Now that winter has descended upon us here in West Virginia I finally have the time to do a proper write-up on the highlights of returning to the New River Gorge after our trip to Kalymnos.  Enjoy.  If you want to skip the write-up and go straight to the pictures, you’ll find them at the bottom of the post. 

Kalymnos was truly a splendid trip and we give it the A+ recommendation for sport-climbing the steeps.  In addition to adding volumes to the library of one’s climbing skills, the long pitches pay dividends in terms of physical fitness.  I, personally, reaped those rewards when I returned to my nearly year-long project, Proper Soul (5.14a) at the New River Gorge.

Proper Soul is the premier route at the Cirque, which of course is the crown jewel crag of Endless Wall at the New River Gorge.  The route climbs steep rock which leads to a severely overhung dihedral that abruptly terminates into a thin, slightly overhung face.  The route then climbs a rising, rightward traverse on thuggier-than-it-looks white sandstone.  Several kneebars offer momentary reprieve from the blistering pump.  The route crescendos by exiting the white-orange rock of the lower cliff and pulls onto a gray slab at the top of which lies the anchors and the apex of the Cirque.

In the preceding winter, spring, summer and early fall, Proper Soul’s crux dihedral had been giving me BEEEG trouble and linking to the top of the crux was a bit of a pipe-dream.  I believed that the delicate, subtle movements would be very difficult (if not impossible) to continuously climb without falling because nearly every attempt on this route was spent making small incremental gains followed by repeated setbacks.

Fast-forward 4 weeks.  The Kalymnian trip allowed for more continous climbing than I had experienced since the summer of 2008.  Rachel and I returned in top form and conditions were perfect at the NRG.  A visiting climber, Ben “Flying Hobbit” Gilkison was also trying Proper Soul and his fresh perspective on the crux sections were very helpful in making the most of my  attempts.  Soon I was climbing up to, through and out of the crux section of the climb only to fall on several occasions on the second crux traverse, notably on the “Just a Dream” move some may remember from the video of Chris Sharma climbing the route.

Enter November 18th, 0545: I wake up, dress and drive to BAR-H for Psyc morning report at 6:45.  I note the sun is coming up and the air looks exceptionally clear today.

1000: Hospital rounds conclude, attending notifies me that there are no new patients the rest of the day.  Instantly, my focus shifts from psychiatry to Proper Soul.  I am on the phone with Static-K soon thereafter and we arrange to meet at 1100 for a pilgrimage to the Cirque.  Driving home, the thermostat reads 50 degrees and humidity is low.

Static K and I warm up, slowly.  We climbed New Life twice and Finder’s Keeper’s once.  Kirk fired Finder’s Keepers for the first time and made the 12c crux look like 5.6.  In true Kirky style, he chose to sprint the pitch–fearing a pump he believes will be paradoxically delivered if he utilizes the jug rests.  We plodded over to Proper Soul and I tied in and fired the rig….NOT.  Very anxious that this would be the last day I could send the climb, I was moving with the flexibility of Frankenstein and got spit off low in the dihedral.  I laughed and lowered.  Kirk assured me that falling off my project was good for me and reminded me to ‘loosen up meow’.

By now, Rachel had arrived at the crag after enduring the commute from Charleston.  John and Mikey had also rolled up to partake climbing in the pristine conditions.  I tied into the bright yellow Nano again, this time with Rachel on belay.  I pulled on the kneepad and patted Lilah on the head for some puppy power.

This second attempt on the route went much smoother and I climbed right through the dihedral, pausing here and there to make the most of the poor rest stances.  Struggling into the rest about halfway up the route, I felt a bit more fatigued than on my previous attempts.  I took my time, breathed deeply and waited for my (ridiculously) pumped forearms to recover.  I moved about the rest stance, trying to make the most of the various options available from which to recover.  At the point when I felt staying at the rest was delivering diminishing returns, I shifted my focus to the pumpy traverse that lied immediately ahead.  Carefully and as purposefully as I could, I moved through the traverse, cut my feet, threw a heel and pressed down for the right hand pinch just above.  Several moves later I was in another rest, feeling pretty good.  Again, I resolved to singularly focus on only the next hand or foot move and shortly thereafter I was staring the chains in the face.  I mantled quickly by, untied my rope and vociferously proclaimed victory with a barbaric yawp.

My first 5.14.

We went back for some photos.  Here they are from the grrrrounnnd up.