It's been a busy last few days! Jess and I have climbed a lot this past week as the weather has been gorgeous! The Red River Gorge is an amazing climbing destination. We have climbed at a different, high-quality crag every day, and we still haven't even been to the most popular walls yet!

The past two days are good example of what climbing is like here. Yesterday we went to the Left Flank, which is one of the more popular walls. It is still spring break season, so there are a lot of people here. The Left Flank was pretty busy, so after one climb we decided to pack it in and drive a few minutes up the road. What we found was amazing! Beautiful, pocketed stone, the most overhung 5.12 I have ever seen (it was SICK), and, best of all, no people!!! Today, being a little tired from the overhangs, we decided to find some climbing that was a little more vertical. We headed to the Muir Valley at around 10 am, and were the second car to show up. We hiked down to the Tectonic Wall and hit up a couple of pumpy moderates to warm up, and then headed across the valley to one of the many high-class areas in the region, The Sanctuary.

I had planned on getting on an easier 5.12 there, but after looking at it, I decided against, and decided to throw myself on a 5.13a/.12d?, called Triple Sec, which follows a beautiful orange wall for 95 feet, and also already had draws hanging, so I could bail if need be. With Jess' patient belaying, I slowly figured out the moves and, resting at many of the bolts, finally made it to the top! I definitely will spend some more time on this five-star route over the next couple of weeks and try to climb it clean! After her epic belaying, Jess deserved some sweet climbing, so we headed over to the Indy Wall, which is just around the corner from the Sanctuary. Jess got on Makin' Bacon, and red-pointed it on her second try of the day!

On a different note, Jess and I have gone completely red-neck, and now have a Coleman Kitchen, and walls for our canopy. Life is COMFY! The next couple of days look as though they will be a little wet, so hopefully we will stay dry under the Kyle castle of nylon.

Rest Day #1

Today was our first real rest day (we actually have something to rest from!), and we decided to check out a local sight, Natural Bridge State Park. As you may have guessed, the main sight is a rather impressive natural stone bridge. Apparently, this area has been a park for around a hundred years, first as a stop on the railroad that ran through this region. All things told, it is definitely worth checking out if you are in the area.





The hard to photograph bridge.




Jess checking out a cave on the descent trail.






Also, being a rest day, I finally took some pictures of camp!












Jess hard at working making a biscuit breakfast!

The coleman oven... that's right, we are old, married... and prepared to eat great food!

We had more rain yesterday, but managed to get a couple not-so wet climbs in. Today, however, is beautiful! We decided to hit up the Playground wall, in the Pendergrass-Murray reserve, which is about ten minutes from where we are camping. The Playground wall has routes from 5.9-5.12a and was a good introduction to the climbing here. My “warm-up” was an uber-pumpy .10b that left my forearms screaming! After that I tried a .12a that wasn’t quite as pumpy and on my second try, got it down to one fall… maybe next time! The day went downhill for me after that as I got back on the .10b, “ Jungle Gym,” to put up a top rope. I had to take at least twice! Oh well, I suppose after a couple of weeks endurance will return…

Yesterday, we also continued to set up camp, feeling very domestic in our pop-up canopy and string lights! Pictures will soon follow!

We made it!!!

After a month and a half of dealing with re-entry hassles (and some quality family time), we have made it to the Red River Gorge! Our first day has been pretty rainy, but I guess that is a blessing in disguise as it has allowed us to get all of our stuff organized before we start climbing.

Jess and I will keep this Blog up-to-date over the next couple of months and will be our way of telling all of you what we are up to!