Kentucky, bourbon, horses and baseball bats. Oh and very steep endurance climbing.
Heading for Red River Gorge I was excited for some low-stress sport climbing. Coming off a year of illness and injury I knew I was undercooked. With this in mind, I was looking forward to seeing a new area and spending time with friends.
Gear for the trip. Trad gear was for Yosemite, but it was useful at all areas in the end. I never travel without my Mont Icicle. You also cannot take too many pairs of Scarpa climbing shoes.
We had just spent a week climbing in Yosemite before flying east to Kentucky. Getting to Kentucky straight from Australia is a bit of a slog. I recommend climbing on the West Coast for a few days before heading to the Bluegrass state. Leaving California we were on a high, ready to experience a new world-class climbing destination that we’d only seen in magazines and online videos. We flew into Lexington which is roughly an hour of winding roads from the Red River Gorge. Landing in Kentucky from Australia I was immediately struck by the Appalachian landscape, a breathtaking mix of vibrant autumn colours, rolling hills, spectacular rock arches, creeks and rivers that reflect the beauty above them.
If the steep pockets get you down, try some bomber jamming!
Red River Gorge is a massive climbing area in The Daniel Boone National Forest. Predominantly sport climbing but with some great trad routes too. The Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition owns large amounts of the land that the crags are on and have significant infrastructure in place to support the massive crowds the Red sees year-round. The community effort to care for these crags is impressive with crag care days of one sort or another happening almost weekly.
Don’t worry. You won’t get lost.
Considering what rack to take. The Mont Zero Ultralight Down is perfect for staying warm between routes or on the wall.
There are several places to stay in the Red. Popular options are camping at Miguels and Land of Arches campsites, or as we did, at Lago Linda. Lago Linda also has cabins available situated on a picturesque lake and common areas with reliable wifi.
On this trip I was lucky enough to be travelling with two dear friends and important people in my life. Pete who introduced me to climbing in senior high school and Greg who mentored me as a preservice teacher. Our team of three also climbed The Nose together in 2019, further cementing our friendship and teamwork.
Get your pizza or breakfast burrito from Miguels
The rock at the RRG is corbin sandstone which is fairly coarse. According to Mountain Project RRG has 2247 sport climbs, 851 trad routes and 252 boulders. The Red is famous for extremely steep endurance routes. The sandstone often forms in perfect rope length routes, as if designed for climbers, 100ft long pocketed pumpfests will spit off all but the fittest forearms. Some of the less steep walls feature nice crimps and iron bands similar to the Blue Mountains.
We had two and half weeks at RRG broken up with a weekend away at the New River Gorge. In that time we sampled quite a few areas. We spent several days in the Bald Rock Region which is famous for areas like The Chocolate Factory, Motherlode and Driveby. These crags contain the classics you see on Youtube such as Pure Imagination, The Golden Ticket and Death by Chocolate.
If you head north, but turn off before Miguels (the landmark for all things) you will come to the Muir Valley. The Muir Valley has 387 routes accessed from the same parking lot, parking costs $15 per day. It is very heavy in the 5.11 and under range but has its fair share of challenging steep pumpers too. Compared to the Bald Rock Region there is probably more here for the moderate climber and the valley itself is stunning. The valley is an extremely well-maintained area with stairs, bridges, several toilets, platforms to limit erosion, and even a loaner stick clip area and soft drink machine in the car park. While all this seems nice and infinitely sensible I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a massive climbing gym. This level of crag infrastructure is not limited to the Muir Valley, it is common throughout a lot of the RRG. This extremely user-friendly environment certainly draws the crowds and this too can make the RRG feel like the gym. It is not uncommon to be trying to ‘work in with’ several other groups of climbers all vying for the same route. While this party atmosphere might be appealing to some, for me, it's not what I enjoy about rock climbing. If you want to avoid the masses the northern crags are generally less popular, or you can even go to ‘Roadside' where you need to have applied for a permit in advance.
Loaner stick clips at the Muir Valley carpark
The northern areas such as Military Wall, Left Flank and Funk Rock City are amongst the earliest developed crags in the region. Like the rest of RRG these are predominately sport climbing areas but they have more trad routes than the rest of the gorge.
On day one we headed out to The Gallery, a crag with something for most climbers. After an extremely hot and gruelling day on the Freeblast in Yosemite a couple of days prior I took it pretty easy. Greg and Pete romped up some three-star classics and were thrilled with the RRG. As we continued to explore the southern crags of the RRG in our first week I became increasingly frustrated. I wasn’t enjoying the style of climbing in a lot of the RRG and was struggling to unpack if I was annoyed at my own climbing performance after a terrible lead up to this trip and blaming the rock, or if I really didn’t enjoy the style and movement of the steep pumpers. I tried to remain positive about the area, especially as Pete and Greg were truly loving it. After a day of climbing on apparent three-star routes, full of sharp pockets, with little sequencing or technical skill required, I came to the realisation it really wasn’t a case of the tradesman blaming their tools. I really didn’t dig the famous steep crags at the RRG and my motivation to climb on them had dropped to almost nothing. Is there something wrong with me? Everyone had raved about the RRG. This was pretty new to me, generally I always love a day out on real rock and put a silver lining on anything climbing-related. But this time I seemed out of silver linings.
