New River Rendezvous

I took a road trip down to West Virginia Thursday to do some climbing and drink some beer at the New River Rendezvous. Ox made the trip with me so everyone knew me as "the person with the duck" all weekend. It stayed pretty dry during the day, but it rained late in the afternoon every day so some of the climbs we wanted to get on were a bit too wet.

Friday I went down to the Bridge Area with some guys who climbed Trad. We walked nearly the entire length of the cliff from North Bridge to Overlook Buttress, but most of the climbs we had in mind were pretty wet from the night before. Still, we got on three really fun climbs and i got a lot of exercise

Midnight Moonlight 5.7 (Central Bridge Wall)
Easily Flaky 5.6R (Bridge Buttress)
Out to Lunch 5.8 (Overlook Buttress)

Saturday I took a sport climbing clinic with Chris Lindner out at Summersville Lake. I learned a lot of little tricks and got some solid instruction on how to clean a climb...something I never learned sport climbing in the gym.

Hippie Dreams 5.7
Souled Out 5.9
Baby Has a Bolt Gun 5.10c (only got half way up this one)

Saturday night the skies really opened up, so Sunday morning Jen and I make a fire and roasted some marshmellows while we waited for everything to dry out. We headed out to Sandstonia around noon and I got to put what I'd learned in the clinic into practice. I lead the routes and set up the top rope for Jen, then I climbed it again to clean it. Since we had already packed up the campsite I had to bring Oxford with me. I thought he would wander all over the place, but he stayed really close by and even tried to follow me up the first climb.

My favorite climb of the day was Butterfly Flake. Last year David clipped the first bolt for me and it was actually the first climb I ever lead. It's a huge right-facing flake that's great to lay-back and just walk your hands all the way up.

Five-Five My Ass 5.6
Bobby D's Bunny 5.6
Butterfly Flake 5.7
Shady Lady 5.7

Overall it was an awesome weekend. I met some great people, ate some great food and did some great climbing. Ox has a blast meeting new people and hanging out at the cliffs, and he made great company on the 9 hour drive and sleeping for a night in a sketchball Walmart parking lot.


Update: (2 weeks later) See if you can catch the Oxford references in this description of the Rendezvous on Climbing Magazine's website:

On May 14-17, 2009, climbers from all over the country, a few dogs, and even a duck descended upon the bullet sandstone of the New River Gorge to raise funds for New River Alliance of Climbers. Perfect, sunny weather held for several days of great climbing and even when Saturday night's rain did come, the crowd's enthusiasm and high spirits were not to be subdued. Shown in this gallery is climbing action at the Kaymoor and Bridge crags, as well as festivities at the Burnwood campground: slack-lines, dyno competition, tug-o-war, and hula-hoop.