I was in Fayetteville, West Virginia, smack dab in the heart of the New River Gorge, attending the pre-party at Kenny Parker’s house for the New River Rendevous 2009. Parker is co-owner of Water Stone Outdoors, the local climbing shop, with the husband-wife duo Gene and Maura Kis- tler (who live across the street). We were standing in what has come to be known as Kistler Hollow. “You’ll never get that to light,” said Parker. “I got it, buddy,” said Meinhold as he aimed the sputtering rocket in the general direction of the gas-soaked woodstack. The New S p ot The NRG is kickass and taking names “ I think I can hit it from here.” Stephen Meinhold, a Pennsylvania-based New River Gorge regular, held the firecracker up and aimed at a woodpile 50 feet in front of him. He held a match to the bottle rocket as three other climbers doused white gas on the two-story-tall pile. Pat Goodman lights up Munson Burner (5.12c), one of several thousand lines at West Virginia's New River Gorge. Climbers sitting on car hoods, smoking rol- lies and drinking cinnamon-flavored moonshine, waited for the magnificent explosion. The fuse burned to the end and the missile shot out, smoking and weaving through the air and strik- ing a guy holding a can of white gas directly in the chest. He squealed and took a few fleeting steps before verbally assaulting Meinhold. Undeterred, Meinhold lit another firecracker. IT HAD BEEN ALMOST A YEAR since that pile of wood (finally) exploded into flames after at least eight misses when I returned to Fayetteville, this time across the street at a Kistler potluck listening to the replay of stories from last year’s event. I sat among almost 30 other climbers who “just hap- pened in” on the potluck while visiting the area to enjoy an unseasonably warm, 89-degree weekend in late March and sample the nearly 2,500 routes. Over the years, Fayetteville, a town of 3,000, has swelled with climbers, bikers, kayakers and a healthy dose of moonshine-drinking whack jobs. “It takes a special person to live here,” said Maura Kistler. “You have to be a little weird.” Fayetteville began as a mining town, but today is an Eastern epicenter of outdoor recreation with biking, rafting, kayaking and, of course, climbing. The New River Gorge is a massive region made up of three route-stacked areas: the Gorge, the Meadows and Summersville Lake. Some of the densest, hard- est cliff bands (almost a 12-hole-to-one-drill-bit hard Nuttall Sandstone) in the country are found here, with styles as varied as the local personalities. “Fayetteville is the ‘island of the misfit toys,’” said Parker, who has been climbing and develop- ing routes here for over 25 years and opened Water CLIFF NOTES 14 ROCKANDICE.COM 4 10 JULY by WHITNEY BOLAND 4 photos by TOMÁS DONOSO | send queries to [email protected]
Transcript
I was in Fayetteville, West Virginia, smack dab in the heart of the New River Gorge, attending the pre-party at Kenny Parker’s house for the New River Rendevous 2009. Parker is co-owner of Water Stone Outdoors, the local climbing shop, with the husband-wife duo Gene and Maura Kis-
tler (who live across the street). We were standing in what has come to be known as Kistler Hollow.
“You’ll never get that to light,” said Parker. “I got it, buddy,” said Meinhold as he aimed the
sputtering rocket in the general direction of the gas-soaked woodstack.
The New SpotThe NRG is kickass and taking names
“I think I can hit it from here.”Stephen Meinhold, a Pennsylvania-based New River Gorge regular, held
the firecracker up and aimed at a woodpile 50 feet in front of him.He held a match to the bottle rocket as three other climbers doused
white gas on the two-story-tall pile.
Pat Goodman lights up Munson Burner (5.12c), one of several thousand lines at West Virginia's New River Gorge.
Climbers sitting on car hoods, smoking rol-lies and drinking cinnamon-flavored moonshine, waited for the magnificent explosion.
The fuse burned to the end and the missile shot out, smoking and weaving through the air and strik-ing a guy holding a can of white gas directly in the chest. He squealed and took a few fleeting steps before verbally assaulting Meinhold. Undeterred, Meinhold lit another firecracker.
IT had beeN almoST a year since that pile of wood (finally) exploded into flames after at least eight misses when I returned to Fayetteville, this time across the street at a Kistler potluck listening to the replay of stories from last year’s event. I sat among almost 30 other climbers who “just hap-pened in” on the potluck while visiting the area to enjoy an unseasonably warm, 89-degree weekend in late March and sample the nearly 2,500 routes.
Over the years, Fayetteville, a town of 3,000, has swelled with climbers, bikers, kayakers and a healthy dose of moonshine-drinking whack jobs.
“It takes a special person to live here,” said Maura Kistler. “You have to be a little weird.”