Loaner stick clips at the Muir Valley carpark
The following weekend the RRG was going to host Rocktoberfest. Promoted as the biggest climbing festival in the USA each year. After some discussion with locals, our team decided that after attending the opening night of the festival it would be an exciting idea to head over to the New River Gorge (NRG) in West Virginia for the weekend, as the crags in the RRG would be packed with festival goers. The festival itself was very impressive, if you are a festival person and a climber, you would no doubt have a great time. The festival headquarters housed stalls from all the big brands as well as the new and innovative start-up companies. The evenings see dyno competitions, adventure film viewings and this year a live recording of the Struggle Podcast with Babsi Zangrl and Jacopo Polar. Throughout the day workshops are offered by a variety of pros and guides.
As a long-time Babsi fan I made sure to attend the podcast recording and see what she had to say. This proved very timely. During the conversation, Babsi talked about getting bored with different styles of climbing and part of her success is regularly changing up the styles of climbing she is focussed on and not forcing a certain direction if she isn’t feeling motivated that way.
On the drive to West Virginia, I reflected on what Babsi had said and decided to change it up. When there were sport climbs that appealed to me I would get on them, otherwise, I would lug the rack in each day and climb the cracks that most areas had a few of.
We stopped at Water Stone Sports in Fayetteville, an excellent gear shop at the NRG. We grabbed the guidebook and headed to the coffee shop. Compared to the RRG the coffee and food options around the NRG are far superior. We headed out to a region called Bubba City. “Almost Heaven, West Virginia”!! Beautiful sport climbing. Delicate, technical, powerful. Brilliant demanding sequences, precision footwork, climbs that demanded a full skillset. Sadly we only had two days, although I would have stayed at the NRG for the rest of our trip, the boys were keen to get back to the RRG so our time was limited. There is a lifetime of climbing at the NRG, we only visited Bubba City and Kaymoor, but you will have no issues finding absolute classics at any crag there. Beware though, it is very different to the RRG, the bolting is slightly more sporting (fine though), the perma draws are less plentiful and the grades are stiffer. So adjust your expectations and enjoy this amazing area.
After sending some fabulous routes in the NRG I was feeling more positive as we drove the 3 hours back to the RRG. On the way back we planned out the areas we might hit for the last week of our trip. As it was snapping cold the sunny walls of the northern areas were pencilled in. The northern areas have some more technical and only slightly overhanging routes which I enjoyed and climbed well on. I ticked off several outstanding crack climbs, the sandstone there allows for some bombproof jamming and confident laybacking. A lot of the cracks are long and uniform so it can be a little exciting with a standard double rack. The plan had worked, I only got on sport routes that attracted me and otherwise practiced my crack techniques. I left the RRG having navigated a more challenging trip, motivation wise, than normal and was grateful that climbing offers so many different styles and approaches.
A real highlight of the trip was watching Pete and Greg having the time of their lives. As a long time trad climber, Pete has only turned his hand to sport climbing in the last couple of years. At 67, and after recent major heart surgery, Pete was impressive. Although a bold trad climber some of the movement of sport climbing was still foreign to him. He climbed almost every day, becoming more confident with each route. I think I even saw him do a little dyno in the end. Greg was in his element, power screaming up the steepest routes he could find, you couldn’t wipe the smile off his face.
As usual, I wore my ever-trusty Mont Bimberi pants, which if you’ve read my previous reports will know are the most functional and hard-wearing climbing pants on the market. No surprise to see me in the Mont Grid Pro Hoodies, Guide Down and Icicle jackets. On this trip, I had a new Mont Zero Ultralight Down to try out. This jacket is a great addition to my climbing wardrobe. It is warm and packs down to nothing. Weighing just over 200 grams you can easily hang it off your harness and take it up a multi pitch to throw on at the belay. It is light enough to climb in during cold weather without overheating too (warning, if you like to wrestle the rock a bit, wearing it climbing might not be a good idea for you, it is lightweight, so not designed to ground up a rock wall).
So if you love steep jug hauling with lots of like-minded souls around, get over to The Red in peak season. A 60m rope and 15 draws will get you up most things and don’t forget to drink Ale 8 y’all.
Other things to know about when you are in The Red:
Recommended Climbs: (sport climbs only, as most of you are probably going to clip bolts)
Cait:
RRG - Orange Juice (5.12c) at Funk Rock City, Hakuna Matata (5.12a) at Driveby, Don’t Call it Comeback (5.11d) at Throwback
NRG - Likme (12a) at Bubba City, Michelin Man (11d) at Ames Wall, Out of the Bag (11d) at Kaymoor, Bikini Line (11c) at Sandstonia.
Greg:
RRG - Twinkie (12a) at Fantasia, Snoozeberries (11d) at Chocolate Factory, The Infidel (11d) at Funk Rock City, Preachers Daughter (11a) at the Gallery.
Pete:
RRG - Whip Stocking (5.11a) at Driveby, Plate Techtonics (5.10a) Muir, 27 Years of Climbing (5.8) The Gallery.
NRG - The Rico Suae Arete (10a) at Rico Suave Buttress and The Green Piece (10b) at Butchers Branch.
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