To Mt. Rogers and Back

What a Trip


Friday morning came so fast this past week and it was already time to load up the trailer with our backpacks and head on down the road on our journey to Mt. Rogers. We left around 10:30 and had a nice comfortable 5 hour drive ahead of us on a 75 degree beautiful sunny day. We had no problems until map quest suggested we go left and what they really meant is go right but beyond that no problems arriving at Massie Gap parking lot around 5:00 pm. It was beautiful out as we all got our packs loaded on our backs and began our walk in the woods.
We stopped for camp after only hiking for about a little over and hour and half into the woods. We camped with wild grazing ponies that night on top of the beautiful Wilburn Ridge. The views were definitely something I could get used to. Amazing! You could see in the distance the Smokey Mountains which was so beautiful. Well after stuffing our face and enjoying a nice fire we all packed it in and got a good night rest.
Saturday was very eventful to say the least. The morning was a little windy and a little chilly but that was the best part of the day which we didn’t know at the time. On our journey to summit Mt. Rogers, we ran into some fog in meadow with a nice cross rain that came and went every half hour. So there we were putting raingear on then taking it off to only put it right back on to take it off, which was a little frustrating. We came upon a beautiful shelter along the famous Appalachian Trail which was named Thomas Knob shelter. It was a very nice little hut in the middle of the woods, if I would have to say so. Right behind the shelter was a natural spring where we all refilled our water containers, dropped our packs with T.J. and went to summit the Mountain. There is absolutely no view from the summit of Mt.Rogers, but you get a good feeling to know that you have been to the highest point in the state of Virginia. The rest of the afternoon was filled with rain. The fog got so heavy at one point in the scales which is a big meadow, the visibility was down to 50 feet. Exciting!
Thanks to David, Dennis, and T.J. for an awesome fire to dry some of our wet clothes during the time it was raining was awesome. We set up our camp right along a really nice creek bed which was very peaceful during the great storms of a little mixture of rain and hail. The rain would continue through out the night in 2 hour intervals. Most of us were able to stay warm and dry which was a nice and for the ones that weren’t so lucky it wasn’t so nice. Saturday was very eventful. Thanks to TJ’s tarp shelter most of us were able to cook our dinner where it was at least a little dry. After dinner most of us didn’t take much time getting to the tent and closing in for the night.
Sunday we had a nice hour hike back to the parking lot wrap up our loop for the weekend. What a great weekend. Memories were definitely made and shared that weekend. To top off the trip we stopped a t a Pizza Hut in Wytheville for a nice pizza buffet to fill our bellies for the 5 hour drive back to good old South East Ohio.

New River Bouldering Day Trip

It was 9 am and time to leave as we sat in the Student Center parking lot. We were waiting on one person whom no one could get a hold of. After 10 min. of waiting we decided to drive over to his place and pick him up. Shay ran inside a got him up right fast. At last we were on our way to the New. It was about a 2 hour drive with Tim at the wheel and one stop for food. Around 11:45 we made it to New River Gorge, WV with the trailer still attached to the back of the van. The 12 of us got out and started to unload the trailer. As we were unloading we discovered that we had brought 9 bouldering pads, granted no one was complaining it was simply funny. When everyone was comfortable with what they were carrying we started the trek to Hawks Nest where we would spend the day bouldering. It was a lovely hike through the woods and Shay and some others started to keep an eye out for mushrooms. All through the hike we could hear the river rushing to our right. Everyone was super stoked to get on some rock but as we got down to the boulders we discovered that the dam was opened so therefore most of the boulders were covered in water or just completely wet. It was a little disappointing after the beautiful hike but luckily there were some more boulders back up the trail. The downfall was that we had to hike all the way back and past the vans to get to the boulders called Cotton Hill. When everyone had gathered round, Tim pointed out somethings to be cautious of, mainly poison ivy. Then let us loose. Most of us started out on some easy V1s and V2s. Then we split a little and started working on other stuff once completing a project. After climbing a few hours many sat down and ate to build up energy to climb some more. After another hour we were called back to the road to move on to some more boulders. This time we took a short hike up a hill near the parking lot to get to more boulders. Everyone split up into little groups to go climb and discover. Towards the end half the group ended up at a cave with a couple different problems in it. It was sweet to see people climbing in a little cave you could barely stand up in. This was the end of our time in WV. We gathered everyone together and headed back to the van for the ride home. Everyone was pretty quiet on the way back. It had been a great day of bouldering.


Getting to the top of Cotton Hill.











