The weekend after Governor Stables we got a group together from Earth Treks to head out to the New River Gorge in West Virginia. The drive was longer than we expected and we ended up getting lost trying to find our friends who were camped at a free camping area somewhere deep in the middle of the countryside. We gave up around 1am looking for them and found a spot to crash for the night. The next morning our friends found us and we headed to The Coliseum at Summerville Lake. Let me start by saying Summerville Lake is one of my favorite climbing areas in the country. The Coliseum is a huge tsunami style wall with powerful climbing on perfect crimps and pockets. The routes are all really unique and each pitch is varied with a wide range of moves. The crag is located right next to the river with perfect diving spots and some illegal deep water soloing. With swimming right of the base of the routes and an amphitheater of 5.13’s and 14’s, this place blew my mind! I warmed up and sent The Pod 5.13b and played around on the other 13’s and checked out the area test piece: Still Life 5.14b. Still Life is one of the hardest routes I have attempted and the crux was baffling. After a few attempts I was starting to understand how to climb through the crux, but it would take a lot of work to even come close to sending. The rest of the day was spent swimming and hanging out with a very energetic crowd of climbers of all levels. The next day we headed to Beauty Hill and hiked down to check out The Travisty 13c and some of the super classic moderate routes on the cliff line. I started on Mensa 12a and had a lot of fun with the famous New River lock offs. After a quick break I jumped on Chunky Monkey 12b and barely pulled off the onsight. Coming down I definitely thought it was more in the 12c range and one of the best routes of the grade. Next up was The Travisty. For the rest of the day I worked the moves and sequences out but in the end I just didn’t have it in me to send. The day ended and we spent the night by the river hanging out. On day three we headed over to check out The Greatest Show On Earth 5.13a. Before coming to the east coast I had seen pictures and videos of this route and I was blown away by how stunning and perfect the line was. Sitting at the base and gazing up at it in real life was sobering. It is the most stunning trad line I have seen. We weren’t planning on doing any trad climbing so we headed over to do the classic Toxic Hueco 5.11d. The route turned out to be really amazing on huge huecos and powerful moves to big holds. It was a really good warm-up and I headed over to Cock Diesel 5.13b. This route tackles a 5 ft dead horizontal roof with a super long and powerful move to the lip that was probably in the v7 range. After several attempts I was able to pull the crux but fell off right after the crux move when my foot surprisingly slipped right off. My friend Will fired it next try as the last route of the day. Our friends left after that and for the rest of the day we climbed some moderates. Day four was our last day and we decided to head back to Beauty Mountain to see if I had the energy to finish off The Travisty. After warming up, I got passed the main crux were I was falling earlier but was stopped cold at the top slab due to wet holds...I lowered off and we called it a day. The rain from the previous night had soaked most of the rock and it was hopeless to climb anymore. We packed everything up and headed back to Maryland anxious to come back.
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