The Land That Time Forgot: Seneca Rocks

Seneca Rocks, West Virginia

Wild Flowers and the West Faces from our campsite

As usual, I'm a couple months behind in reporting my adventures.  It's pleasing to look back at this trip, three months later, as it is now mid December and cold rain has been falling outside for days here in the ADKs.

Crossing through West Virginia reminded me somewhat of home.  Lush, rolling, green mountains, rushing rivers and streams, seemingly endless wilderness.  The September air was hot, humid and thick, though.  Autumn's cold nights and changing colors had already signaled summer's end back home.  In West Virginia summer was still in full effect.  A steamy sunset welcomed us to the Mountain State.

We arrived at night to pitch our tents at Seneca Shadows Campground, directly across the street from the rocks themselves.  Just down the hill from our site was downtown Seneca.  This consisted of a general store, the Gendarme climbing shop, and a restaurant called the Front Porch.  Seneca Rocks was simple and quiet, a nice escape from the busy tourist season of Lake George I had subjected myself to at the pizzeria where I worked.  The locals moved slow, talked slow and I found most of them unusually friendly.  There was an exception though.  One of the older men that worked nights at the general store didn't ever say much and hardly acknowledged that I was standing in front of him trying to purchase something.  He always seemed to have that "you ain't from around these parts, boy" look on his face.  Thoughts of the movie Deliverance filled my head.  For me, this only added to the charm.

Matt leads Pleasant Overhangs

On to the climbing!  I don't wish to bore anyone with a recap of every day we spent at Seneca (seven) or every route we climbed (a lot).  I will say that we climbed each day we were there.  Despite two massive thunder storms, that flooded my poorly pitched tent with gallons of  rain water, the rock remained magically dry.  Seneca is very steep, hard rock, and sits high above the forest in the wind.  The formation has east and west faces that align almost perfectly with a compass.  These factors all worked in our favor to be on clean, dry rock everyday.  The photo above is my partner Matt leading a traverse out under the massive roof of the route Pleasant Overhangs.  The position of the belay was ideal to take photographs.  Above, the route continues up a slightly overhanging corner system with large holds and solid gear.


Summit of the South Peak

 

The summit of Seneca Rocks is unique to the east coast.  It is basically a knife edge, with a drop of two to three hundred feet straight down to the talus on either side.  While the summit ridge is extremely exposed and caution must be taken there, it does afford a wonderful panoramic view of the surrounding area.  Both Matt and I concurred, a bad ass place to be.

View of the town and beyond

The Southern Pillar from the Cave

Within Seneca Rocks there are multiple climbing areas.  The photo above depicts the Southern Pillar, which is separated from the main formation by Roy Gap.  My second favorite route of the trip, Climbin' Punishment can be found here.  I was able to link the first two pitches together in an all out effort.  Every piece of gear I had on me went into protecting 200' of hand jamming and continuous roof pulling up a beautiful left facing corner system.  A couple moves shy of the top out ledge I was at yet another overhang, running out of gas and completely out of cams.  I poorly placed a micro nut that definitely wouldn't stop a fall.  I looked down ten feet to my last piece and wished for a second I hadn't tried to run the two pitches together.  Too late for that nonsense though.  I went for it.  Got my feet up high and reached for something good with my left hand.  I found something, not nearly the jug I wanted but just enough for me to hold onto and get my right leg up and over the lip.  I stood up exhausted, heart pounding as I clipped into the chains and relaxed.  It is moments like this affirm our love of climbing and make us realize that sometimes when we dig deep and trust in ourselves we can overcome anything.  I belayed Matt up.  He cruised the route in his usual fashion.

Classic Butt Shot - Climbin' Punishment

http://www.mountainproject.com/v/seneca-rocks/105861910

Only a 5.4 to the summit

Seneca's grades seemed stiff.  Similar to Gunks.  Where most seem a little bit harder than they say that they, are and some just seem laughably sand bagged.  West Pole, my favorite route at Seneca is rated 5.7+.  I won't say much more about it, besides, if you find yourself at Seneca climb it.

The picture above is Matt getting ready to lead Gunsight to South Peak.  The route is one of many under 5.5 that can get you to the summit.

There is also plenty of harder stuff too.  Crazy inverted sport routes in the cave, extreme face climbs, and some cracks in the 5.10 range.  By the tail end of the trip I decided to try leading a crack climb, Pollux 5.10a.  One of the classics.  I got totally spanked.  Painful finger jams and delicate feet with a brutal pump.  Make a move, plug a piece, hang, repeat.  I was able to somewhat redeem my ego with a top rope tough guy send.  Once again I was reminded of a familiar lesson - being able to do the moves and being able to protect the climb on lead are two completely different things.  The good news is that there is a goal waiting for me when I go back.  Climbing is often like that.

Castor on the left, Pollux on the right

 



In closing.  If you find yourself down at Seneca in the summer months chances are you will be hungry, and the skies will open up with a massive thunderstorm.  If both these occur at the same time I highly recommend grabbing a bite to eat at The Front Porch.  The view and the food are outstanding, and also extremely affordable.  Sitting under the covered porch with a big pitcher of sweet tea and a huge plate of comfort food watching a powerful thunderstorm was one of the most memorable moments of the trip.  Nature is a so powerful and beautiful.  And all storms eventually pass.

 Great photo Matt!