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

Yearly Archives: 2019

An Addendum to the Spring Sum-Up

An Addendum to the Spring Sum-Up

When I wrote a re-cap of my spring climbing season 2 weeks ago, it was 95 degrees, and jungle status humidity.  Today feels similar.  But this past Saturday brought a rare respite from both heat and humidity.  And I don’t mean an “it was a few degrees cooler” kinda thing.  I’m talking, lows in the 50’s, high’s in the 70’s, and 30-40% humidity.  Such a shocking departure from the norm that it seemed almost providential that CragDaddy and I rearrange our schedules to be back at the New on Saturday – because by Sunday it was going to be summer…Read the rest of this entry →

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Spring Sum-up: Because Summer is Already Here

Spring Sum-up: Because Summer is Already Here

A little over a month ago, I wrote a “here’s where things stand midway through spring” post.  After enduring 90 degree temps in Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend, I’d say it’s time to officially close out the chapter on Spring 2019.  Despite being riddled with rain seemingly weekend after weekend, I actually had a pretty successful season.  Although the heat came way before I was ready to be done climbing hard,  I’m currently finishing up this post on the back porch of my in-law’s beach house overlooking the ocean, so life isn’t too terrible right now!  Here’s some highlights from…Read the rest of this entry →

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Gettin’ Sendy on Green Envy

Gettin’ Sendy on Green Envy

I am quick to profess my love for the New River Gorge.  It is the gold standard by which I measure all other crags against.  I’ve been climbing there since 2007 and it just never gets old.  But for all that love, there’s just as much frustration, as the nature of NRG climbing seems to know just how to expose both my strengths and weaknesses, sometimes even on the same route.   Generally speaking, the New is known for being “reachy,” and is stereotypically harder for shorter climbers.  This is the major reason why the really strong climbing team kids mostly…Read the rest of this entry →

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Spring: Here’s Where Things Stand.

Spring: Here’s Where Things Stand.

Spring climbing season is always a little more finicky than fall. The weather is more of a gamble, and conditions are decidedly better at the beginning of the season (when you’re at your weakest) versus the end (when you’re at your strongest.) This is the opposite of fall, when conditions are steadily improving at (hopefully) the same pace you are. That said, completing your spring projects before the summer heat sets in usually becomes a race against rapidly deteriorating conditions. This is typically the point in the spring where I realize there are so many good routes, and so little…Read the rest of this entry →

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Spring Has Sprung!

Spring Has Sprung!

I generally don’t write blog posts for a ho-hum day trip to Pilot Mountain.  Nothing personal against Pilot Mountain, it’s just that by this point, most of the lines there fall into one of three categories for me: done it and already written about it, done it but it’s not worth writing about, or still working on it with nothing new to report!   But this weekend I got to try a line that, for some reason or another, I’d skipped over back in the day when Pilot was among our regular weekend haunts.  It’s actually just an alternate start to…Read the rest of this entry →

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