new river bored
June 5, 2025
Aghhhgghh. A lot has happened since my last entry into this blog, and I'm not sure where to begin. So much has changed! (Except my employement status... lol). Let's start with last winter, where I coincidentally met Grayson through our Instagram art accounts. After meeting in person while ice climbing, we decided to be roomates this summer at the NRG! In Columbus, Grayson happened to run into a local climbing guide/deaf interpreter named Jen who happened to have a two spare rooms, so by early May we had both moved into Jen's place at the New River Gorge! A strange set of circumstances and series of crazy coincidences, but we're here at last gang! Although we've both briefly encountered some cool people, it's been hard to find friends. TBH, that doesn't bother me as much as it does Grayson. As long as I have at least one person to force into trad climbing, I'm pretty happy. And the good thing about being unemployed is that I've been able to participate in some rad spontaneous adventures. I attended almost every day of Not-Work-Week here at the NRG, a seven day volunteer project by climbers, for climbers. We ended up building some sort of surreal medieval tower at the base of Orange Oswald. Strange for sure! I got to ride the barge and shovel gravel - nothing too glamerous. I've also been doing a lot of volunteering at New Roots Community Farm, where Grayson works. Harvesting beets, planting lettuce, and getting some good hours in the sun, playing with dirt.
For the last week of may, I had the oppurtunity to travel to Boulder, Colorado for my SPI affinity course. I've been stoked for this trip for months, but now that it's over... I don't know how to feel about it. I ended up road-tripping the 21 hours to Boulder in my Toyota Highlander with another student in the course, and from the moment I met them, they were a total jerk to me! We definetly had different visions of what a rock climbing guide looked like. Coming straight from the corporate world, their vision did not include someone as 'un-professional' as me, and they sure let me know! From my driving, to my use of the word 'dude!', to my choice in backpacking tents (?), I seemed to be on the recieving end of a 21 hr one-sided roast session all the way to Colorado! I've always had great luck driving across the country with complete strangers, but I guess we can't win 'em all.
Despite that, I still had a grand ol' time. I got to fufil my childhood dream of going to the City Musaum in St. Louis, a giant adult playground/art installation with secret tunnels, caves, wire sky-bridges, and slides. Upon arriving in Colorado, I had to 'prove' my climbing ability to my partner, who at that point severely doubted I even knew what a rock was. After I led a route they could not, they graciously allowed me to lead every pitch of route we'd do tommorow. Yay! The next day we climbed at Eldorado Canyon, setting our sights on a five pitch trad route called The Bastille Crack, which was a lovely thirty second walk from the parking lot. I had a lot of fun figuring out the crux of the first pitch, a committing reach from thin flake to finger crack, followed by a great jam fest on awesome hand cracks. The climb ended up taking so long, during our second pitch a guy free-solo'd Calypso, ran across the valley, and then free-solo'd right past us! Until now I've never been able to grasp the appeal of free solo climbing, but watching him breeze by in the matter of seconds, I've never been so envious. Our struggle continued: as I was pulling the crux of the third pitch, my partner kept asking to come off belay so they could pee (Me: no.), and during the fourth pitch, the 3pm thunderstorm rolled in with great force! As I led this pitch I'd try to chalk up my hands, but the chalk would just melt away in the pounding rain. A very slick climb, but I pushed through to the summit. Although I'm sad I didn't get to hop on Rewritten, I had a blast in Eldorado, and hope to climb here again. Maybe with someone with a bigger bladder?
The course itself was great. I enjoyed meeting the other students, and learned a whole lot about rope management and clean systems. But by the last day of the course I was mentally and physically exhausted, severely doubting whether I wanted to further pursue being a SPI. Until that week, I had never had someone tell me that I should not be a guide, that because of the way I looked and talked, no one would trust me or hire me or bla bla bla. Pretty stupid, but it did send me into a crisis- do I want this? Do I even like climbing at all? Should I just give up? I don't know if I have an answer to these questions, but I think I have an obligation to see things through, take my test, even if I fail and decide to quit climbing altogether... So what's next? I'm in the middle of interviewing for some Park Service internships, including one position in Forest health and restoration. Conservation is a field I have great interest in, so we'll see if that pans out. Could the Ranger life be for me? Am I regretting not finishing my biology degree? Until July, happy pride you dirtfags!!!