Friday (no lizards seen): After leaving Baltimore in the hot, sweltering heat, we rolled into Seneca Shadows without incident at quarter of ten at night. The rain started as soon as we got out of the car and we were left to set up my aging, crotchety tent in a steady rain. Of course, as soon as the tent was up and we ensconced damply inside it, the rain quit and did not start again all night. At this point, Amy started to make pained sounds and complained of excruciating shoulder pain. This did not bode well for climbing, but we decided to sleep and see how things looked in the morning.

Saturday (one lizard seen): Indeed, in the morning things seemed a good deal better. It promissed to be a nice day and the rocks were just peaking out of the usual morning fog. Amy's injured shoulder wasn't as bad as it had been the night before, but we still intended to climb easy stuff and see how far it could be pushed. After a hearty breakfast (poptarts and dried fruit), we geared up and headed out. Up the stairmaster and to the base of Humphrey's Head. Two groups were setting up shop there, so we headed around to the east face in search of Lady Elaine (5.4). Our plan was to climb Lady Elaine and hop on the second pitch of Old Ladies (5.2).
After quite a lot of fumbling around in unfamiliar territory, we scaled the Lower Broadway Chimney to a start which matched, more or less, the book description of Lady Elaine. Up a white chunky wall about 30' to a small ledge with the first decent pro I'd seen all day. I was sweating bullets at this point and headed off to the left and up through a dirty, vegetated chimney (with much better pro) to the bellay station at the crest. Turns out this was NOT Lady Elaine, but a rather contrived route which shares the same start but spends it's upper half on Up and Coming (5.4). One of the aforementioned groups (the group of five from Ohio, four of whom had never climbed before) was there working on the second pitch of Old Ladies so further progress in that direction looked slow in coming. Amy came up commenting that her arm was feeling pretty good, all in all. The weather was becoming less clement and large grey clouds had rolled in from the northwest.
While the Old Ladies traverse heads out across the east face of the Cockscomb, the pinacle itself is split by a deep, narrow chimney (Cockscomb Chimney 5.5). I checked it out and it looked like climbable rock. We moved the anchor around and Amy belayed me (with pack on) into the chimney. Indeed, a narrow fit with some good pro; an interesting route to a place I'd never been before. I was going wild in there and had moved up a few moves in the body-width chimney when the wind kicked up and it started to rain lightly. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, I turned around and rappelled off an anchor thoughtfully provided by the Ohio group (who were still traversing) back down to the west side of Humphrey's Head.
Meanwhile, we ran into Tony Barnes, local guiding luminary and current compiler of the Seneca climbing guide. We chatted a bit and my rack was dubbed "a good medium-sized rack" which left me quite glowing. While chatting with Tony, around the corner came George Chapman and Bill Januszewski from Baltimore and their friend Carol from Connecticut. The weather cleared, we ate a bit of lunch and headed off to climb an old favorite, Le Gourmet.
Le Gormet (5.4*) is an excellant climb, one of my favorite at Seneca and at this point, I've lead the first pitch often enough to have a good idea of where the pro goes. After the first traverse, I was working on the vertical corner when all across the valley ran a loud, English accented voice yelling "Caroline! Can you move a bit to your left? That's it, good! No put your foot in the small depression there..." and so on. Combined with the unmistakable voice, the tiny ball-capped head up at the top of the second pitch could be none other than Richard Weller, a Pittsburg climber we had met at the last CCC. I climbed on placing gear left and right listening to the growing epic overhead. Upon reaching the ledge, I met Victoria, Richard's sister who was bringing up the rear of their trio and introduced myself.
Amy was brought up by the time Victoria had cleared out and we proceeded up Front C (5.6*). Front C is another of my favorites, which probably doesn't deserve it's rating except for one committing move on it's slight overhang. It's always tempting to clip the battered remains of the orange TCU that resides there, but I slotted a similar peice nearby and pulled the bulge. The rest was an easy traverse up to the place where Old Man's comes across and several other climbs all intersect. Again, Amy came up with little trouble besides removing a small cam. We debated our options and finally decided to top out on the last pitch of Old Man's (5.2). Though the rap station there was in continuous use, we managed to top out without being stood on and then rapped down hungry for dinner and comfortable shoes.
The Front Porch/Gendarme--post-climb mecca of pizza, beer and tall tales--wasn't too crowded at 6 when we rolled in, but became so after a few hours. We had eaten when George, Bill and Carrol arrived. No soon had we joined them than Richard and company came by and were introduced to all. Rain and a spectacular lightning display started up and the party became mirthful. George discussed (and demonstrated) a few methods of bringing Amy to Ecstacy (5.7*, etc), Carrol described in brilliant detail a student exploit demonstrating statics and balance, and a lovely time was had by all. To my surprise the next people up the stairs were none other than Jason Burton, Kentucky climber extraordinaire and his wife out for a non-climbing vacation before school started again in the fall. Small world indeed!

