the feeling came back. The other problem with winter climbing is the fact that your climbing shoes are so darn cold! About the time they warm up you have to change shoes again. The routes were great and the climbing good so it was worth it. We did Indecision 5.8+ at the Stadium, next. It’s just as good a route. Bouldery at the bottom, through a roof to a nice hand and fist crack with a bulge or two. The ledge at the anchors is nice and spacoius and the sun felt great so we hung out a few and took pictures. We could see the owners new cabin across the valley on the opposite cliff top. We did ED 5.7 after that and I lead that one. It’s a stemming route and my legs were on fire near the top. I was tempted to Take but I am glad I didn’t. Peter lead it too and I cleaned so we did 2 laps on it. We walked over to Shock and Awe and Peter lead it up. It was so cold at the belay I didn’t want to put my frozen climbing shoes on again to follow it so I declined and we hiked out. Not a bad day at all. A bit chilly but a day out climbing is time spent living so I would do it again.
Jesse New Feb 2006

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Full Moon pitch 3


One of my favorite pictures. The best part of the route. Such a cool move with nothing but space underneath.
Red River Gorge Kentucky.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Whynot's trip reports

Whynot's trip reports

Rope Brothers
Looking forward to getting on some good routes is what occupies my mind alot. It's freezing cold outside, mid February, and I havent been climbing in a month, and I prolly won't for another month,but I can still think about it.
Anytime I want. It's not only the climb I miss. It's my climbing partners too. Warm pretty days spent cragging with your buds are the spice of life. I spent two or three years learning my lessons climbing with Di. Shes a teenager trapped in an adult's body. She followed me up lots of grubby trad routes and never complained,even if she was hurt. A couple years ago I started climbing more with Dwayne. We spent a week one fall, on the road, climbing.
Sitting on top of Seneca rocks, smoking a Marlborro, with the wind blowing and the afternoon sun shinning on us, always comes to mind. It was one of those unforgetable times. the little town of Seneca where we started that morning was tiny looking and oh so far away. Getting down was an adventure that day. I didn't think climbing got any better than that but then we went to Table rock in North Carolina. 5 pitches up,on top of a mountain, we could see for miles and miles. One pitch was almost a whole ropelength. The longest pitch I ever lead. Nothing there but trees and we were looking at the top of them like it was a lawn. I always feel so alive up there. Maybe it's because you earn the view. I love that. It's like magic. A magical feeling in a magnificeint setting.
Last year I started climbing with two ladies I ran into at Longwall. Ginger was in a tough spot on a trad route I was wanting to do but they beat me to it. I volunteered to finish it. Tonya is her rope sister and prefers sport but is happy to follow us. We all keep an eye out for a wide crack to test our skills. Having 3 racks to draw from is handy too.
Fullmoon went on my ticked off list a long time ago but I thought it would make for a good days climb for the four of us,last summer. We had a great time doing it in two pitches. Such a forgotten classic! I bet it only sees a couple ascents a year. Lots of pictures from that day take me back. Good climbs, good partners and friends, good weather.
Good Tang, Octopus Tag, Cavers for the umpteenth time(I never get tired of doing Cavers) and a host of other wide wonders provided seemingly endless hours of upward joy.
I get older and fatter and those days get fewer, but I bet I have endless stories to tell my grankids. Who knows maybe Di and Dwayne, Ginger and Tonya, myself and my grandkids, and theirs will go cragging in the sun one day.
Feb 06

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Nevermore


Looking back, it seems a hair-brained thing to do. The guidebook said "A perfect place to have an epic",but I wasn't detered. I had put some thought and effort into being prepared. I picked up a chest harness and a Croll at the gear store days before. I would fix my rope at the top ,rappel down and climb back up.Some pitches traverse a little but I wasn't worried about that as much as the fact that ,the day I went to do Nevermore, I was without a partner.It's hard to dig up a partner on a Wednesday with short notice. I don't think I have climbed alone since.

