Ginley on Kaleidoscope at The Drive-By crag.

The Red River Gorge is a stunning area consisting of long beautiful routes that give a whole new meaning to the word “pump”.  The area houses an abundant number of classic sport and trad lines, with a handful of boulder problems.

Best Time to Visit

• The best time to visit this is the Spring and Fall with ideal temps being in the 60’s (Fahrenheit) and below.  Plan on rain during your visit.

Guidebook

• The guidebook for the area is “The Red River Gorge: A Rock Climbing Guide Book. 2007 2nd edition” by Ray Ellington and can be purchased at Miguel’s.  New routes and areas, such as the La Bibliotech Wall, are listed online on the RRC site.

Camping

There are two main places were climbers camp: Miguel’s Pizza and Lago Lindas. Both have great access to crags, located at opposite ends of the Red.

• Miguel’s Pizza – Cost is $2 a night to camp (for tent or car).  There are showers, in little wooden shacks that are naturally decorated with cobwebs, and cost $1.50 per 5 minutes.  Food is available, at reasonable prices, as well as a climbing shop for any items you might have forgotten at home.  As a solo traveler, Miguel’s is the partner solution as crowds of 50+ visit each weekend during high season.  The downside to Miguel’s is the noise, especially on weekends. Also, there are only 2 bathrooms, a problem I hear that will be addressed this winter.
• Lago Lindas – Cost is $5 per night for car or tent, but includes a shower.  The facilities are a lot nicer with heated restrooms, with three stalls each, and a nice indoor shower.  The area is a lot quieter, due to the fact that population of campers are a little older (older in this case meaning 25+) and there are a lot of couples.  As a solo traveler it is definitely still possible to find partners, but you might just be a third wheel.

Food / Drink

• Grocery Store: The closest grocery store is Krogers in Stanton, 10 minutes west of Slade on the Mountain Parkway.
• Restaurants: I must admit that I only ate at two restaurants during my month stay in the RRG, and the only one I will really suggest is Miguel’s.  Everything I tried was delicious, but my favorite pizza combo (that was thankfully introduced to me by Ginley) included the toppings of chicken (or bacon), avacado, cilantro and tomato.  Yum!
• Alcoholic Beverages:  I thought Utah liquor laws were strange, but I think Kentucky might rival us.  Kentucky counties are either dry or not, dry meaning you cannot buy any type of alcoholic beverages.  I kid you not.  Miguel’s, the main climber hang out, resides in one of these dry counties.  Luckily it borders a non-dry county and so a beer trailer is about 5 minutes up the road on KY-11.  Prices are reasonable.

Personal Hygiene

• Showers: Showers are a non-issue when in the Red as they are completely accessible if you camp at Linda’s or Miguel’s.  However, if you stay at Miguel’s, which has the outdoor shack showers, you can go for a real shower at the hostel.  The hostel is located off the next exit on the Parkway with showers costing $3.  Note that the hostel has extremely odd hours.
• Laundromat: The closest laundromat is in Stanton.  It is located just down the adjacent street from Kroger’s and is open 24 hours.  Note that for some odd reason they don’t sell laundry soap.  I don’t understand why they choose to miss out on this revenue generator.

The Red River Gorge Coalition

• The Red River Gorge has a superb coalition, something I truly wish the Salt Lake Climber’s Alliance would emulate.  The RRGC is on the pulse of what is going on in their climbing community and is actively raising money that is directly used to buy crags, allowing permanent access.  Donations can be made on their website or by attending the annual Rocktoberfest.  If climbing in this area, please consider donating to this cause!

Other

• Theft: Theft is a problem in the Red.  Do not leave anything of value in your vehicle at the crag; rather keep these items in a vehicle back at camp.
• Torrent Falls Registration: Only a handful of climbers are allowed in Torrent Falls on a daily basis.  In order to climb there you must register the day of climbing.  Registration opens at 6am, is open Thursday through Sunday and can fill up quickly.  After registration the screen prompts you to print the page, but you can write the details on a sheet of paper if a printer is not accessible.
• Dogs: Two climbing crags do not allow dogs: Torrent Falls and Muir Valley.  Torrent is lax about the rule, as long as you call Dr. Bob (the owner of Torrent) prior to climbing.
• Snakes: There are two venomous snakes in the area, the most prevalent of the two being the copperhead.  The snakes are docile but will bite if you (or your dog) gets too close.  They have been seen on trails, underneath crags and in the cracks on route.  Also, there were two big (4 foot) snakes (non-copperheads) lingering at The Dark Side this year.
• Transportation: If you stay at Miguel’s, you can completely get away with not having a vehicle and still being able to get to the crag.
  

