Tag Archives: Fayettesville

Jun14

Spring Break 2018 – West Virginian adventures, Monday, 28-May

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Spring Break 2018 – West Virginian adventures, Monday, 28-May

A West Virginia adventure – Spring Break in the New River Gorge, 2018

Saturday, 26-May, through Saturday, 02-June, 2018

 

“Life is old there, older than the trees. Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze. Country roads, take me home… to the place, I belong! West Virginia, Mountain momma… take me home, country roads.”

I’m pretty sure that the first real spring break I ever had was with Daniel, years ago, when we drove down to the New River Gorge to climb, and attend the New River Rendezvous. Since that year, we’ve done our best to always link up and go on some glorious climbing trip on or around Memorial Day. This year was a tough one, with Sarah breaking her leg, but she insisted that I go anyways, and let her live vicariously through me as she convalesed at home. I’d already cleared the week as vacation with my boss, even before I was hired for the project, so I was free and clear for a throwback adventure…

 

 

Monday

Per what would become the usual, I woke up to the smell of bacon.

Not coffee though. Interesting note: of everyone at the cabin so far, I was the only coffee drinker. I blame Sarah for this – before meeting her, coffee was a mid-afternoon thing. Now, it’s more of a morning thing. Not that it’s bad to have coffee in the morning. Just an interesting note.

So I woke up to the smell of bacon, eggs, and tea. Good way to wake up.

 

This time, I get to drive. Yesterday, Daniel had driven us all to the cliff… but this time, I was behind the wheel, getting to test out the BMW. And, just in case I wasn’t sure who owned it, Daniel reminded me right off the bat by uploading the directions from his phone to the cars navigation system. Yeah, That’s a thing that it does.

After maybe 5 minutes of trying to figure out all the various autonomous, assisted, or downright robotic aspects of the car, we were on our way to Sandstonia!

We set up camp at the Tattoo Wall, the far Northern section of Sandstonia. It did have some people… but for memorial day, it was surprisingly empty. Well, we’re not going to complain… so let’s set some routes!

  • Bobby D’s Bunny, 5.6, Lead – My first lead of the day, it was a simple and pleasant line. Nothing hard… but not quite as easy as I’d expect a 5.6 to be.
  • 5.5 my ass, 5.6, Lead – This route was short and strange. I think even calling it a 5.6 is a bit sandbaggy, though it was only 40ft tall, and the only real move was pulling over a really simple ledge.
  • Kinesthetica, 5.10c, TR – This was nice. This was obscenely, gloriously, brutally nice. The main route was simple and delicate, the kind of climbing that I enjoy on top rope, but avoid on lead. The final moves, though, were my jam. Hugely burly, strong overhanging jugs that simply require you to commit, pull, and move. Seriously – it just had me grab a huge dinner-plate sized jug, and haul up over a 3ft roof. Just like the gym.
  • Geisha Girl, 5.8, TR – Another really fun route… the start was my favorite part, though everyone else hated it. It’s a clean hand-crack, the kind that I feel most comfortable in, but that Brian and Erin can’t stand. Ehh, their loss, I loved it.

Now, that was the climbing portion. There were two other bits that very much deserve a mention:

  • We met Cindy Hintz. The name might not mean anything to you, dear reader, but if you read the guidebook for this crag, you’ll see her name mentioned all over its pages. She was one of the original route setters for the crag, one of the pioneers who not only set the routes, but discovered the rock itself. And we met her, and got beta from her!
  • I helped a team nearby. See, I finished Geisha Girl in the rain. Did I mention that? I should have. And I don’t mean some silly “ohh, tee hee, it’s misting” rain. No, I mean “Ohh wow, who took a fire hose to my face? Ohh, the sky did. Okay”, fully drenched in 2minutes, deluge. And I was on the wall.
    Thankfully, it wasn’t lightening, and I’d already gotten through the tough bits. So all I had to do was clean and lower.
    But then I looked right, and saw the family next to us. Their rope was still set up too – and they had just barely started the route. They’d need to set up an ascender, ascend the 100ft route, clean, and then descend. All in the rain, with three kids all less than age 6 milling around.
    I couldn’t make them do that.
    So I traversed. In the rain. On top of a slippery rock cliff, 100ft in the air. I mean, I was obviously roped in, and in no real danger at all. But man, that’s scary. I was looking at a huge swinging fall, probably smacking various bodyparts against the rock if I slipped. But I am truly a glorious specimen of humanity, and I prevailed. I grabbed their gear, dropped their rope, and lowered myself safely to the ground.

 

By the time we got to the car, we were soaked.

I’d managed to help out the family next to us, but that didn’t help us stay any less wet. By the time I was on the ground, I was fully saturated, and my rain gear didn’t fare any better… being left in a puddle at the base of the route. Nothing was damaged, but it did lead to a rather squishy walk back to the car.

