Tuesday, 6 July 2010

In Charlottesville, sometimes

Filed under: Climbing,West Virginia — Tags: , , , , , — George Privon @ 22:47

After my recent travels I am happy to be more or less back in Charlottesville for the near future.

Naturally, when I say “in Charlottesville”, it means that I am within reasonable range using my car. This past weekend was no different… I was up in DC for Aleya and roommates’ annual “3rd of July” party. It was also great to see Katie L. there. There I also met Patrick and Phil who were part of the crew for the rest of the weekend.

After the party and a few hours’ sleep, Aleya, Patrick, Phil and I drove to Seneca Rocks, where we met up with John. As long-time “crack of noon” club members, we started up Roy Gap road as the Sun was crossing to the other side of the formation.

Not surprisingly, there was already a group on our first choice route. What we didn’t expect was that we’d know the climbers who were on “Skyline Traverse”.. friends of Aleya’s from the Maryland rock gym. After some chatting, we decided to scramble up the much easier (and much less interesting) climb “Worrell’s Thicket”. Moving over, we spied a line of bolts which looked more interesting. So we split into a team of 3 (Aleya-John-myself) and 2 (Patrick-Phil), with the team of 3 climbing the bolted line, and the other team climbing “Worrell’s Thicket”, planning to meet at Lower Broadway Ledge.

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The line of bolts forms T&T. John started up, reaching a belay without too much trouble. I followed, carrying the big pack (which turned out to be a pain, given the internal frame and oversized nature of the pack). Aleya brought up the rear, making it a group of three at the hanging belay. After another very short pitch, John transitioned to the “Kauffman-Cardon” route, which brought us to the ledge and reunited us with the almost-napping group of 2, who’d had a considerably quicker climb. A bit more discussion on the ledge and we opted to rappel off and head back for dinner, feeling satisfied with the day’s climb.

We relaxed in camp for a while, mostly waiting for the dutch oven dinner to finish (apricot-pineapple chicken). As this was the 4th of July, campers around us were launching fireworks and generally partying. In fact, things almost got out of hand when two neighboring campers tried to fight… fortunately their better halves managed to break it up.

Monday morning dawned and we were out of camp by 830, heading back up to the cliffs. This time headed for the west face, in the shade. Our objective was the summit this time, via “Conn’s West”. Aleya and I had done this route last year, skipping the direct finish in favor of the traditional finish. The direct finish is far more pleasant, and not really any harder. We split into two teams of two (Aleya-myself, Patrick-Phil), and headed up. After we’d all gotten up the 3-pitch route the next stop was the summit. After the quick scramble up we enjoyed the view for a bit before heading down.

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After the 220′ rappel we moseyed back for pizza in town, then headed back to our respective homes.

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Unfortunately I neglected to bring a camera (or a helmet! but I was able to borrow one of those), so I have no pictures from the trip.. However, Aleya has posted her pictures here. All the pictures in this article are from her. Enjoy!

Monday, 12 October 2009

A perfect fall day at Seneca Rocks

Filed under: Climbing,West Virginia — Tags: , , , , — George Privon @ 14:34

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous fall day, and I spent it on the best ways possible: outside climbing. Aleya and I met up with Mike and Katie at Seneca Rocks on Saturday. The Friday night rain made for difficulty getting a fire going, but after a healthy dose of lighter fluid, we had coals at least. After a very nice sunset, the sky was mostly clear, with a bit of haze evident when looking at stars near the horizon.

Sunday dawned cool and sunny. At 8 we split up and went to climb our respective routes. Aleya and I started on “Skyline Traverse”, a classic route. We had climbed the first pitch together last time we were there, before rappelling off (I had climbed the whole thing a year or two before). We got there early enough to be the first ones on the route and climbed our way up. It was fun leading all the pitches. I was quite proud of Aleya, overcoming the psychological crux of the route (stepping off a bit comfy ledge onto a face ~100ft above the ground).

The 3rd pitch of Skyline brought us up to the lower end of Broadway ledge. A short walk down the ledge brought us to the base of “Up and Coming”. We climbed this without too much trouble, other than a spontaneous variation I added in the middle (which upped the “spicy” grade). This relatively easy climb brought us to the base of the Cockscomb where I (briefly) met up with Mike and Katie. After bringing Aleya up (we broke “Up and Coming” into two pitches), we followed Mike and Katie across the second pitch of “Old Ladies Route”.

That second pitch ends at a nice vertical crack, presenting us with a choice. We could either head up the crack (“Windy Corner”) or finish on the relatively easy third pitch of “Old Ladies”. Aleya opted to head up “Windy Corner”. It was an enjoyable climb, with the exception of pulling over a chockstone. I don’t particularly enjoy them, especially on lead. Other than that it was a fun pitch.

This brought us to the summit ledge where the 4 of us met up and went to the summit. It was absolutely gorgeous the whole day, and the summit was no different. Perfect temperature, and great views with the leaves changing color on the hills around us. While sitting at the belays I’d just gaze out over the hills and take in the beauty. Occasionally a falling leaf would get caught in a thermal and I would watch it spiral upwards.

We spent a half hour or so on the crowded summit before rappelling off on the West face of the South summit. To cap it all off we had pizza across the street and watched folks standing on the summit. Couldn’t have asked for a better Fall day…

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