The travels and adventures out-of-state and abroad from a woman living in the U.S.
The day before we caved in Kee, Hamilton and New Trout Caves. Sunday morning we drove over to the Judy Gap area to climb the Via Ferrata. We had a good time and the rain held out!
My brother,Glenn, and I climbed at Seneca Rocks over Thanksgiving Weekend. (You can check Glenn's photos at his Restless Adventurer website). It was a perfect time to go. The weather was great and there were barely any other climbers so we didn't feel rushed.
Purchased by the federal government in 1969, Seneca Rocks is one of the best-known scenic attraction in West Virginia. The sheer rock face is popular with rock climbers.
The Tuscarora quartzite is approximately 250 feet thick and is located mostly on exposed ridges or exposed crags. The rock is composed to fine grains of sand that were laid down approximately 440 million
years ago, in an extensive sand shoal at the edge of an ancient Ocean. As the ocean was slowly destroyed and the underlying rock uplifted and folded.
Millions of years of erosion stripped away the overlaying rock and left remnants of the arching folds in formations such as Seneca Rocks. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seneca_Rocks
After work on Wednesday my brother and I met up at the Hinckley Reservation, which is 30 minutes from home, for some climbing practice.
Hinckley Reservation is one of 16 Reservations which comprise the Cleveland Metroparks.
The Torrent Falls Climbing Adventure is a short drive from Red River Gorge, and Natural Bridge State Park. It was pretty easy to find. You can see the whole course from the street; but that's not necessarily a good thing. It would have been nice for it to have been more secluded, but it was fun nonetheless.
Glenn and I lucked out again with the
great weather and solitude on the sandstone rock. Although it would have been fun to see other people climbing along ahead of us. We had invited our fellow cavers to climb with us as we were meeting them the next day to do a cave clean up near Hidden River Cave, but those interested were
unable to make it.
The time flew by. Before we knew it we had to start talking about leaving to get some grub. Then we drove off to the plush accommodations of Horse Cave Motel in Horse Cave, KY to meet up with Cleveland Grotto caving buddies also spending the night there.
The Via Ferrata in Pendleton County, WV is one of a only few Via Ferrata's in the U.S., and the only American made one. Via Ferrata mean 'iron runs' or 'iron way'.
Hundreds of holes were painstakingly drilled (taking a couple minutes a hole) into the hard rock. Metal rungs were glued and shoved into the holes for the climber to stand on and
to use as hand holds. For safety you are wearing a harness and clip yourself into the couple thousand feet of cable that runs the distance of the climbig course. Every 6 feet or so the
cable is bolted into the rock so if you should fall you'll slide down to the last bolt. You won't die, but falling is discouraged.
While talking with the owner during the orientation we learned that since their opening in 2001 they've had 5,000 climbers on the Via and only one injury. That injury was from a person who went outside the rules and tried to climb the
rock instead of using the rungs.
The Via course in WV is varied. You'll climb straight up, walk on a narrow ledge, walk over a 200' long narrow swaying suspension bridge, climb the rungs up the headwall, sit at the top and enjoy the fantastic view, climb back down, walk the rungs horizontally to a wide ledge which you walk and climb until the finish. We completed the course in about 3.5 hours then walked back to our really nice cabin to rehydrate. We all had a great time. I'm sure I'll be back.