Thankfully, I was in charge of that night’s dinner… which meant we were having my type of comfort food – surf and turf. I’d gotten a pound of salmon, a pound of steak, dinner rolls, and ingredients for a spring green / pear salad. Which I set to making with a passion, just as soon as all of our gear was laid out to dry in front of a fan in the basement.

 

Dinner went well… I hesitate to claim that it was the best dinner of the trip… but let’s be honest. I’m not humble. I think it was the best. Not that anyone else’s was bad! Not by a long shot! But I just prefer mine, since… you know, I make what I like. It went over well though, and I didn’t have any major complaints, so yeah. I’m proud. Go chef Ben, go.

The rest of the evening? Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, and some catching up over glasses of wine. And of course enjoying the fact that we were warm and dry.

Jun13

Spring Break 2018 – West Virginian adventures, Sunday, 27-May

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Spring Break 2018 – West Virginian adventures, Sunday, 27-May

A West Virginia adventure – Spring Break in the New River Gorge, 2018

Saturday, 26-May, through Saturday, 02-June, 2018

 

“Life is old there, older than the trees. Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze. Country roads, take me home… to the place, I belong! West Virginia, Mountain momma… take me home, country roads.”

I’m pretty sure that the first real spring break I ever had was with Daniel, years ago, when we drove down to the New River Gorge to climb, and attend the New River Rendezvous. Since that year, we’ve done our best to always link up and go on some glorious climbing trip on or around Memorial Day. This year was a tough one, with Sarah breaking her leg, but she insisted that I go anyways, and let her live vicariously through me as she convalesed at home. I’d already cleared the week as vacation with my boss, even before I was hired for the project, so I was free and clear for a throwback adventure…

 

Sunday

Sunday dawned sometime before I woke up.

The dawn wasn’t what woke me up, obviously. I was sleeping like a log after the flying and driving the way before, and had no intention of waking up easily.

Thankfully, Daniel likes eggs for breakfast. And, while he doesn’t personally like bacon, he knows that the rest of us very much appreciate a few slices with breakfast. What woke me up was the smell; bacon and eggs, frying up as people bustled about.

Side thing that I appreciate about Daniel – he does breakfast. Not a large or heavy one, but a few eggs and a cup of a beverage. And he’s insistent on it. Ohh, we’re running late? Nope, doesn’t matter. I’m making eggs. Ohh, we planned on leaving 45min ago? Yeah, that’s nice. Here’s a plate of eggs. Eat it.

 

Our target of the day had been planned out the evening before – Our rental was right near Summersville Lake, so that was our starting point. Specifically, a section of wall between the Narcissus Cave, and the Orange Oswald section. It was somewhere Daniel and I had climbed before, so we figured that it would make for a good first day; something familiar, but also close to the house to minimize driving time.

I was pleasantly surprised just how much of the hike in, and the walls that we stopped at, I remembered from previous trips. It was like walking back into a memory… but without the creepy connotations or unhappy changes that we inevitably run into.

Once we set up camp, we got right to work ripping up the few climbs that were unoccupied. I mean, it was Memorial Day Weekend, so what do you expect? Empty walls? Hah!

  • Locumba, 5.10a, TR – not in the guidebook, but a recently bolted route. Daniel set it up thinking that it was a 5.8… and the rest of us paid the price. It was enjoyable though, definitely so, even if it did burn a lot of energy right early on.
  • That Eight, 5.7, Lead – this was a fun first-lead for the week. Simple and pleasant.
  • Jeffs Bunny Hop, 5.8, TR – Honestly, kind of a forgettable route. It was definitely fun, but I can’t really say I remember much about it.
  • Sniff the Drill, 5.8, TR – Same as the above. Enjoyable, but I couldn’t give you any beta for it.
  • Narcissus Direct Start, 5.12d, TR – yeah, no. I didn’t actually legitimately climb this. It’s better to say that I flailed around on it like a gutted first sprinkled with soy. Daniel had led the first five bolts of Narcissus, an “easier” 5.12a, and I was trying to follow him up. But I couldn’t do the start of Narcissus… so I had him basically haul me up the direct line, ’till I got to the easy bouldering section. Yup. Strong climber right here. Mmhmm.

 

One downside to this week? Rain. The forecast that we looked at in the weeks prior had been getting wetter and wetter… and now that we were here, it looked like the theme would be sunny mornings followed by rainy afternoons. This afternoon was the trend setter – as we were hanging out in the Narcissus Cave (yeah, it’s an actual cave. Neat, huh?) it started pouring on us. But remember – cave. So… nice and dry. We even met some super strong climbers, and got to watch them rip out some brutal routes… not sure which, but it was either a 5.12d, or a 5.13b. Either way – cool to watch.

