Week 12: The mid-atlantic is crowded September 19th

Things aren't what they used to be. And by things... perhaps I mean my own temperament.

I have recently gotten a request from a Mountain Project user Nate Miller who wants to start to learn some aid techniques. Apparently I know how to aid climb and would be able to teach someone. So to make sure that was actually the case I went down to Great Falls VA to do some solo aid climbing and brush up on some of my long rusty (no pun intended) aid skills.

I never expect Great Falls to be quiet... and on a beautiful September day my worst fears are realized. It feels like an ant hill as i drive in and see the swarms of people. And not just hikers, but every kind of climber as well.... boy scouts, parents with 9 kids (we only had 8, geez) guided camps... and of course, one pitiful aid soloist looking for 30 feet of rock free from the swarm.

Of course the route I am looking to do... appropriately called the aid crack, has with sticky rubber and years of piton use, become a very popular 5.10 free climb. There is a line halfway back to DC at the base.

I manage to find a 9 to TR a ways down the river... and eventually get back and get on the crack. The aiding is as tedious and painless as i remember. I meet another solo climber and we TR the crack and then put up a rope on PVO. PVO (Potomac Valley Overhang) is a 12d roof problem with awkward moves through the roof and teeny tiny crimps after.

At the top of the aid crack

All in all good climbing.... but the crowds and atmosphere remind why I do get out and climb... and it is certainly not the day i had today.

A Helicopter rescue?

Increasingly it is not the quality of the climbs that draw me to the sport... but the quality of the experience that surrounds the climbing experience. I am still convinced that this sport fosters a good experience, but at times.. and certainly in the crowded Mid Atlantic... these experiences can be challenging to find.