Fayetteville began as a mining town, but today is an Eastern epicenter of outdoor recreation with biking, rafting, kayaking and, of course, climbing. The New River Gorge is a massive region made up of three route-stacked areas: the Gorge, the Meadows and Summersville Lake. Some of the densest, hard-est cliff bands (almost a 12-hole-to-one-drill-bit hard Nuttall Sandstone) in the country are found here, with styles as varied as the local personalities.
“Fayetteville is the ‘island of the misfit toys,’” said Parker, who has been climbing and develop-ing routes here for over 25 years and opened Water
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14 rock aNdIce .com 4 10 july
by WhITNey bolaNd 4 photos by TomÁS doNoSo | send queries to [email protected]
lar as the Red, the New attracts a slightly differ-ent breed of climber.
Said Chris Lindner, “In the last decade, I think the Red has stolen the glory in this region. The climbing at the Red is more progressive: really fun, outrageously steep, long and pumpy
routes. The majority of climb-ing at the New is less steep and more tricky. This retro-style hasn’t been favored by the mainstream in recent years, and it seems like the New has gone under the radar for how good it actually is.”
The climbers who prefer the New are true fifth-class technicians, honed on walls such as the popu-lar Bubba City, discovered by Parker and largely developed by local Eric Hörst. Shorter and friend-lier than other cliffs at the New, Bubba City offers routes ranging from 5.6 to 5.13 on bullet-hard rock.
Stone with the Kistlers in 1994. As one of four red -brick, weathered buildings flanking the well-manicured lawn of Fayetteville’s center, Water Stone bridges the cultures of the laid-back out-door community with the rugged, often isolated coal-mining Appalachians. That climbers come to middle-of-nowhere West Vir-ginia is a testament to the qual-ity of the rock, and also thanks to events like the New River Rendezvous, held every May.
In its eighth year (“Ocho Loco”), the event raises money for the New River Alliance of Climbers, a grassroots organization aimed to pro-tect the New. Last year, Parker’s long matted locks were “devegetated” as a fundraising event, and afterward many enjoyed the gluttonous “Dessert-palooza,” a free-for-all of ice cream and candy that had climbers running amok. The Rendezvous is a
near-perfect hat trick of swill, bonfires and shit-talking, and the energy set rolling each May holds strong until around “Send Season,” October. This October, will see an Access Fund Summit as well as the annual Bridge Day, the famous BASE jumping event on the historic New River Bridge, open one
day a year for what I call crazy people with glorified tarps. About 450 jumpers come each year for Bridge Day, along with 20,000 spectators.
Best, of course, in the spring and fall, a busy weekend might see about 40 climbers at Roger’s, the climbers’ campground. Though not as popu-
I sat among almost 30 other climbersat the New to enjoy the 89-
degree March weekend and sample the nearly 2,500 routes.
Fayetteville local Elaina Arenz-Smith detoxifies on one of the New's coolest routes, Toxic Hueco (5.11d), Lower Meadow.
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Climbers looking for higher-octane lines can gun it for the four-mile-long Endless (aka Sendless) Wall—a stout, no-joke, just-off-vert cliff (coined the “Antee-Slantee”) that is notorious for its reachy cruxes and shut-you-down power moves. Here you find the trad line Leave It to Jesus (5.11c), said to be so good it converted the first ascentionist; the New River rite-of-passage Jesus and Tequila (5.12b); or any one of many Porter Jarrard/Doug Reed lines such as Sacrilege (5.12b) or Reed’s notori-ous sandbag The Racist (5.13b).
Endless opens up to the thin, blank, relentlessly steep Cirque and the New’s highest concentration of hard climbs. Just up river is the
trad heaven Beauty Mountain, with cracks from 5.8 to 5.12. Across the bridge is the steep rock of the Lower Meadow, where Lynn Hill nabbed the first ascent of the trad route Greatest Show on Earth (5.13a) in 1988. In 22 years, the route has only seen three ascents. Also here, Scott Franklin shook up the community with Mango Tango (5.14a), which has only seen five ascents.
When summer hits, climbers head to the waterfront Summersville and its Coliseum with overhanging tiers and forearm-blasters includ-ing Apollo Reed (5.13a) and the less steep Reckless Abandon (5.12b), or any one of the dozen or so 5.10s that dot the Orange Oswald Wall, bested
With several thousand routes to choose from, there are five-star lines of every grade including the 5.9 Prowess, climbed here by Keith Bjorling.
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only by the opportunity for a lake-side dip between burns.
Development in the New kicked off in the 1970s with Bruce Burgin and Rich Skidmore, who were followed by the likes of Mike Artz, Andrew Barry, Kenny Parker, Gene Kistler, Eric Hörst, Eddie Begoon, Mike Wil-liams, Pat Goodman, Brian McCray, Porter Jarrard and, of course, Doug Reed. One of the most prolific devel-opers of the New, Reed is a legend now. Made infamous for being so tall he can practically clip the anchors from the ground (he’s actually 6' 3"), Reed was nicknamed Codeman for his uncanny similarities to the 1970s comic-book superhero.
