The Shmart End

The North Peak from the South Peak summit

photo by Chris

Day 3



When I got up and crawled from my tent ,little ice drops fell off the rain fly. It was freezing. It didn't bother me. I stayed warmer than the night before. I believe I did better at staying on the Thermarest and I stuffed a jacket in the bottom of the sleeping bag to wrap my feet in. It's a good trick I will remember. We went to the Climber School coffee shop and had some really good coffee, hung out on the deck and talked with the guides. We tried the gear store a couple times. Still not open. Seems the season had just begun and the locals weren't in full gear yet. There had only been 2 or 3 other teams on the rock the day before. I wanted to replace some missing nuts and get some new slings. The Gendarme is one of the few gear shops that always has anything you might need. Someone assured me they would open for the weekend. We went up the road a bit and had a mediocre breakfast at a local diner. The biscuits were terrible and the gravy barely passable. The atmosphere was nice anyway. It was late morning when we hit the trail to the rock with way to much gear again. My plan was to get Chris to the South peak summit. I had done Ecstasy Jr. with Dwayne years before and knew where to start and remembered a cool bulge but not much else about the route other than it would get us to lunch ledge. We swung leads this time and the first 2 pitches went real quick. I got the one with the bulge and the cool moves. It ended on a nice ledge with another team on a route close so I had someone to talk to. He had left his atc on the ground and was belaying his second with a munter knot. We have all done that at some point. Chris came up and started up the third pitch. It was a nice looking crack and he was out of sight in a bit. Then the rope stopped moving. I radoied and asked if he was building an anchor, thinking he was on lunch ledge. He says back "no I'm in a sort of pod." that's a crack just big enough for one person to climb into. It's usually a good rest place. A while went by and still no rope went out. I had another smoke. My company had descended. The view was sweet. The fork in the road,the tiny town. I could even see our campground. Then the rope started moving again.

Chris radioed "Off Belay and On Belay". I pulled the anchor and started up a wonderfull crack. I just didn't recall climbing this pitch before. I found the pod and debated how to get above it. I found a good hand jam and swung out on the left face. It was harder than I expected but a fun thing. Lots of knoblike formations for hands and feet up to the ledge.

We had lunch and I scrambled around a bit to the top of Ecstasy to get Chris's sunglasses. I put them on and was tempted to not hand them over. We had lunch and some water, sorted gear and rope and hiked up the ramp to the base of the Cockscomb. We ran into 3 guys we met earlier who were camped across the campground from us. They were from New York and I hung out with them a bit the 3 days we were there. They always had a nice fire in the evening.

It was my lead so I did the first pitch of Old Ladies route. It ends in a windy notch that takes you to the east side. It's a great spot right btween the comb and Humphrey's head. A team of simul climbers (both climbers moving with a few pieces of gear between) went by me on the east side. They were moving fast. When Chris got to me I took a couple nice pictures of the side of Humphrey. I was seriously tempted to do a route on the Comb or Humphrey but the goal was the South Peak. So Chris got the second pitch of Old Ladies. It descends a bit from the notch with a couple weird moves and tricky pro, then crosses an easy ledge system barely wide enough for a person. When I got to his belay I grabbed the gear and kept going. A bit of routefinding and I lead up a nice sloping chimney system that I had forgotten doing before wth Dwayne. By the time I got to a big ledge system the rope drag was bad so I brought Chris up and we hiked toward the top. More route finding and Chris started up another chimney. He radioed from the top."This is wierd,there's some blocks ahead." I came up. It wasn't the South peak. I lowered and Chris downclimbed it. Then we met the Solo Guy. We hit him up for beta.(information) At the base of the final pitch I knew we needed to be quick or it would get dark on us. Chris wanted to solo up the easy slab but I suggested we do it on gear. He summited and walked the knife edge a bit untill he found the summit register and took the picture above. It's one of the coolest spots on earth that I have been to and I would like to have gone up with him but I have been there from the Gunsight Notch. I knew we needed to go down. A bit of beta from Solo Guy and we found the rapell anchors. They were about 20 feet down the west face. We discussed soloing down but its a 3oo foot drop. I downlead it ,hooked up and then the rope wouldn't pull. I got a bit aggravated and I was in a hurry because I was watching the sun sink below the mountain. We were still a thousand feet above the car. Chris was doing the best he could with a tangled rope. When it was free he downclimbed and I had one end of the rope feeding through the anchor already. The 3 raps to lunch ledge went smooth and fast thankfully.

A hike down the boulderfield to the packs, a fast pack up job and we made it to Roy gap road before total darkness. I had a headlamp and everthing was peachy in Ynot world again. Thinking about it later, Chris got all the tough pitches, most of the downleading, did a fine job on the sharp end, his gear was good, and I climbed on the Shmart end most of the day. Swinging leads speeded things up alot but we still had too much gear and the gear sling was irritating my sunburned neck most of the day. The rock was drier and the weather perfect. Not crowded but enough teams around to get beta. Seneca is easy crack climbing paradise. We added it up and climbed 7 pitches. We downclimbed 2 more. 4 pitches is my usual. I was pretty tired and happy.

We also cheated the epic again.




The prominent building in the foreground is the national park visitor center. Our camp was right center and the town left center .The river is really noisy so the need for radios.
click to enlarge

Ynot West Virginia?

