Last weekend I went up to the New River Rendezvous to climb with some friends from Boone.  I got off of work on Thursday and busted out the 5 hour drive to Fayetteville, WV.  I met up with my friend Lydia at a party where people like Chris Sharma, Joe Kinder, and Lisa Rands among other high profile climbers were at.  Considering I don’t know any of those peeps, I rolled out pretty soon and camped out in my truck in Lydia’s pasture.  Thanks for letting me stay Lydia!  I woke up around 9:00 am, ate some breakfast, packed up my truck, and went into Fayetteville.  I rolled down the windows and soaked in the cool breeze as I zigzagged around the mountain roads.  I stopped by  waterstone outdoors and picked up a pair of approach shoes that were on sale.  I browsed through the new guidebook and was SOOO tempted to buy it.  I held back because I knew that Mike had it and I’m not up at the New that much.  Although I’ve been to the NRG several times, I had never been to the bridge overlook.  I had some time to kill so I check it out.  They built a really cool deck that traverses down the mountainside and brings you out under the bridge.  The pictures don’t do it justice!  To know that man made this bridge in the late 1970′s is truly amazing.  It’s the third largest arch bridge in the world.

Anyways, I spent 3o minutes and took some pictures and read some of the history of the bridge.  After that I met up with Mike and Goose at the grocery store.  We stocked up and then met the Trew brothers and David W. out at the Ambassador Buttress.  The area is mostly mixed or straight trad.  I witnessed Phil Trew walk up “Clumsy Club Crack” which was probably the coolest route of the trip.  The next day we went to Fern Buttress and got on several classics.  I lead Ritz Cracker (5.9 Trad) and got to the crux and took my first whipper on gear.  Despite the rope burn it was great to boost my confidence for trad climbing.    On Sunday we went back to endless to search for some dry stone.  I climbed until 3:00pm and then hit the road, Columbia bound.

It was a stellar trip!  It was my first time back on a rope since my finger surgery.  My finger did great and my body got trashed!  The NRG has a tendency to do that to ya…I look forward to getting back up there soon!

Trip highlights:

• Rain.  It wouldn’t the the New River Rendezvous without some rain!
• Kickin’ it with the Trad Dads.
• Crack climbing, my new love!!
• Taking my first trad whipper.
• The “not so hot” tub.
• Phil’s cooking.
• Full-on climbing days and drinking beer afterward.

New River Gorge trip I took a couple weeks ago.