On my way to Florida, Jason and I planned to have a day of climbing at New River Gorge. Actually, we planned four or five days. But the weather wasn't cooperative. Rain had the river swollen well past flood stage. Even when the rain stopped, runoff had waterfalls pouring over some climbs. And seepage was soaking most of the rest. Still, we managed to get two good days of climbing at Bubba City.

Tuesday we checked out Look Who's Pulling (5.11a) which we have both wanted to climb ever since we first saw it. The upper part of the climb was wet (and the bees are back). So that climb will have to continue to wait for us. We decided to start on Chuckles (5.10d variation at top) and I had to dry my hand on my shirt after splashing it into a pocket while clipping the first bolt. Fun climb though, and it felt good to onsight the 10d top. From the Chuckles anchor we put a toprope on Bubbaboey (5.11c/d) which was really hard. We were both excited to get up it, though with many hangs. After that I led Cynarete (5.11a/b) and just missed the onsight. There was one non-obvious move that took me a few tries to figure out. From that anchor I toproped The Attacktician (5.10d) which is very sustained and poorly bolted (so a good choice for toproping). Then we drove off to the Stone Cliff campground. Nice free camping along the river. Pleasant sites, decent bathrooms, level parking. Drawbacks are that it is 20 miles from the climbing and there is a very active train track on the other side of the river.

Wednesday... or as I call it, "Always Wrong Wednesday" was a comedy of errors. We went to Sandstonia -- the first time either of us had been there -- and proceeded to misread the guidebook at every opportunity. First we jumped on G-String (5.11a) and I struggled and struggled and struggled and bailed. I was really disappointed to have to bail on an 11a, since my goal is to be onsighting these climbs. Luckily for my ego, it was Always Wrong Wednesday and that meant I was actually trying to lead Clean Shaved (5.12a/b) which might be the first time I've ever tried to lead a 12. Then we jumped on Geisha Girl (5.8) and I led it to the top without disturbing the bees. Jason did most of the climb before bee-ing spooked, so he came down and I got to climb Geisha Girl again to clean it. It is a really cool climb. Some day I'd like to actually climb it. The climb we were really on was Mrs. Field's Follies (5.8) which is the line to the right of Geisha Girl. Finally we went to climb Good Book (5.10a). I was struggling on the first two bolts, and by now I realized that it was Always Wrong Wednesday, so I assumed I was on the wrong route. Which I was. Luckily, it was easy to traverse from the route I was on -- Lieback and Enjoy It (5.10d) -- to The Good Book. Which is a really cool route. After Jason cleaned The Good Book, we pulled the rope so it was through the third bolt of Lieback and Enjoy It (since that was how high I got before traversing to The Good Book) and I led the rest of the route. It is really stellar. Possibly the best route I've climbed at NRG. I really wanted to try Weisenheimer Brainstorm (5.11a) a four bolt extension above Lieback, but there was a bit of 5mm tat extending the first bolt which I didn't want to clip. At least that was my excuse. We were both tired, so I cleaned Lieback and we called it a day. Hopefully on the way back from Florida I'll get to climb Weisenheimer Brainstorm and G-String.

We drove back to Jason's house and played rummy. I only mention this because I managed another 210 point hand, the highest score I've ever had in a single hand of rummy. Maybe if I do enough pullups and stretch before playing, I can score 215 some day. As long as I don't play on a Wednesday.