Working in the cave Hanging in the cave











Joel needs a license to
carry those guns. Putting the guns to the test

Hocking College Climbing Competition

The 5th annual Hocking College Climbing Competition took place on Saturday March 1st, 2008. Preparation started the Wednesday before by the Outdoor Pursuit staff. The route setters were Tim Rice, Joel Yott, Mark Hofmeister, Tim Osterfeld, and Shay Rosser. There were three placements, beginner, intermediate, and advanced as well as a pull up comp and dyno comp. On March 1st the O.P. staff who were working or climbing came in and finished setting up shop for the competition. At about 9:00am climbers started to trickle through the doors with excitement on their face. As more and more climbers and on lookers arrived the noise level increased and you could just see the electricity from the amount of energy that was in the room. 10:45 rolled around and Joel got everyones attention and read the rule list off. Then it was time to see who was the lucky person that got to go first. One by one names were written down by the three judges, Joel, Tim, and Shay. At last at 11 o'clock am the climbing competition finally began. The first event to take place was the climbing. The noise level once again grew as fellow climbers and on lookers were cheering on their friends and family. When every one had climbed every route in their grouping it was time to move on to the pull up competition and the dyno competition. More cheering on and yelling happened as people tried their strength at the hang board. Lastly was the dyno comp. This was interesting because there were so many people at the base of the wall attempting and sticking these insane explosions of power. After 30 minuets of screaming to stick a dyno everyone turned their paper in for a quick score count. The entire competition results are as follows.









CLILMBING:

Adcanced:
Men:
1st Tyler Hanak
2ndTodd Wenkam
3rd Eric Dahlstrom

Women:
1st Jamie Rice
2nd Courtney Grimm

Intermediate:
Men:
1st Lewis Aden
2nd Elliot Marquet
3rd Zach Hart

Women:
1st Abie Loebich


Beginner:
Men:
1st Erick Fisher
2nd Kevin Maille
3rd Dustin Whyte

Women:
1st Lauren Mahfey
2nd Jill Dershaw
3rd Julia Schnider


PULL UP: Brought to you by The Pedaler and Packer
Men:
Tyler Hanak
Zach Hart
Elliot Marquet

Women:
Jaime Rice
Abie Loebich
Courtney Grimm


DYNO: Brought to you by Wild Mercantile, Ltd.
Men:
Tyler Hanak

Women:
Abie Loebich

Well done to all the climbers and a special thanks to the Sponsors of Hocking Colleges 5th Annual Climbing Competition.
Sponsor's:

Wild Mercantile, Ltd
The Pedaler and Packer
So Ill Holds
Project Holds
Revolution Holds
Kuhl Clothing
Mountain Hardwear
Rocky Boots
Joshua Tree Products
Benchmade Knives
Solution Rock Gym
Papa John's
Ramono's Pizza
Lowe Alpine
Krogers of Nelsonville
Rock and Ice Magazine
Sterling Rope
Walmart of Athens
Tammy's Country Kitchen
Asolo
Nicros Climbing
Moose Jaw
O'bettys
Bagel Street Deli
The Coffee Cup Restaurant
Pizza Hut
Hocking College Book Store

What an Event! - By "The Hoff"

On Saturday March 1^st, 26 individuals from the surrounding Athens area came to show off their climbing talents and abilities. What a day it was! As the climbers began to show up, stretch and study their routes, the hard working Outdoor Pursuits staff was making last minute checks to make sure that they were ready to put on the best Climbing Competition Hocking college has ever seen. The advanced climbers begun climbing their warm up route as the intermediate and beginner climbers continued studying the routes and began stretching to climb the best and hardest they have ever climbed.

The climbing competition was very exciting. Climbers were pulling down on holds and twisting their bodies into crazy positions, to successfully get through a move. Wow! Some of the moves that the climbers were doing were making participants hurt just watching. It was an awesome event. The competition was very tight for each division making it very interesting and exciting to watch each climber try to get farther than the other. The climbing on that Saturday was really rad! As the climbing slowly starting coming to an end people began to compete in the chin up competition. You get one go, how many can you get. This was definitely exciting seeing people push them self to get just one more chin up in, to maybe win the event. The adrenaline was definitely pumping during this event.

As all of the divisions began wrapping up their last climbs and the chin up was coming to an end the O.P staff began tallying up the scores to find out who were the winners in each division. The beginner division ended up having a tied for third making a climb off, which was a cool twist to the competition.

The Numbers have been added the places have been decided and it was time to give away the prizes. As the winners began receiving their prizes the look on their face was awesome. The prizes for the competition I do have to say were really, really sweet. They came climbed their hardest and for some walked home with free, sweet gear. What a great event. After all the prizes were handed out, their was still one more competition that we had in store for the climbers.

The dyno Comp!! The climbers were ready, excited, and pumped to through their bodies as high and sideways as possible to grab a big hold and hold on for dear life. What an event! This was very exciting and crazy to watch. Some of the climbers were able to stick some very hard dyno’s that as a staff member didn’t expect anyone to get. Peoples bodies were all flying everywhere but you know inn a safe manner though. What a day! After handing out the dyno prizes people begun to show their gratitude of the event with plenty of thank you responses, coming from climbers and spectators together. Everyone seemed satisfied and so did I. What a great day and successful Climbing Competition that in my opinion will go down in the books as one of the best the school has seen!