Tag: climbing

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climbing general trip reports

deep water deep water deep water

The weekend was spent playing in the water at Summersville Lake (deep water soloing if you will). We had a pontoon on Saturday, until a thunderstorm came along, and some people started to get dubious about how well lightning and metal boats go together. So the boat was returned, we were pelted with rain for 3 minutes, then the weather was perfectly fine again. Of course!

Lara and Captain Ducky (or possibly Admiral Ducky?), one of the more awesome floaties from the weekend.
 

lara and captain ducky

Boer jug hauling his way up the arete
 

boer climbs at summersville lake

Plans to go bouldering at full moon were ruined by the weather, which kept getting overcast and thunderstorming on us. Come Sunday morning, everything was soaking wet, and most of the crew were keen to get back to civilisation – except for the hardy group who fought their way down to Pirates Cove and swam around in the sun, enjoying the views and gorgeous sunny weather for a few more hours. I don’t know how we managed to do it, really I don’t.


Val in Pirates Cove on Sunday morning
 

summersville lake
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climbing general

playing with the new camera

Now I just have to work out the easiest way to cut this up and turn it into an animated gif…

deadpoint

(The photo was taken at Cooper’s Rocks, West Virginia)

“Gah! They’re pointing a machine gun at us!”
“How rude, pretend we haven’t seen them.”

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general

an exciting glimpse into the world of chartered accountancy

One of the other Australians in the climbing group was farewelled in style, as I discovered that climbing fibreglass poles barefoot can lead to friction burns. Two days later I discovered that climbing offwidth cracks in an indoor gym leads to removal of skin (I suspect this rule applies to outdoor offwidth cracks as well, although I may have to test this theory in person). These incidents have combined to lead to painful stinging shower experiences.

For the non-climbers: an offwidth crack is one too wide to wedge hands inside and too narrow to wedge one’s body inside – the style required to climb such a thing is best described as ‘interesting’.

poleocean

Meanwhile, newsflash, I have a new way to entertain myself as work – planarity. I just finished level 11. It’s not very exciting. Nothing gets blown up. And I might even concede that it’s just a little bit geeky. Yet strangely addictive.

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climbing general trip reports

Then the storm would pass, and they would go back to their primitive lives, chasing rabbits and impregnating their womenfolk.

The world’s most mediocre climbers have discovered a dangerous new way to defy gravity — free soloing above a lake, which sometimes has swell from passing motorboats, which makes it really extreme, and totally hardcore.

I’ve just seen the future of climbing. It’s not on Everest, or a wind-lashed Patagonian spire, nor is it on some gargantuan wall in Yosemite Valley. It’s in West Virginia, on some sandstone cliffs above Summersville Lake.

I insinuated myself into a clan of cragrats, practitioners of a new mode of climbing called “deepwater soloing.” I was bobbing in the swell from passing speedboats at the mouth of a gaping cavern, watching the 31-year-old American phenomenon Terence ‘Vegas’ Kudo perform on an as yet unclimbed route he was calling ‘Vegas in a Blender’.

…. back to what you were doing people, there’s nothing to see here.

deep water soloing

 

deep water soloing

Oh, and we did things on dry land too. I’m not sure why. Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun … to play in a suntrap.

hawks nest dam

Today’s title brought to your courtesy of a random quote from johnnyb. Today’s images brought to you courtesy of the EOFSO – Equal Opportunities for Stalkers Organisation, as well as Vegas (first image, and squad of ninjas), Boer (second image, sound effects and staff twirling skills).

Categories
climbing general trip reports

we like the water

Deep water soloing at Summersville Lake. Was fun. More coherent comments and some more pictures may be on their way, but I should really do some work now (more pictures under the clicky link thingo).

Hoards swarming over the rock

deep water soloing
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