Sites of Interest

• The Natural Bridge – a natural arch located in a state park across the street from Miguel’s.  Very beautiful and makes for a good run on a rest day.  I did the Balance Rock trail, which is quite steep, but there is another trail that is more gradual in vertical gain.  The Balance Rock trail from Miguel’s door to door is probably 3.5 – 4 miles (I think).
• Keeneland Horse Races – Definitely fun!  They are located in Lexington which is an hour drive from Slade.  Races only run in April and October (I believe).
• Bourbon Tours – I did just the Wild Turkey tour (which I thoroughly enjoyed) but there is what is known as the Bourbon Trail that takes you to each of the distilleries.  I hear it is pretty cool.
• Snake Zoo – Everyone seemed to mention the snake zoo at the rest stop, but I heard it was closed and forgot to personally check.  Might want to check it out if you are in the area.

If you have been to the area and have any additional beta (or see a mistake in mine), please feel free to comment.

Yet, even with the traumatic climbing accident, I noticed that when I drove away from the Red I had nothing but good memories. And though I am really glad I am taking some time off from the rope for a bit, I am excited to return to the Red to climb many more of its abundant classic routes at some later date.

The Red River Gorge icon is of course Miguel’s Pizza. It is well known in the climbing community and rightfully so. The camping is open only to climbers, drawing in crowds of 50+ climbers each weekend during main season. The food is fabulous and the location superb for climbing access. As a solo traveler it is the place to hang out to find climbing partners.

The mornings were especially beautiful with the brightly covered tents glistening in the frost. There were three areas for tents, all of which would be packed on the weekend. I was in the main area and the neighboring tents were literally inches away.

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Ginley prior to hitting the RRG. He was extremely kind and showed me a good number of highlights of the Red while introducing me to a crew of folks. Here he is climbing at The Gallery.

The Red houses the largest number of strong climbers I have ever seen in one location. It was not uncommon to see Chris Sharma, Lisa Rands, Alex Puccio, etc hanging around, plus all the locals were incredibly strong, It truly seemed like the average RRG climber was crushing 5.13. At home I am stoked if I hop on one 5.12 a week, but at the Red 5.12a is a warm-up. I tried to keep up to pace, one week ending up working on 10 5.12’s, but the result was me just being worked all the time. Pictured above is my friend Nick, who currently resides in Montreal, climbing at the MotherLode.

One of the numerous classics is Buddha Hole, a climb divided into three sections by two large huecos. Pictured is me coming out of the first hueco and into the crux section.

This climb is so fun and harder than it looks as those plate-like features aren’t as good as one would hope. The moves are big and dynamic and it is just plain out enjoyable. Pictured is Eva-Lyn.

One of my favorite days climbing was at the La Bibliotech wall. The wall consists of all 5.11s with a couple 12’s and one 10. I went with a crew to focus on getting in some mileage and working on onsighting. It was one of the few days that I felt quite comfortable on the rope and got in 7 really fun pitches. Thanks to Elliot who took this picture. I wish I would have actually worn matching clothes that day. Oh, the life of living on the road. =)

As I previously mentioned, the falls are BIG in the RRG. One friend had to cut his rope after a day of climbing because he had taken so many big falls that day. This video is Zach taking a practice fall off Kaleidoscope. On this climb it is common to skip the last draw as it is impossible to clip, but the run to the anchors is still a good 10+ feet.

Part of climbing at the RRG is constantly being on the lookout for snakes. Within my first three weeks of being at Miguels, three dogs were bit by copperheads. This one bit a friend’s dog and was sitting under a climb we had all been working. I was especially nervous of the copperheads because I doubt CB could survive a bite.

I usually just worked on my rest days as I am fortunate to have a job I can work from the road. But on occasion went to check out many of the local sites. This day was particularly fun as Lynn, Gary and I went to see the Wild Turkey distillery in Lexington. It was one of the coolest tours I had experienced as nothing about it was tailored towards the tourist. They simply gave you a tour of their facilities, in its rough and rugged nature. Plus hanging out with Lynn and Gary, both currently Utah residents, was hilarious and exactly what I needed on this rest day.

I lingered in the Red one additional day so that I could check out the Keeneland horse races. I am so glad I did because the experience was one of my favorites. Everything from the diverse crowd to the classy nature of the event to the races themselves was intriguing. I attended the day’s races with a fun crew consisting of Andy from the Czech Republic, Lena from Russia and Tom from Germany. Tom is literally a traveling carpenter with his carpentry apprecenticeship requiring him to travel three years away from home prior to going back to school. On this day, he had worn his attire that distinguished him with his trade.

