one month in seneca
April 26, 2025
Hello again world. Welcome to my digital diary. For this month's installment, I will re-cap my spring adventures in Seneca Rocks, West Virginia. After a boring winter in Charlottesville where I *gasp* climbed indoors , I was very eager to get back on real, chossy, lichen-y rock. I decided to return as a guide for the Via Ferrata at Nrocks, and climb Seneca on my days off. I love guiding at Nrocks, even if the large amount of unwilling participants dragged onto the Via by friends and family often results in tricky, sticky rescue situations. Luckily, most of my tours went smoothly, and I enjoyed the cool spring weather. For awhile, I also got the whole staff house to myself. Hey, 30$ a week for a whole house? Pretty good deal. As I write this, I have one week until I move to the New River Gorge! Yaayyyy!!! Very exciting, and you'll definetly see me re-cap my adventures there in upcoming blog posts.
In lieu of a consistent climbing partner, this spring I climbed with a bunch of random people from mountain project, as I did that winter in C-ville. This would prove to be both a good and bad decision. I am not a 100% confident, competent trad leader, and I have a lot of improving to do, especially when it comes to rope management and gear placement. Having partners that are able to critique and correct me are very important. With mountain project, you get a real mixed bag. Former guides, old guys that belay from the hip, tech bros from DC with thousands of dollars in new gear, and the occassional gumby who has no idea what's going on... This provided some unique challenges for me, and every session would be very different. In a positive light, I got to observe a variety of ways to approach climbing, each unique to the person. Climbing with strangers also kept me on my toes in terms of safety, and I was always on high alert. Luckily, I also never climbed above my means or grade, and everything I have led at Seneca has felt comfortable. Some highlights include leading ecstacy junior (5.4) and following pleasant overhangs (5.7). I also had my highest lead at Seneca with the burn (5.8), which was short and well protected.
In scarier news, I had my first exposure to the phenomenom of spring climbing accidents. Over the last two weeks, there have been multiple life-threatening falls at Seneca and the New River Gorge, including a stranger I had climbed with earlier that season. While we climbed together, I had noticed some 'red flags' that I didn't feel confident enough to point out, being the less experienced climber. Later I found out one of these 'red flags' had resulted in their injury at the NRG. Although I did not cause the accident, I do feel in part responsible. This winter I have frequently hesitated to critique the practices of other climbers, even though I allow them to nit-pick at my placements and gear. A lot of this is due to me climbing with older white guys. Going foward I want to assert myself more in this white-guy dominated space, and I hope getting my SPI in may will help me with this process. In general, high accident rates as the season starts are nothing new. This is similar to crime rates, which explode during the first warm weeks of every spring. In the future, I want to look into this phenomenom in the terms of climbing, and see if it is preventable in any way. For now, I am studying these accidents and seeing what mistakes I can prevent in my own process. On the other end of the spectrum, I also climbed with an older guy who I talked to about the reason I want to be a guide, which is to provide access to this wonderful life-saving sport for bipoc and lgbtq+ communities. For some reason, this made him start crying. It was sweet and also very awkward.
Hmm, what else have I done in my month here? I took out my rear car seats in preperation for my camper build. I made this website. I attended most of my ASL classes. I hiked up chimney top with a new seasonal worker, Heather, and greatly enjoyed it. The top of the hike has a beautiful combination of rock islands and soft white sand, refreshingly cool in the shade. It looked very similar to Kalymnos, Greece, although the great value version. I worked on my slacklining and highlining, being able to stand and walk on the slackline but STILL not being able to sit-start without the assistance of a sturdy shoulder or broom. The highline I flopped around on, Moonshine, felt amazing this year, and I am now obsessed with this trans flag colored webbing called Jelly PRO. I need some for myself RIGHT NOW! I also need this pair of Grimmichi Gadget pants, and a new static rope... so many things to buy! Not sure where I'll be working at this summer... most likely a coffee shop. I did get rejected from nearly all of the stewardship, guiding, apprenticeship positions I applied for, but it is what it is. It'll be nice to stay indoors and miss the heat, having plenty of energy to work on improving my own climbing and getting my SPI :).