![]() After a 20-minute walk down a railroad track and scrambling up the steep slopes of the gorge, we arrived at the Fern Creek Boulders area. Oliver and Eli wanted to work on F5, a burly V10 boulder where hard compression moves take you to the top of a beautiful tornado-shaped piece of sandstone. for a leisurely breakfast (granola for some, half of a Kroger pecan pie for others) before leaving for the first crag of the day. We did not partake in the alpine start on our first day of climbing in the New instead, we rose at 7 a.m. ![]() Then: bedtime.Īn “alpine start” is the practice of getting up well before dawn, traditionally done on alpine climbs when limited weather windows and long, grueling climbing demands it. I set up my Dagger OSMO ™ 2P tent, scrounged together a camp dinner, and spent the evening discussing climbing goals and driving playlist–strategy with the group. We spent one night in Connecticut, then drove the rest of the way to West Virginia in a 9-hour push, arriving at the American Alpine Club Campground in Lansing just after dark on February 18 th. ![]() So, this past February, when a small group of climbing friends asked if I wanted to make the drive down to West Virginia with them for a week of climbing in the New, I jumped at the chance to climb in a new place and have one last hurrah before being relegated to the sidelines. Essentially, I was ready for any opportunity to climb while I could. Also, this past spring, I was staring down an impending knee surgery that would sideline me for most of the short spring climbing window that happens in New England. While “the New” is best known for its sport climbing, a group of friends and I recently headed there for something else: the boulders.ĭespite climbing regularly since 2018, I’d only started climbing outdoors with any frequency in the past year and had only ever climbed on New Hampshire granite. The New River Gorge in West Virginia is a major climbing hub for a reason the hard Nuttall sandstone cliffs that line the river are carved with plenty of features to draw advanced and expert climbers from all over the country. ![]()
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