 

The hike out was quick and painless – the rain kept falling, but thankfully it stayed at the cooling drizzle, instead of ever evolving into the drenching downpour that West Virginia sometimes throws at us. Once at the car we headed North to the grocery store, with everyone planning out their meals for the week.

Our plan was that each person/group would take one evening, and then we’d do two evenings eating out at restaurants. My dinner would be Monday night, so I bought all the various bits while everyone else searched out the ingredients for their own meals. I wasn’t super convinced at first… but honestly, this was a surprisingly efficient way to do a group grocery run… I think we were in and out in less than 45min!

 

The rest of the evening was filled with fajitas a-la Brian, relaxing and hanging out, sitting in the hot tub, and doing my first evening call with Sarah. A good start to the adventure.

 

Jun12

Spring Break 2018 – West Virginian adventures, Saturday 26-May

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Spring Break 2018 – West Virginian adventures, Saturday 26-May

A West Virginia adventure – Spring Break in the New River Gorge, 2018

Saturday, 26-May, through Saturday, 02-June, 2018

 

“Life is old there, older than the trees. Younger than the mountains, blowing like a breeze. Country roads, take me home… to the place, I belong! West Virginia, Mountain momma… take me home, country roads.”

I’m pretty sure that the first real spring break I ever had was with Daniel, years ago, when we drove down to the New River Gorge to climb, and attend the New River Rendezvous. Since that year, we’ve done our best to always link up and go on some glorious climbing trip on or around Memorial Day. This year was a tough one, with Sarah breaking her leg, but she insisted that I go anyways, and let her live vicariously through me as she convalesed at home. I’d already cleared the week as vacation with my boss, even before I was hired for the project, so I was free and clear for a throwback adventure…

 

 

Saturday

 

Saturday dawned way too early.

I mean, I’ve been getting up early for work for the last few weeks, so I guess I can’t complain too much. But hey, it was still pretty early for a night-owl like me. But it’s for an adventure, and flights wait for nobody, so up I was, and in the Lyft by 6:00.

Thankfully, PDX is a fast airport. I was a bit surprised by a complete TSA search of my carry-on… but I can’t really say I should have been surprised, since it was literally full of climbing gear. I’d chosen to check my clothes bag and carry on my gear bag this time… you know, since the clothes bag is replacable, and worth maybe 10% of what the climbing gear costs. And the whole “climbing gear is safety critical” thing.

Once I get to the gate, it’s a short order before we start boarding. Just enough to get a breakfast hamburger and a cup of coffee, which I’m super thankful for. More fuel for the week of climbing ahead!

 

The flight passed impressively quickly, for once. I ended up being seated in the middle – normally a horrible sentence, but in this case I ended up chatting with the gentleman seated next to me for literally the entire flight. No exageration – 5 and a half hours straight, discussing everything under the sun. See, he’s a nurse who works for the VA in Providence, and he’s debating moving out to Portland after not one, but two psychics told him that his soul is calling him West, to Portland specifically.

From that starting point, we talked about everything. Coastal cultures, jobs, growing up, life events, dating, and the world as a whole. It was glorious – I don’t have occasion to talk to and bond with people this in-depth very often anymore, after leaving NUHOC, and this was a beautiful breath of fresh air for me, and an amazing start to the week ahead.

Once we’re on the ground though, we head our separate ways – him running to catch a connecting flight, and me zipping off to get a rental car so I could get on the road as quickly as possible. I still had nearly six hours of driving ahead, and darkness would be falling soon…

Thankfully, getting the car was pretty simple – with the exception of my bag being re-classified as “oversized”, which meant I had to pick it up from an unexpected area, and the first car having a broken heads-up screen, everything went smoothly. Soon enough the miles were grinding away under my wheels, with the West Virginia mountains looming ahead.

 

Sarah kept me sane during the drive. I think that, over the five and a half hour drive, I spent nearly two and a half on the phone with her. With the exception of when I stopped for a quick burger and coffee, and when I started into the cell-reception-blocking mountains, we talked and she kept me awake and focused on the driving as night fell.

Navigating the mountain passes in the dark was… an experience. I was taking a route Daniel and I had actually taken before – Route 60, through the mountains and past a ton of quaint little towns. Or at least, I think this was the route we’d taken before. You’d have to ask Daniel, he honestly has a much better memory for this kind of thing than I do. But point being – it was small, tight, winding roads. In the rain, with only google maps to keep me company.

 

I did make it though; sometime around 10:00 I pulled up to the cabin that we’d rented through AirBnB, and saw the warm glow seeping out the windows and inviting me in. I saw Daniel’s new BMW sitting in the driveway, and knew that wine and bed were finally mine.