Red River Gorge, Ky

Novermber 8, 2010

      Coming to the Red is like coming home. The moment my feet leave the ground there's a relationship forged on the rock. Some climbs leave lingering impressions and some ascents feel like a coaxed effort, a sort of attentiveness to the rock qualities of the day that lead to the success or fail on a climb. The Red embodies this more than any other crag I've experienced because the style is more forgiving. Couple that with the number of people I run into here year to year, the familiarity and friendliness of everyone envelope me with a sense of community that I rarely experience anywhere else.  

      I've had ambitions coming out to the Red this year. As in every year past, I set my sights on something and hope I can arrange climbing partners and align my time to get out and achieve some of them. The past few years have been challenging in this regard, but this year, the stars aligned and some routes I've had my eye on for the last 4 years finally had the opportunity to go down! 

      The first ambition was Orange Juice, an amazing, nearly vertical climb out in Funk Rock. With the recent droughts, the water level was low and approachable and the prospect of getting out there was high in my mind. I happened upon a group of inspirational climbers from Cincinnati and one of them was psyched to head out there with me. With the parking lot nearly full when we arrived (at 9am), we had little hope of being the only ones set on the attempt. By the time we finished our warmup, we had witnessed numerous groups of up to 8 people entering the crag. We had been the only ones climbing in this section of the wall, but when we were finishing, there were queues on everything, including what we had just completed. The idea that Orange Juice would be free was ludicrous, in my mind. How could it possibly not be seiged at this point?

   Packing up to leave the masses, my climbing buddy (Zach) and I pondered the thought of it being open, despite the number of people at the crag. I mean, wouldn't that be a cruel joke on me to come all that way, assume it was hopeless only to find out later that it was open? Halting in our tracks, we decided we had to at least see for ourselves, confirm without a doubt, that the climb was untouchable that day.  

    We walked the cliff line, through the numerous parties lunching and climbing until we came to the infamous line, Orange Juice. It was stunning in the full sun, this prominent, near vertical orange line of a climb. And, it was open. Not a soul lined up to climb it. One guy was setting his rope bag under it but his buddy wasn't going up it anytime soon so they graciously offered us to 'cut' in. It was a miracle!  Zach and I looked at one another and smiled ear to ear as we set about the climb. To this day, I wonder what the chances are of that happening. Orange Juice climbed as beautifully as it looked. This photo by Rich Wheater of Senja Polonen is the best I could find that gives you an idea of the rock. Brillant, brillant climb. Definitely a must do.  

    The next ambition was Kaleidoscope. This was a climb I had the pleasure to experience back in 2007, a year after I had met Monique Forestier where in that year, she had the line put up and successfully completed the FA. The line was stunning and everyone (that would be Kenny and Mike) was trying it. Even with Kenny's huge whipper, see previous blog post)  I was psyched to get on this route. I made a good bolt to bolt effort back then; in fact, when I look over the old photos from that year, I am surprised by how different the climb looks, today. Not only is my beta completely different this year, but the holds don't map, either. One shocker I noted was that my beta after the foothold broke (this year) turned out to be the exact same beta I had back then, but only for two moves, the upper part I climbed way differently and I wonder if it's because the climb is well traveled now that the most used holds are ticked or chalked so that's what I naturally gravitated toward.  In my short trip out last year, I made a valiant effort to get on the route and had climbed all of the moves without grabbing draws, but lacked climbing partners to actually give it a burn. This year, with some planning and luck, I managed to find climbing partners and made good linkage right away so although it felt like epicing (I refused to skip the last bolt), the climb came together well and maybe if I'd been a little braver, would have gone down sooner.  The fact that I was able to see this climb through to a send, is a relief. It is one climb that has been on my mind since that day in 2007.

    Life in Lexington is different from living in the Gorge day to day, but I can work fulltime, have access to city amenities, visit with friends in town and the gorge isn't that far away. Note to anyone considering this option, choose the north side of Lexington. It will shave 30 minutes off of your drive.

     I am hearing that the gorge has more cabins internet equipped and I hope the next time I make the trip that I can find a sweet setup in the heart of the climbing. As much as I don't mind the commute, it makes for weekend warrior climbing days since the commute can cut into work time.

    With only one week left, it's time to start wrapping things up and look forward to my next adventure. Stay tuned!