The best thing about the Red River Gorge was the community of climbers. I became friends with a group of French speakers, some from Canada and others from France, and hung out with them quite a bit, especially my last week. Sandra was one of my favorite people I met. Just seeing her made me smile.

I hung out with David, from France, quite a bit my last week. He was a great friend to me after the accident and I greatly appreciated his support. He did, however, strongly dislike my dog.

Last but not least, is the tradition of adding in a photo of my little one. My friend Elliot took this picture and it might be my favorite picture of CB.

Overall, my time in the Red was superb. I met lots of great people, I climbed many real fun routes, I saw some of the local sites, I had lots of time to think and of course I enjoyed some of the best pizza in the world at Miguels.  Surprisingly one great take-away from my time there occurred the day of the accident. I cut ties with my family a year ago and this past year I have always believed it to be one of the best decision of my life.  After the traumatic accident my initial reaction was that I needed to call someone close to me while also analyzing the relationships in my life, immediately knowing which broken relationships needed mending and which did not. I thought about my family, and I immediately still felt vindicated with my previous year’s decision. This confirmation was actually quite nice.  So when I went back to Miguel’s I instead called my good friend Shaft, who was the perfect listening ear to my sobs.

Overall, great times in the RRG.

The Accident
We were climbing the climb Ro Shampo at the Roadside crag in the Red River Gorge.  Ro Shampo is a 5.12a, so a potential project for me but above the current limit of my climbing partner that day, Marcy, whose forte was traditional climbing.   We had ran into some folks I knew who were working Ro Shampo and so we asked if we could join the crew.

I did one top-rope burn on Ro Shampo and thought it felt do-able but didn’t feel real confident leading it yet.  I wanted to top-rope it one more time and Marcy decided she wanted to top-rope it as well, so our friend lead with our rope and the plan was for Marcy to do a burn before I did another burn.

The climb is really steep and as we started to pull the rope to a top rope, Marcy said that she would climb in the middle of the rope as she feared she couldn’t clip back into the draws after climbing because it was so steep and a hard climb for her.  Her thought was that by climbing in the middle of the rope she could then clip in the trailing end of the rope, allowing the rope to be set up through the quickdraws for when I top-roped it.  I had never seen someone climb in the middle of the rope on a one pitch sport route and so was confused with the mechanics of it, inquiring how it would work.  She explained the aforementioned which made sense, so I put her on belay.  She seemed confident with this system so I assumed that she had used such techniques in her trad climbing.  When she got to the last bolt I was confused on how everything would work out at the top, so started talking to her again.  On this climb there is a bolt right under the anchors, protecting one last dynamic move, and we were talking about her clipping the trailing end through just that bolt and leaving her lead top rope through the anchors.  But then she said she was indirect and that she was ok, so I assumed she knew how to set it up so everything worked properly.  She then said “take” and I did.  And she fell, taking the 60 foot fall to the boulders below.  It was horrific!

I looked up at the rope and I saw it going through the anchor.  I looked at my device and everything was threaded correctly through my gri-gri,  but my partner was laying on the ground bleeding profusely.

What happened is this system of climbing in the middle of the rope is exactly comparable to trailing a rope up a climb.  At the anchors one usually goes indirect and drops the initial rope (to avoid confusion) and has the belayer go to the other rope (which the climber is already tied into).  In this case, she had done the exact thing as trailing a rope, but when at the chains had clipped her line through the anchor draws, meaning the only thing between me and her was the draw keeping her indirect.  However, she never said to take her off belay and switch side of the rope, so I didn’t.  She must have forgotten to check to see if the rope was taut because if she had checked she would have seen it was not.  Her system could have still worked if she hadn’t clipped through those anchors or if she had switched out only one of the draws with the trailing line or even put up more draws.  I didn’t know what she was doing though because she was the climber at the chains and I was on the ground.

It can be confusing without drawing out the system we were using.  Here is a graph from Rockclimbing.com that shows the set-up.  When my climber clipped the trailing end through the anchors, the only thing between her and me was the draw keeping her indirect at the chains.

How to Avoid Such a Scenario
1)    Keep it Simple – The main confusion on this day was the fact that the climber was climbing in the middle of the rope.  Though it is the same as trailing a rope, it is much more confusing.  In this scenario the climber was worried about being able to clip the rope back in for a top rope.  We should have had her trail a rope or adjust the climbing rotation so a leader was one again before the top-roper.
2)    If Unfamiliar with A Climber’s Technique, Don’t Belay – I was not familiar with the middle of the rope technique and so relied on my climber’s knowledge of the mechanics of the system. If a person doesn’t understand how the whole route is going to be done from climbing, clipping to cleaning, that person should not belay.  Or the whole system should be explained prior to anyone climbing.
3)    Always Check to Make Sure the Rope is Taut Before Coming Off Indirect – This is such a basic rule of climbing.  Before ever unclipping oneself from the chains, one should check to make sure the rope is taut and the system is working properly.  Only the climber knows what he/she has done at the chains and should check to make sure the system is still working with any changes that were made.

