Red River Gorge

Last Friday a few climbing buddies of mine and I went to the Red River Gorge to do some climbing. We got to the Red by about 10:30pm... after making a few directional errors. Instead of camping in a normal camp ground, we went up to the Fortress Wall and climbed Bed Time For Bonzo (5.6)... then dragged all our camping equipment up, and slept atop the wall. It was a gorgeous camp site... very exposed, with some good tent sites further back. It was a beautiful night.

The next day, all 5 of us climbed 2 multi-pitch routes. The first being a 5.7 route, still on Fortress (which is an all trad wall) called Party Time. The first pitch of this 2 pitch route ends on a small ledge... with hardly any room for 5 people to hang out on. The whole climb ascends a dihedral which varies in width quite a bit. The summit gives a beautiful view.

The second climb for the day was one of the classic climbs in the Red, Caver's Route (5.3 R). You can actually free-solo this (no ropes or protection) if you want... but as it was my first time on this route... I roped up for one of the pitches (its a 4 or 5 pitch route). The thing with Caver's is the compression of the crack... it is so tight, that in a few parts you have to just wiggle your way vertically up the wall. Its is entirely possible to get completely wedged in a few of the cracks, and get stuck. Luckily, that did not happen to any of us.

More photos to follow (as soon as Matias and BJ get them up on the net).