Each
semester, the climbing club plans, organizes, and pays for dues-paying members
to join in on an awesome five to seven day climbing trip. During the fall
semester, as tradition holds it, we travel to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky,
stay in a cabin (with a hot tub), and experience some of the highest quality
rock climbing found in the world. I kid you not, I have never been there
without running into someone from the other side of the globe -- it’s that
good. Last time I was there, I recall a man with an intense Australian accent
climbing next to me… look up “Miguel’s Pizza.” It’s The Red in a nutshell.
Of course, come spring
semester we’ve got spring break to take advantage of! This trip is not held
down to the Red River tradition; it is more open to change. The past two years,
the club has travelled sixteen hours to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in the Ozark
Mountains of Arkansas. It’s a beautiful
place that I honestly wish to return to more than just a few more times. There
are free ranging goats and horses, cute/smelly
herd dogs, and you are surrounded by great climbing, all of which is within a
ten minute hike (being that you stay in a valley surrounded by a literal ‘horse
shoe’ shaped cliff line; if you want an idea of its splendor – search YouTube for
“Maximus, Horseshoe Canyon Ranch”) and it is AWESOME! There is a lot of joy to
be had there, and even more heartache in leaving its gates at the end of the
week.
Last year’s spring break was scheduled
by the university two weeks later than this year’s. The only downside to last
year’s break was… the weather. It was freaking cold!! I thought Arkansas was
next to Texas, and since when is it cold down there?? You could freely ask
anyone who attended last year’s spring break trip about it, and I assure you
something about the weather will slip into conversation. Don’t get me wrong,
the experience itself was well worth it, and everyone still loved the climbing
that they did get in…but man, let me tell ya, tent camping in low teen weather,
waking up to frozen vegetation and wet rock faces from the previous night’s
freezing rain, is not the ideal way to spend a climbing trip, let alone a
SPRING break trip. Hah! I even remember people piling into the car going into
to town for a food run just to spend sometime away from the cold! It was… less
than ideal. Especially having to drive thirty-two hours round trip for it. And,
did you really get frostbite on your toes, Anders Kane?
So, as president this year, I
definitely did not want this to happen again. When I realized that spring break
was two weeks earlier, I had a slight panic attack! The last thing I wanted was
for members to remember the club’s spring break trip as yet another grueling,
cold, miserable nightmare, instead of the beauty that it should be: comprised
of new and continued friendships, absolutely enlightening and life changing
experiences, and a new-found appreciation for what rock climbing truly is. Rock
climbing is nothing less than mind-blowing, every time, seriously. I frequently
catch myself ecstatic in the fullness of life’s expression at the top of some
of these immaculate cliffs and rock faces, just to be climbed again, repeated
yet never losing intensity.
Editor's Note: That's Joey crushing it!
Two weeks earlier. Rats.
Spring break starting on March 7
th? Excuse me, but that is
definitely, and literally, still winter. In my mind that surely means the
weather is going to be, well, colder than last year! Not only that, but it was that
much colder sixteen hours south! Ahh! And of course, large plans like these,
funded by the University, have to be made well in advance…much too soon to have
any accurate idea of what the weather will truly be like anywhere. So, I
figured the best thing to do was manage our budget so that we could rent a
cabin, which we generally do not do over spring break, so that if the weather
was crummy, at least we would have indoor refuge (yep, again, with a hot tub). On
top of that, I personally did not want to spend the money and put the mileage
on my own vehicle (nor did any other rational vehicle owner who was attending)
to make that same lengthy trip to Arkansas that time of year, for this type of
occasion.
So, the solution: The New
River Gorge. It’s close (2.5 hours), so that more club members could
financially attend, the commitment level was lower, and anyone was welcome to
come and go as they please. It is especially fitting that we are a climbing
club that represents West Virginia, and the climbing at The New is simply put,
overwhelmingly fantastic! You may have thought that I talked up the Red, you
may have thought that I made Horseshoe sound like a magic wonderland, but the
New River Gorge is easily the best rock I have ever pulled on in terms of
quality, diversity in types of climbing, and convenience in accessibility. (Most
people you ask who have climbed all over the country and world will agree with
that too, by the way.) In one single pitch (or route), you can go from slab
climbing, to layback finger-cracks, to pulling a roof (maybe even two), and
mantles on balancey moves to the shuts (10 points to whoever knew what route I
was describing)! The New offers every type of climbing – bouldering, sport, and
trad. You can warm up on the beauty that is “Fantasy” crack, 5.8, and then when
you’re ready, walk 30 feet to the left and tastefully flow up “Black &
Tan,” 5.10A, and then try your heart out on “Aesthetica,” 5.llC, or “Black
Happy, 5.12B”! All four of these side-by-side routes are rated with 4 stars in
quality, which at the New is as good as it gets! And that is just
one example of The New’s convenience and
quality. Pardon my climbing jargon, it happens. (
Editor’s Note: If you want some help deciphering Joey’s climbing
terms, click
here.)
Another beauty to The New is
that rock climbing is honestly one of the lesser appreciated activities to be
done there! You can enjoy some marvelous hikes, mountain bike trails, and some
of the best rafting and kayaking on the east coast. You can drop in to one of
the three concrete bowls Fayetteville has at its top-of-the-line skate park, or
you could just spend the day checking out the local businesses and enjoying the
“Coolest Small Town” (There is a street sign that states that about
Fayetteville). Or, if you’re up for the hour drive to Charleston, you could
pull on some plastic at the eNeRGy Rock Gym, which is a great, community-built
and supported bouldering gym run by David and Julia Statler, affiliates and
alum of the WVU Climbing Club. We actually did swing by there on one of the
colder/wetter days of the trip. (
Check them out, too!)
Molly DeLong climbing at eNeRGy Rock Gym on the rainy day during spring break.
Luckily, the
weather was in the 50’s and 60’s just about every day, which is the ideal temperature
for climbing; if it’s too hot (generally humid as well, in this area) the rock
will “sweat” like a cold beer on a summer’s day, making it more difficult to
climb. Cold weather (~40 F or lower) creates great “friction” which is the
exact opposite of wet rock, it is crisp and dry, and very easy to hold
onto. The downside is experiencing the
“screaming burpies,” which many of the uninformed new climbers will enjoy in an
unexpected moment. This is the phenomenon of blood re-entering your fingertips
when you are done climbing, and well, many people will let out a
not-so-pleasant scream from the pain. It’s the same feeling you get when you
have a snowball fight barehanded and then go try to warm your hands up too
fast. It does hurt. However, temps in
the 50’s and 60’s gives you best of both worlds, and after experiencing the less
good conditions, it was such a treat to have these conditions in early March!
Climbing
at the New is still relatively low-key in the radar of quality rock climbing on
a large scale, but we all know that West Virginia has its beautiful little
secrets! We sure took full advantage of one of those this spring break. I’ll be
reminiscing about the great company of friends and magnificence of the climbing
during the day, and the good times in the cabin at night on this Climbing Club
trip to the New River Gorge for quite some time… only to inspire the next trip!
(From L-R: The New River Gorge Bridge, some awesome bouldering, and hilarious leg wrestling.)
Climb on!
Joey Williams
WVU Climbing Club President