There are nearly 20 developed
areas, but while the Park Service has slowed development in the Gorge with its $50 route-develop-ment application fee, new routes still trickle in, in areas like Area 51, Cambodia and Long Point, accessi-ble on foot when the lake is drained. At Central Endless, Jarrard bolted Hoax of Clocks, a line he and Reed scouted in 1990 that would become the project Chris Sharma attempted in 2008. It still awaits an ascent.
“This place is deceivingly hard,” says Mike Williams, the 31-year-old author of the new New River Gorge guidebook, out this spring from Wol-verine Publishing. Williams has a soft-spoken manner and a penchant for taxidermy. In fact, his house is
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Justin Edl sends maybe the hardest crack in Wyoming,‘Home on the Range’ 5.14-.
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dotted with a deer skin, a Bull snake skin, and four brain-tanned, road-kill skins nailed to the walls above the couch in his home office.
“You don’t come to the New to fluff up your 8a scorecard,” says Williams. “Grades get thrown out the window here. You could climb a 5.11 that feels as hard as a 5.13. But the lines are awesome, so it doesn’t matter.”
Williams, recently married, has nabbed ascents of both The Greatest Show on Earth and Mango Tango. While projecting the latter, he “trained” by eat-ing mango-flavored yogurt with mango-flavored cereal. Williams has climbed some of the New’s hardest testpieces, most obscure lines and everything in between.
“But even with all the amazing routes, I can’t believe there are still potential lines and no one has come here to do them.” Save Chris Sharma’s rampage in 2008, when he onsighted The Racist, and Chris Lindner’s recent authorship of lines including The Moist Bass Line (5.14a), the New has remained largely off the map.
“The new wave of hard sport lines are going to start transition-ing towards harder and more wild moves on less continuous lines, something the New has a reputa-tion for already,” said Lindner. “It’s the type of climbing that make you say to yourself, ‘What do I do here?!’ and ‘That move was all-time!’ several times throughout every route.”
“Nowhere else can you get such an array of climbing in such a small space,” says Williams. “You can
Where To STay: Roger’s Rocky Top Retreat is the popular climbers’ campground at the top of Kaymoor (you can hike to the crag from there). Stay here for $6 a night and hear humorous stories from Roger, a long-time local, or check Chestnut Creek Campground (304-574-3136) near Endless for $10/night ($9 cash). Going posh? Try Opossum Creek Retreat (www.opossumcreek.com) for a weekend or big group.
Where To eaT: The Vandalian, Porter Jarrard and Peilee Ren’s newly opened restaurant, is located across from Water Stone. They claim the best coffee in town. Also try Cathedral Cafe for breakfast fuel, or Diogi’s Mexi-can Grill and Cantina for Mexican-inspired grub and free WiFi. Throw down for a cup of coffee or muffin, or get the pooch a treat. Don’t forget Pies and Pints, where you can get an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet on Tuesday nights.
GuIdebook: Mike Williams' guide New River Gorge: Rock Climbs, available at www.waterstoneoutdoors.com.
ThINGS To WaTch ouT for: The cops on I-19. They’re in it to win it. Keep your speed down. Also be wary of poison ivy (it’s rampant), snakes and bad Chinese buffet.
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throw your rack in your pack and put up a gear route right next to your buddy sport climbing. People aren’t diehard crack climbers or diehard sport climbers. They’re diehard climbers. We accept all kinds.”
oN The porch ouTSIde the Kis-tlers’ house, Porter Jarrard leaned against the railing behind a group of climbers. He sipped on Le Croix and looked at me through his black frame glasses. Small but sturdy, he wore a red baseball hat, frayed at the ends with “Maker’s Mark Milf” across the front. “It used to say ‘mile,’” he said.
“I really haven’t done much here,” said Jarrard, looking down.
I somehow doubted that. Jarrard has helped develop crags that span the East Coast, from Tennessee to the Red to the New. Idiosyncratic (he still claims Lycra will return) and particular (he belays with a figure-eight), Jarrard is among the beloved locals whose dedication and energy inspire others. After “Alzheimer-flashing” Puppy Chow (5.12c)—which he’d attempted once in 1990—he clipped the anchors and screamed, “Ye old master!”
Now it was dusk and the potluck was just starting to pick up. The kids added wood to the 20-foot-high woodpile in the Kistler’s backyard in preparation for the Rendezvous in May, when you can bet your Confed-erate dollar the fireworks and jelly jars will come out.
Whitney Boland, based in Chatta-nooga, Tennessee, is a contributing editor for Rock and Ice.
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