New River Gorge Trip Sept.

 Kerry on Tobacco Road- 5.12b

So it's taken a while to post this, probably due to the increasing load of schoolwork (no that's a lie), or just pure laziness, but i think I'm gonna write about my most recent trip to the New River Gorge of West Virginia.
     My partner Kerry, and I left school Friday with high hopes and full Psyche as we began on our fairly short, five hour drive through the familiar, winding roads of Western Maryland and into West Virginia.
     We arrived at Chestnut Creek campground around 9:00 p.m. just in time to pitch tents in the dark. We decided to eat dinner at an Ihop about an hour prior to our arrival, so we didn't have to cook when we got there (a great idea! Great send fuel).
     Our first day was spent in Summersvile at the Coliseum, a beautiful overhanging wall of white rock overlooking the lake. Some classic routes we sent were Tobacco Road- 5.12b  and Reckless Abandoned- 5.12a. We also hopped on Apollo Reed, said the be one of the best 13's east of the Mississippi, which I fell at the redpoint crux at the 8th bolt. It was my second, and best attempt at the route ever. I was really psyched to return in the future and hopefully send. Along with the climbing, our first of three injuries occurred today where a few of the younger kids we were with, were throwing rocks into the lake and one of them struck one of the kids in the head. He was taked to the hospital and received two staples.
     The Endless Wall was in our sights for our second day. We focused on the Honeymooners and Snakebutress areas. I worked this super classic route, Jesus and Tequila, and also managed a flash of Sacrilege, another classic 5.12b. The Endless wall is a beautiful wall that sits atop the New River, and as the name hints, its endless!  Now, the second and third injuries happened today. One of the younger girls fell on the approach in and catching herself on her hands caused her to break her right wrist. She was also taken to the ER and was put into a cast. And last and definitely least, when backing into the parking space I side-swiped a tree with the front right quarter panel above the wheel and scuffed it up(unnoticeable after a brief buffing and whacking the two panels back together).
     Our last day was a half day of climbing due to the fact that we had school the next day and we needed to travel. We went to Kaymoor in Fayetteville and spent our time in The Hole. Super steep powerful climbing that even Kerry, a hardcore crimp enthusiast, was dying to climb. I worked Lactic Acid Bath a 12d and got 2 bolts higher than my previous burn last season. A lot of power-endurance will be necessary to redpoint this monster.  Kerry also onsighted this super sandbagged 12b, Yowsah. I wish I would've had time to get on that too.

So anyways, that was our trip and I'm super psyched to return and send some projects.
-Happy sending

Shouldn't I be climbing right now?

I hate school. I hate being in it. And waking up for it. I hate homework. I hate teachers who assign homework. I hate that it’s getting in the way of, not only my climbing, but also the enjoyment of the outdoors and the beautiful weather we've had the past few days. I want to set up my hammock under a tree and sway in the 70 degree breeze. I want to climb. Outdoors. I want to travel. Explore. I want to climb a tree. And sleep under the stars. But here I am. On my deck. Laying on a crash pad. Doing my worthless homework. I don't care about Algebra 2, nor does it care about me. Ten years from now, I doubt I will miss it. And after taking ten years of English, I can say we're more than just friends. I don't need to know what people in Egypt were thinking in 600 B.C. I need to care about the future. And then I want to climb.... More.

That's where I am right now. Ticked off at the world with a headache.

Anyways, here's what has been happening in my life on the past few days:

Climbing team tryouts. They were actually a lot of fun, Evan and I lounged under the system board at Columbia, pulled some hard moves on plastic, and did our homework (no surprise there). It was a super laid back climbing day but we made up some interesting problems that I liked. Kayla Lieuw, a world-class climber and equally amazing cupcake baker, brought in a few dozen tiramisu cupcakes (probably the highlight of the night). In the end the laughs were overly proportional to the amount of climbing and I'd have it no other way.

Disc golfing. Aka the 21st best thing in my world - before long showers but after climbing, Christmas mornings, sleeping, autumn, ect... Anyways, it was a lot of fun! Evan, Papa Smail, Harris, Mike, and I went to some course in Columbia and I somehow managed to hit every single tree on that course with my frisbee... Hopefully I will be able to go again soon (and not lose by a ton this time...)

Music. The new Mumford and Sons album come out in 13 days and I'm beyond PSYCHED!!! If you haven't listened to them, you seriously should. If you don't like them, don't talk to me... Also, I recently listened to Of Monsters and Men for the first time and they are awesome! Of course, my sense of music is definitely a little weird... Right now, besides those two bands, I'm really diggin' the Black Keys, The Shins, The Punch Brothers, Jose Gonzalez, The Broken Bells, and CCR. Also, if you didn't know, I am a mediocre piano player. I just started learning Moonlight Sonata (the first movement) and its soo cool! Really creepy and its minor tonality makes it perfect for Halloween coming up next month!

Climbing wise I really happy, besides wishing I could do it more often. Lately, I've felt like a five-year-old boy with ADHD while I'm at the gym and am so psyched to be so stoked to climb again, it's huge. I haven't felt this way towards the sport since when I had just started. I've continued leading and while still uncomfortable with falling, that feeling is starting to go away which is nice. I still suck at clipping though, and apparently I backstep like it’s nobody's business...

In related news, I HAVE A LONG WEEKEND (which is #11 on the list of things that make me happy). Hopefully I will be able to get out to Bushwhack Rocks, Sykesville, or even somewhere in Pennsylvania this weekend and do some outdoor gnarr climbin'! Bushwhack looks cool and I want go soooooooooo badly!

Dan M. on the Levitation Boulder - Courtesy of Robin Close's Awesome Blog.

To Be Continued...