Meet the patient we climbed for on Seneca Rocks

This was our first climb of this striking rock feature in West Virginia for Laura Cerda. Our team of 5 wanted to make the attempt together but we only had time during the winter break. The weather looked to be acceptable, only slightly cold, misty and rainy, but the climbing difficulty was well within our limits. However, for 2 team members, this was their first multi-pitch climb.

We first warmed up by climbing the highest point in West Virginia, Spruce Knobb. This is not really a climb since you can practically drive to the summit, but it was still great for the imagination because there was lots of mist, we were listing to scary stories on the drive and we came upon a great white faced owl in the middle of the road and it really almost looked like a ghost.

The following day we made our way over to the base of the climb, not sure of the conditions and the difficulty, but once we saw it up close we felt we could tackle it.

All the while we were climbing for Laura, from the UK! We made the climb without much difficulty, but just a little slowly given we had 5 people on our team and 2 of the novices to multi pitch. We made it to the summit, but by this time it was very misty and we couldn’t see a thing! But the journey is just as important as the view.

With a few delays on the descent, we ended up repelling in the dark. We were so relieved to get back to the car, and warmth.