1st weekend of season in Red River Gorge.

This last weekend, a bunch of friends and I went climbing in KY's Red River Gorge. We went down on Saturday morning, early... way early. I was not in the best condition, due to the celebrations of buying a boat the night before. That made Saturday's climbing not so good for me. I felt good until the middle of the first climb... then I was pretty much dead.

We did 3 trad routes on Tower Rock, including the most amazing Arachnid which is an left facing dihedral crack, to a roof, then out to an offwidth crack up to anchors. Awesome. I was pretty much exhausted though, so I was sleeping at the bottom of the route, woke up to do the climb... fell back to sleep when I got done. Felt like a dream, so I like to say I climbed it in my sleep. Ofcourse, I didn't lead, but some day I will. Thats a photo of the route... borrowed from www.redriverclimbing.com

Sunday was a much better day for me climbing. We went to Pistol Ridge and climbed 3 sport routes (a 5.7, 5.8 and a 5.10a... my first lead of a 5.10!), and a few trad routes. I did not second any of the trad... because I was tired, and do not have good crack skills. We then went to Roadside crag where my buddy BJ climbed the picturesque Ro Shampo which is one of the most amazing climbs. The moves are not hard, about 5.10, but the wall is overhung by 15 degrees... and its pretty long. Then we went down the path for an easier route for me to lead (90 foot 5.8).

Some mexican food and we headed home. People are going to wonder about the scars on the backs of my hands from climbing.