NEW RIVER GORGE!

New River Gorge sits in the southern end of West Virginia, in an otherwise unassuming and pastoral setting. Hidden amongst these green and rolling hills is a huge chasm. Now, climbers usually look to large mountains for good climbing, but here in "The New" one descends first, and is not disappointed! The rock is sandstone, but not like that of Red Rocks (in Nevada) or Red River Gorge (Kentucky). Here the rock is weathered and solid, not a far cry from the granite of Squamish, B.C. in character.

The climbing here in New River Gorge has everything: rooves, steep technical slabs, cracks, all often in combination, making for fantastic climbing in an amazing setting.
(photos: by Nick Jones, of me leading up New Yosemite 5.9+)

We arrived on late one afternoon (was it Monday?) and climbed one somewhat undesirable pitch of 5.6. Undeterred, we drove to the local climbers campground, run by a fellow named Roger. Upon our arrival, Roger soon appeared to greet us. A life long resident of WV, he was among the friendlier people I have met.
That night, we sat around, cooked dinner on the porch of Roger's little shop, and chatted with the other climbers, most of whom we knew from Cornell! We discussed what the best plan of action was, given that the forecast was for rain. It was decided that we'd go to the "Junkyard Wall", a spot near the New River Gorge Bridge, a whopping 1700 foot single arch span. The word was that Junkyard had a little bit of everything, and some fine trad cracks. So we got up the next morning, and lo! I led New Yosemite (see above). After some pumpy climbing through a flaring crack and a bulge (and a somewhat long fall, maybe 8 feet), I succeeded in leading it.
Nick picked the next climb, and so we toproped "Four Sheets to the Wind", a gorgeous combination of rooves, crack climbing, and friction-y face climbing

I then talked Nick into doing a lead, and somehow we picked the dirty but fun "Ann's Revenge", a 5.8 that ends in a very wide crack above a small roof.

The day finished with some difficult slab climbing that reminded me of climbs back home at Leavenworth and Peshastin Pinnacles. We attempted a 5.11, but all of us popped off it, me breaking what Pippa referred to as "The Marcus Glasses." I think it was a sign to get rid of them and return to something that suited me better. Anyway, we did get up the impressive "Team Jesus", 5.10a, which had quite the tricky move on it. It was Pippa's first 10!

And finally, a nice shot of Nick and Pippa at the base of the slab.