Cragmama "Not all who wander are lost…" JRR Tolkien

Yearly Archives: 2009

Briars and Scrambles and Gullies, oh my!!!

Briars and Scrambles and Gullies, oh my!!!

Finally the weatherman got the order right – an absolutely gorgeous weekend followed by a dreary, cold, and rainy Monday morning! This was the first weekend out of several that hasn’t been a washout, and Steve and I were not about to let it go by without taking advantage of it! We invited our friend Huck to go with us – one of the new folks we had climbed with at the Red a few weeks ago. Huck is somewhat of a new climber, and was eager to try out some new crags he’d never been to. Also, he’d never…Read the rest of this entry →

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Exposure = risk realized, but not increased

Exposure = risk realized, but not increased

Exposure is a commonly used term in rock climbing.  I found an online dictionary that defined it as “being in a situation in which you are very aware that you are high off the ground.”  In other words, standing on a large summit that is capped by lots of soil and very tall, thick trees would not be considered as exposed as a summit consisting of a 3 foot wide pinnacle several hundred feet off the deck.  A steep route traversing across a narrow ridge would be more exposed than a route that meanders up a low-angle slab.  Exposure typically intensifies a…Read the rest of this entry →

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Red River Gorge – great climbing, but where’s the river?!?

Red River Gorge – great climbing, but where’s the river?!?

In the few years that I’ve been climbing, I’ve had the opportunity to climb in lots of different places, but I’d never made it up to the Red River Gorge until this past weekend.  Steve and I had tried to go several times, but due to weather, schedules, injuries, etc., it seems as though the stars were never quite in proper alignment to make it happen.  But when several friends invited us to go, and especially after being able to finagle an extra day off of work on Friday, spending Labor Day weekend in Kentucky at the Red seemed to…Read the rest of this entry →

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Gaping Similarities, not Petty Differences

Gaping Similarities, not Petty Differences

So in my last post, I mentioned that we made some new friends at Pies n Pints during our visit to the New last weekend.  We overheard the couple at the table next to ours talking about their day at the Bridge Buttress, another New River Gorge climbing area, so we decided to see what routes they had gotten on.  We ended up talking to them the rest of the time while we ate – Josh and Erin were their names, and they were from Johnson City, TN.  We compared notes on our activities from the day, discussed our plans…Read the rest of this entry →

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Endless Fun at the New

Endless Fun at the New

So what started out as a random assortment of climbing buddies at the New, ended up being just me and Steve.  Some folks bailed earlier in the week, one signed on AND bailed all on the day before, and others bailed after driving for an hour and deciding they were too tired to continue (not naming names though, Manbert…).  🙂 Anyway, we spent our first day at Endless Wall, which is in my opinion one of the most beautiful places in the gorge.  I realized that I had a few head issues to work through, but by the end of the day,…Read the rest of this entry →

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“Not all who wander are lost.” —JRR TOLKIEN