Back in Vegas after a crazy East Coast road trip. I spent 3 weeks out at the New River Gorge in West Virginia. Besides participating in a week-long partying session associated with participating in the New River Rendezvous climbing festival, I tried to get as much climbing in as possible.

Last year during my stay at The New, I mostly sampled the classic pre-established routes of which there are many to choose from. The New is infamous for an overwhelming circuit of 13- routes on impeccable rock that are much harder and bolder than the grade suggests. I loved it. Towards the end of the trip, I made send on a killer first ascent, “The Crouch” (13d) which made me want to return to sample more projects the following trip. That time was now.

This year I tried several undone routes that were all REALLY hard and amazing in their own. I unsuccessfully attempted two at Endless Wall sector, and three at Area 51. After re-bolting and sending one amazing project at the Area 51 (“The Moist Bass Line” - 14a), I looked towards a big boulder called the “Brilliant Pebble” sitting alone in the forest nearby. Peter Kamitses had just sent an open project called “One for the Gipper” (13c / 8a+). I went over and did it right after Peter and was blown away with the quality (steep, short, and power-endurance on impeccable rock). I looked for a harder line on the “Brilliant Pebble” and eyed out some potential just to the left. The next day I returned with drill and bolts (courtesy of Water Stone Outdoors)  and placed 5 bolts to the left of “One for the Gipper” while sharing the same finishing anchors.

The line is 50 feet tall, with 30 feet of serious business in the middle with 3 distinctive sections which I estimate to be about v12 to a minimal rest, v9 with no rest, to a v12 all-out dyno. I was able to do all of the moves, but I wasn’t able to stick the final dyno. I had my fingers smacking the lip a number of tries but couldn’t convince my hand to latch on. I placed the final crux bolt in a way so that the final 6-foot dyno crux could be avoided and one could continue out right two moves then onto the final 4-foot dyno crux of “One for the Gipper” for an easier yet still difficult red-point crux. It’s a bailout in every sense of the word if you head out right, but it will still be an outrageously quality route and it’s bolted correctly to support the idea. I tried the route for about 3 days during some really hot/humid weather and concluded it was probably about 14c with the easier 13c (v8) “One for the Gipper” finish, and maybe 14d with the brilliant direct dyno finish. It felt doable, but it wasn’t happening for me with just a couple days left in the trip. Who knows though, perhaps with crispy cold temps, it could feel 14b and 14c respectfully, but to be honest, it felt fucking hard, and I’m really psyched about that. It’s really hard to find rocks that are at your physical limit that can be climbed 100% naturally. I have to thank all the locals who helped me out with finding routes, belays, and for their general hospitality. There’s a really cool scene going on there in Fayetteville. I am looking forward to returning in the Fall/Winter with those crucial crispy cold temperatures if it works out. Life is pretty hard to plan that far ahead for me, but I would love to go back and do this route bottom to top. It’s surely the hardest route I’ve bolted to date.

I hauled my bass guitar out and a couple sets of bongos to entertain us on the mellow days... I played of mixture of freestyle chaos mostly, but it was darn good fun.

So to sum up the Fayetteville trip, it was basically badass. The climbing was a little warm and sweaty in May, but the West Virginia slow-paced vibe is quite killer. The raging New River offered up a lot of fun on the non-climbing days. I took a 2 person raft down a few 5th Class rapids one day, and also had the chance to try “river boarding” for the first time with my buddy Jay, a local climber and river rafting guide. River boarding is like body/boogie boarding at the beach except its more like a miniature kayak that you lay down on and get tossed about in the rapids. With fins on, you could find little standing waves and surf them for as long as you like. I almost died once, but I deserved it. I was aiming for the “hole of death” with the intent of surfing it on a particular rapid that we had been running a bunch. But right before I hit the hole, I hit a rock on the approach, flipped upside down getting launched off my floatation device and remained submerged for the next 15 seconds thereafter. I kept thinking it was just like getting crushed by a massive wave while surfing and all I had to do was stay calm, relax, and count the seconds until I came up above water to snag a breath of air. That plan worked and I’m alive to type about it, so I’m psyched about that. I didn’t have too many other plans I could think of at the moment. The river board I was formally riding stayed in the “hole of death” a few seconds longer than I did getting tossed around, but luckily I was able to snag it downriver before the next rapid.

Jay, the man with the river skills...

Driving out in the back of the truck with the New River bridge (2nd longest arch bridge in the World, 800+ feet high?) in the background.

For Memorial Day, Scotty and I left Fayetteville, WV and drove down to North Carolina to go hang out with my best hometown (Ramona, CA) buddy Tyson Gardner, who is now in the Army stationed at Fort Bragg, NC. I did my best to “support the troops” by buying us a few rounds of micro-beers, exchanging several good laughs, and expressing my respect for him and the rest of the armed forces. 

Scotty, my trusty co-pilot on the West Virginia road trip, had been putting serious sexual moves on this girl he met at the New River Gorge. She left halfway through our trip to go back to her home in Knoxville, TN. He was clearly sexually frustrated on our entire WV trip, so as a friend I agreed to detour through Knoxville, TN on our journey back to the West Coast and stay a couple days to support his girly mission before we had to drive to Colorado for our next stop. What are friends for after all? We ended up sleeping at an apartment on the campus of University of Tennessee for 3 nights living the college lifestyle with a couple of really nice girls by the names of Mickenzie and Amanda.

I’ve never actually gone to school at a University before, I just like to visit the student housing complexes and party once in a while to get my fair share of Beer Pong and other drinking games in, then leave without all of the homework and exam responsibilities. It’s cheaper and way less stressful my way of going to college, but I suppose you don’t get a piece of paper at the end that says you’re smart, successful, and qualified, so there’s the drawback I suppose.

One afternoon, we all took a quick trip to beautiful Chattanooga 90 minutes away from Knoxville to go eat “the best pancakes in the World” for dinner. It was fairly random, but that’s usually what’s to be expected when I have Scotty along on a trip. It was his World, I was just going with the flow...

Legal spray painting on “the rock” on UT campus.....

Scotty’s girl mission went successful, he wound up in love, and I stayed respectful to my lovely girlfriend back home while having a good time with a bunch of new friends, and we drove out a little hungover towards Denver to visit my brother.

My brother Shaun, who’s five years older than me, has been well ahead of me my whole life when it comes to partying hard. After a killer session bouldering together at the gym, he took us out to the biggest Bikini Contest I’d ever seen, and we raged for a few hours thereafter in Denver. I hadn’t hung out with him for a few years, so it was good times. He was climbing stronger than ever too, so it was fun scaling grips together again. Family is family, and I need to remember that sometimes. I often get caught up in the race of life without remembering the people who are closest.

The next day we drove out to Boulder, CO for the wedding of a really good climbing buddy of mine, Eric Harrison (EZ) and his newlywed, Danielle. A climber wedding wouldn’t be complete without everyone going climbing beforehand, so we all rallied up to Flagstaff Mountain to wrestle some rocks before putting their tuxes on.