Update on People Involved
1)    The Climber – Marcy is real broken with injuries including a broken back, hip, leg, wrist and a shattered pelvis.  She has had a couple surgeries and will be in the hospital for a bit.  Her spirits, however, are superb.  In fact, we both think she is doing mentally better than I am.  The last time I chatted with her she was hilarious, talking about how much fun we had climbing the day prior to the fall and how I should come hang out with her if I didn’t feel like climbing.  Plus she has had her friends call me to get out climbing.  Such a nice gesture, but I wasn’t ready to join them yet.

Marcy keeps insisting that I need to forget about the fall as she states that she made a mistake at the chains.  Whew, easier said than done!  I not only am still struggling with the image of the fall, but as the belayer I feel that I should have been talking to her more to ensure everything was being done properly.

2)    The belayer – I was the belayer and am doing ok.  I tried to sport climb two times after the accident and it was simply horrible, with me crying on route both days.  It seems that my fear is in the system and its ability to work, even though I know the accident occurred from human error.  I guess I get nervous because when she fell I remember looking at the system and everything looked correct, yet my friend was on the ground.  It took me a couple minutes to realize what had happened.  So, when climbing even though everything looks correct, I am nervous on route.  My last route in the Red River Gorge was a 5.10c (what I would usually use for a warmup) that I was unable to finish because I was too scared of moving past the bolt.

I am currently in Boone, North Carolina bouldering.  The bouldering here is superb and it feels nice to get back on the rock and actually have fun.  Yet, I still can’t get that image of the fall out of my head and I think about it even when down climbing a boulder problem.  And though it is fun to boulder, I still somewhat long to go home and hang up the climbing shoes for a bit.

3)    There were three witnesses directly involved, a girl and a guy from Quebec and a guy from France.  They are all doing well and back out climbing.  I am in Boone with the guy from Quebec; the girl from Quebec is bouldering in Rock Town and the guy from France is still climbing in the Red River Gorge, but heading back to France shortly.

Last thoughts
One thing that really bothers me is how many similar stories I have heard!  I have had at least 11 close friends (many of which are completely experienced climbers) tell me they had been in an accident where someone decks and I heard numerous more stories while at the Red (at least 10 more stories).  The most amazing thing is I have yet to hear only one story that resulted from gear failure, instead human error usually being the cause.

Hope all you readers are well.  Be safe and remember to double check everything.

On Monday, October 13th I went climbing with a girl who I had met here in the Red River Gorge.

I was her belayer as she top-roped the climb Ro Shampo at the Roadside Crag.

The story is complex and includes errors from both of us.  Regardless, she ended up taking a 60 foot fall from the chains, landing on the below boulders.

It was horrific.

She is doing better and is in the West Virginia hospital.  She has numerous broken bones and needs surgeries, but will definitely live.

I am more emotionally stable today than the last three days, but feel completely lost in life.

Something positive needs to come from this incident so I am going to write about it later, explaining our errors in hopes that lessons of safety can be implemented.  And to remind all readers that climbing is dangerous.

I hope all you readers are well and safe.

The drive seriously consisted of a day and a half spent driving the very straight  I-70.  I actually got pulled over in Kansas for speeding (oops!) but was lucky enough to get a warning.  I must admit that the warning did keep my speed in check for the whole rest of the drive.

The first couple hours outside of Rifle were probably the most beautiful and spent winding through these mountains.

I happened to pick the best Colorado rest stop to walk CB as up on the hill were these mountain sheep.

My travel mate.  He he he… check out that tongue!

The beautiful Kansas sunset after the most torrential storm.  The hail hitting my windshield made me really wonder if my windshield was going to break.  To be honest, I called Shaft to see if he had heard of any tornadoes sweeping through Kanas.  Um… there weren’t any… but the storm was amazingly intense. =D

After 1,000 miles on I-70, I saw this sign. I was so ecstatic that I would soon be exiting I-70,  that a quick picture was mandatory. Yet I was so tired of driving, I was very tempted to go to Chicago instead of Slade, Kentucky.

At around midnight on September 25 I finally saw this beloved sign!  I must admit that a new friend already camping at Miguel’s kept me motivated throughout the entire drive, telling me stories of the fantastic Red River Gorge climbing.  To him, I am very grateful as the drive through Kansas truly is LONG!