Sunday (no lizards seen): After psyching myself up all day Saturday, Sunday was going to be the day of hard climbing! I felt good about my placements, the weather looked great and Amy's shoulder wasn't bothering her too much. It was time to assault Greenwall (5.7*)!!! Once again we geared up and headed out up the stairmaster. Bill, George and Carol were hot on our heels out to climb the fearsome Banana (5.6*) followed by Gunsight to South Peak (5.3).
Greenwall is easy to find; it's the tall, blank slab covered with neon-green lichen on the west face of the south peak. The route itself is in four pitches up a prominent north-facing corner almost directly to the summit. The crux occurs in the third pitch where there is a bit of a bulge to pull. George had solmnly loned me a huge Camalot for the occasion saying, simply, "here, you'll find this useful."
The first pitch is a short climb up a left-leaning corner about three feet wide like so many climbs at Seneca (Front C, Le Gourmet, Candy Corner, etc). I lead up to the crux upon which I discovered no holds on the slightly inverted white rock that I felt terribly comfortable with from the sharp end of the rope. Instead, I slotted a nut held in place with a fixed piton and stepped right across a very looooong, committing step to the next flake over. Technically, I was off-route, but I was more concerned in husbanding my strength for the upcoming third-pitch crux. The going became much easier and I was soon setting up an anchor on a wide ledge (the second, traverse pitch). Meanwhile, George had successfully lead Banana and Carrol was having a fun time on that last move.
Amy reached the part where I'd had trouble and, after a few attempts at going the direct route, decided to follow me around the corner. Being of shorter (though shapelier) legs, she had a hard time of it! After a bit of unladylike language, she finally resorted to tarzanning over to resume the climb. When she reached the ledge, we determined that the score was Greenwall 2, us 0. We would back off and try something else. Never-the-less, traversed over and back and got a good look at that third pitch with it's crux half way up and resolved to try it again at the first oportunity. I lead across the broad but exposed ledge to the left and we rapped off the Banana rap tree.
Next, we tried to get on Conn's West (5.3) but it was occupied by a quartet of novices. Thais (5.5) was vetoed as being too ambitious on an injured shoulder, so, finding Le Gourmet unoccupied, we again climbed it. I spent the time of the first pitch really working concertedly at placing pro; bomber and a lot of it! No sign of Richard and the girls this time. I had been intending to follow the second, third and fourth pitches of Le Gourmet and get to the summit, but when Amy got up, we both were feeling pretty low energy and elected to call it a day. Down we rapped and headed for the swimming hole. On the way out, we again ran into Tony who confirmed that it was indeed a high gravity day.

All in all, it was a very nice weekend of climbing and socializing. Not as ambitious or strenuous as I had hoped, but given the circumstances, not too bad. Both of us had a chance to really hone our rock-craft and get more confident. Next time (Sept, 2000), I will attack the rock with vim and vigor once again!

Rock On!

Neithernor