Last week I headed down to New River Gorge for a week of climbing. I haven’t been there in a year and a half and a trip to the New felt overdue. Over the years I’ve climbed there and at other locations around the southeast quite a bit. Of all the southeastern climbing areas the New is my favorite. It’s not a stretch to say that this area has the best cragging in the United States.
The climbing is sustained and physically demanding yet usually well protected. If you haven’t been there it’s worth the trip. From New Paltz, if you don’t drink too much coffee (too many pee stops) you can be there in under nine hours, making a long weekend reasonable. We spent a week there this time but you really need a lifetime to explore all of the crags this area has to offer. The diversity of the climbing and the uncrowded cliffs are what makes the New special. You can climb there almost any day of the week and not see a soul at Endless Wall or Beauty Mountain.
The new Wolverine Press New River Gorge guidebook by Mikey Williams is now available too. I love the old Rick Thompson guidebook but there has been boatloads of development since that book was published. With 500 pages of routes in Mikey’s new book and miles of cliff still to be developed there is no shortage of climbing to be had. Most of my trips to WV have been during the summer, so this trip was special. We visited Whippoorwill and Long Point at Summersville Lake, both of which are only accessible by boat during the summer. The sandstone at the lake is more featured than most of the stone in the New River Gorge and many areas have rock similar to Red Rocks (plates, patina and giant jugs) but on utterly bulletproof white sandstone. However, for me a trip to the New wouldn’t be complete without at least a day in the gorge proper. The Endless wall might be the finest stretch of single pitch climbs in North America. We spent a day scrambling around Diamond Point doing classics such as Raging Waters, Remission, Strike a Scowl and Supersymmetry.
If you head down there be sure to stay at Roger’s Rocky Top Retreat above Kaymoor; it’s a little slice of heaven in West Virginia. He’ll keep an eye on your stuff (then it isn’t in your car at a roadside trailhead) and provide you with an endless cup of his special colon-flush coffee each and every morning.
