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