The Climber Gnome

pictures by Chris Johnson

DAY ONE AND TWO

It started raining on the way to Columbus.The plan was, meet Chris at his house, and take 70 to West Virginia. He worked a 12 in the ICU so I drove the 5 hours to Elkins,WV. It rained the whole way since we were going east with the rain. It was still raining when we pulled into Princess Snowbird Campground. We fished out the headlamps and set up tents in the rain. I crawled into my bag and slept OK. I was cold but glad to be back at Seneca Rocks. It was just above freezing that night. I didn't even try to make coffee the next morning. We were cold and damp so we headed to town, just across the river, for breakfast. The road was dry so we figured the rock would be too. We lounged around till 11 or so before we got to the parking lot. The visitor center is closed untill May 1 so we went back to town to fill the water bottles. It's not far. The water had a strong Clorox smell and taste. We later found the water at the climbing school was much better. For some reason we racked up at the base of my project route, Exstasy. I guess because it's one of the first ones on the south end. Totem would have been a nice warm up instead, but we started up it with Chris leading the first pitch. He belayed after the first 30 feet on a nice ledge so we broke pitch one into two. I finished it at around 100 feet off the ground. The next pitch takes off up and right. I lead again. I had good info on leading off from the belay ledge. I found the proper crack and climbed up. I liked it alot so far. Then the crack disapeared on me. There was a clear trail of chaulk going up and to the right across the face so I followed the chaulk wich luckily wasn't washed off by rain. There was gear here and there and I was OK untill Chris was no longer visible and the climbing got tougher maybe 60 feet from the belay. We had radios to comunicate with but I wasn't about to let go with one hand. The climbing was dead vertical, so moving was balancy. I got to a tough move I wasn't sure I could make. This part of the story is firmly imbedded in my memory.
I thought, I would downclimb ,rest and reconsider the moves. I looked down and left to my last piece of gear in the rock. It looked real far away and not so below me, meaning if I fall, I'm going for the scariest swinging ride of my life. I have fallen off lots of climbs but I wasn't prepared for the heart attack a ride like that would have given me. I also noticed I was a couple hundred feet off the ground or so it looked like. There's nothing but air under me. The up and right has taken me on a path above a cavelike recess in the rockface. There was no bailing off this route without abandoning an expensive rope that wasn't mine. So I'm holding onto the best holds I have with all fours and I know I'm out on a limb. The adrenaline kicks in and my heart beat goes up and now I'm pretty scared. It's easy to loose your head. Keeping your shit together is hard. I have 2 challenges instead of one. Winning the argument going on in my brain and making a hard move on not so great holds, way above Roy Gap. It's all me. I'm on the sharp end of the rope.
Controlling my adrenaline soaked brain was harder than the move because I made it and a few more untill I found a rest stance. I was still freaked out. There was a decent crack around a block right in front of me with another thin crack above it. It didn't look like the belay ledge described in the guidebook. There was supposed to be Pidgeon crap and better footing. I shoved 2 cams above the block, hooked myself up, grabbed the radio and informed Chris I was belaying. My heart was still racing but I was in a better position and secured. As I was shoving cams around the block I noticed the fracture on the bottom and other side of it. There was also a useless old piton and ring with a hole a few inches away where an old army anchor had blown out. Springy thingy cams are much better but the fracture worried me so I sank a nut in the tiny crack above to back up the anchor. My left foot kept wanting to go to sleep on me as Chris climbed up. There was only one stance so I hopped from one foot to the other and tried to get the blood going in my foot. I guess adrenaline doesn't thin the blood, just gets it pumping. Chris came up with no problems until my mood infected his mood. I wanted off this route but there was no way off without going to the top of it where there is a large ledge system. We placed another nut in the crack above to back up the anchor better. They were good but not what we call bombproof. I was on lead again and there was an obvious bulge ahead I would have to pull and another rusty piton just below it. Chris says "clip that piton!" He was anxious for me to get some gear between me and the anchor. It took me one second to look at it and say "hell no!" It was crap and there was a nice crack running through the bulge. I sank 3 good cams in that crack and aided my way through it. 20 feet or so later I found the right belay ledge. There was no pidgeon crap but it was spacious compared to the one Chris was at. Rain must have washed it away or Molly Maid had been there. One of the two. After Chris joined me I lead off on the last 40 foot pitch to the top. It was all straight up vertical climbing since the top of the first pitch. When I got to the top I tore off the helmit and rack of gear before I even hooked up and radioed "Off Belay" It was so good to be done with that climb, We sat there and had lunch while my blood pressure subsided. I have never wanted off a route as bad as that one. Maybe knowing there was no bailing from it made it worse, maybe it was a good lesson in keeping it together when the mind says, "I want to be anywhere else." The body was up to it. I didn't fall. We turned a 3 pitch route into 5 and a near epic that I won't forget. Chris lead a pitch of Le Gourmet before we hiked back to the car and a nice supper in town. The chicken Alfredo was tasty and I called home while I had service. It was nice to hear Courtney's voice on the other end.

home

I'm back at home. It's good to see my old friends again. The couch the bed the coffee pot etc...
I made it to Seneca but my camera mysteriuosly didn't so I didn't get a single picture. Never occured to me to by a disposable. Chris got some pictures so I'll post up his with a trip report of my harrowing adventure on Extasy 5.7 so stay tuned. same channel, different time....

Seneca WV!!

I'm counting down the days untill I roll into the tiny town of Seneca Rocks in the beautiful Shanendoa mountains. I know the climbing will be perfectly suited to my taste in routes and the food at the 4U will put me right. This time I will hook up the walkie talkies to some biners so they don't fall a couple hundred feet to thier doom, like last time. No more watching paint dry. For a few days anyway.