The walk up the decrepit road to the top was hot sticky and seemed to take forever. I wasn't in a hurry but the heat was getting oppressive,so I took my time At the top I walked around on the summit and enjoyed the exposure. The top of the crack is easy enough to find, and I sat down and drained one of my drinks,before rigging my rope to a 2 point anchor consisting of some slings to a solid tree and one of the railing posts. I tossed down the rope and checked that it was on the ground at the bottom. It seemed weird not yelling ,"rope",but there was no one around so it was pointless. I was alone on top. I sat down and thought about it some more and triple checked my set up before descending. The route is 4 or 5 pitches and the book says 200 feet, but it wanders back and forth a bit so I had 15 or 20 feet of a 60 meter rope left on the ground when I got to the bottom.
There is a small tree growing out of the third pitch. Looking up at the route I wished I had left the rope on the right of the tree instead of left. The first pitch is an interesting looking short chimney and I started up after donning my chest harness setup.The moves were fun and having a rope above me was reassuring. At the top of the chimney the route traverses along a handcrack and because of the rope being on the wrong side of the tree, if I fell it was going to whip me way off to the left. I started across and was doing well until I reached, a little off balance, for a bush limb and it popped right off! In a split second I tossed it and grabbed a better one,before I came off the rockface.The jolt of adrenaline that went through me had to be one of the most intense I have ever felt .I used it to get across the traverse and up to the tree where I rested."Ok that could have been bad, but your fine", I told myself. The rope above me seemed to go on forever up to a bulge and out of sight above it. I checked my setup again and started up the crack. More enjoyable climbing on rock that hadn't seen a climber in years. Adventure climbing still gets me going, there's just something about trade routes that see traffic every day that makes the experience seem sterile.This trip was turning out to be everything I had hoped for. I just needed to keep my head together and not screw up again.
I pulled the crux of the third pitch after a false start and found myself on a spacious ledge. The route takes off again to the far right of this ledge. I wandered over to a boulder with anchors and a rats nest of ancient webbing and cord, where I sat down and pulled out a smoke. The exposure from there is stunning. I sat for awhile and watched cars on the other side of the river... I wondered if they could even see me up here? I was alone. Part of me was enjoying it and the other part was terrified.The guidebook says something about 3 bolts at the start of the next pitch. I looked un till I found the first one. A rusty small bolt with a nut on it and no hanger. I deemed it useless and too far right of where my rope ran up to the bulge above the roof of my ledge. Not wanting to risk a big swing again at this height ,I rigged up a sling on my foot to an ascender about as high as my reach. I would jug this part of the route. I tested it and found that It was going to put me out over the edge of the ledge,hanging in space when I started off. This was unnerving for some reason so I sat back down and had another cigarette. and then two. I was still miserably hot and getting thirsty. It occurred to me that the rope above could saw on sharp edges as I jugged it, And there's the swinging out over the edge thing. I checked my equipment for a fourth time and made a false start. I was just plain scared to move and feeling very alone. If I died up here no one would find me for months. I sat down again and had another smoke. A half hour went by. The sun crept over the top and the ledge got shade so I waited.
I heard a strange buzzing noise,like a bee or something. What the heck? I look over and there is a hummingbird! He just buzzes around a scraggly tree on the ledge not 10 feet from me. I sat very still and just watched him. In a second he was strait up and gone. I thought "I wish I could do that!" It must have calmed and inspired me because I started up the rope and it wasn't bad at all. Once on the bulge I swung over to the last crack and jammed my way up until I thought the swing would be bad. The last pitch angles left about 30 feet from vertical and my rope was down the middle, so I jugged the last several feet.This pitch is pretty stellar and I wish I hadn't missed so much of it ,but I stayed on the safe side.
As soon as I got my hand around the railing a huge feeling of relief came over me. I hopped the rail ,unhooked and went for the water bottle. I was still in one piece,and I had done what I went to do. I sat there a long while and enjoyed the view from the top. What I enjoy most about climbing is the view from on top. It just has to be earned.
Jesse New 2003

Snacks and climbing

WATCH THE CHEEZITS!
The forecast called for nice weather. Unusual for August in Kentucky. A tropical storm slid up the coast and drug some Canadian air in. Just perfect for two days of climbing. I hooked up with"D" for Saturday and we went with a Chris to a new place he had discovered on the edge of the forest. We piled in his car and took a shortcut across a creek. When the water came up over the hood and hit the windshield, I was seriously concerned it was coming in the doors next. I heard D say "keep going!" Chris gave it some gas and it went right through and up the other side. I was watching the doors but they weren’t leaking any. Amazing, later we found large gravels in the front skirt, where it nosed into the streambed. We took the long way on the trip back.
It would be a casual approach to this crag if it weren’t for the green briars. After a couple hundred feet they started pissing me off. The wall was worth the hike. Bulletproof sandstone, not too tall, but featured and three nice cracks close together with a couple walk downs. I lead a nice easy flake and then a good chimney. Chris had a close encounter with a rattlesnake at the top of it, so I decided to call it Rattlesnake Chimney 5.5/5.6 it’s hard to tell the difficulty. the start is a squeeze that makes it hard to move up. Chris set up a top rope on a beautiful splitter. It still hasn’t been lead. We cleaned it a bit and worked out the moves. We all did a lap or 2 on it and think it's solid 5.9 fists. A good route for sure. We hiked around the wall scoping more routes and called it a day.
Miguel’s was hopping that night. The cops showed up about 4 in the morning and hauled off a couple local squatters that were giving Susan a bad time. I was snoozing in my truck and missed it. They kept a lot of the tent campers up till then and breakfast centered around the goings on.D and I went out to my new favorite obscure trad crag.
It has an easy approach to the top with unbelievable exposure. You can see Small Wall and Hens nest and several other outcropings. It's two raps to get to the base. I rapped down to the alcove and waited for D. When he landed, he says, “There’s a copperhead!" It wasn't 10 feet from where I had been standing. They blend in with the rock and I didn’t see it at all. I had been there 2 other times and not seen one, which makes me wonder. I set up the next rap and landed on a pinnacle half way down. I kicked the rope off the edge and went on down. Then I hear a voice,” Watch the Cheezits!" he says. I am about to land on a box of them and I notice a tent full of young campers back under the pinnacle. I hadn't yelled "rope" and wasn't expecting to see campers at the base. I still don't know how they managed to get there with all their stuff. They said something about a mad scramble. It is a cool spot if not illegal.
The game plan was to do the 5.8 on the other side of the buttress, so we hiked around. I had been here twice with Stacy, but it was damp and I wasn't sure she could get up the crux. It’s 15 feet of sustained overhanging layback. The crack is off fists and hard to get into to place gear, with nothing for feet except the crack. I lead up and hung on my gear twice to rest. It’s two stars and I was loving every minute of it, in spite of the difficulty. My adrenaline was pumping. I got up to a couple ledges with small trees and stopped at the second one. It is inside a chimney big enough for two to stand. It was nice and cool and I was hot. The rock wraps all around you with an offwith size opening. There are three chock stones piled on each other in the back. Above, you can see the flake of the second pitch. It’s just beautiful. D came up and belayed me from the ledge five feet below me, where he could see the next pitch better. It’s easy 5.5 with lots of feet. As soon as you get over the chock stones and out of the chimney you are above the trees and the view is around you. It just doesn’t get much better at Red River Gorge. We topped out and had lunch, took some pictures and rapped back down for some more climbing. The campers were gone. They took their Cheezits with them too.
Jesse New Aug 04