Red River Gorge Climbing
2019
“We should plan a trip to red river gorge…”
Myself and a bunch of climbing friends from BKB wanted to go to Red River Gorge… so we picked a weekend to go, made a Google Sheet to collect info, and will be heading down October 4,5, & 6!
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We left early Friday morning from the BKB parking lot, with 4 cars packed full with friends, climbing gear, camping gear, and whiskey. The drive down to RRG is about 7 hours, which is just long enough to be a tad too long, but totally worth it. We got to the campsite, opened a few beers and set up camp. This will be my last trip with the Woolly Bear, which I will sell the day after we got back. The trailer is so amazing, but I really like the idea of taking that money and building out the Jeep to be a single unit camping machine. I’ll get into that later… We spent Friday night staying up way too late, drinking around the campfire and talking about the usual drunken campfire topics and listening to Playlist Seven. Great times!
Saturday we woke up (too) early and headed to the crag. We chose to climb in the Chocolate Factory area in RRG which is chocked full of 5.9, 10a, 10b, and 10cs. We hiked in about a half mile and once we got to the wall it was tough to find the routes! It took some time to get our bearings and match up the giant rock wall with the guide book photos & maps. There are ~70 routes in this area, so walking down a blank rock face and trying to find the route you want to do is hard! We picked an “Easy sport 5.10a” to start with, which quickly humbled us. We made it up after struggling from bolt to bolt, and eventually became more and more comfortable with real rock techniques.
It was a ton of fun climbing with friends, everyone helping one another learn new techniques and work with new gear. Some of us were leading and setting top rope anchors while others felt more comfortable top roping. Everyone had a great time, learned something, stayed safe, and felt proud of their climbing accomplishments. After hiking out from the crag we were all fully exhausted and ready to get some food, drink a beer and pass out. Which is exactly what we did.
Saturday we climbed:
Grandma Josephine (5.10a)
Grandpa Jo (5.9)
Chocolate River (5.9)
Sugar Rush (5.10a)
Augustus Gloop (5.9)
Throbbing Emotions (5.10a)
Oompa (5.10b)
We were planning on climbing Sunday morning, but the weather had other plans. It ended up raining just as we pulled into the crag parking area, so we headed out early. Stopped in Midway Kentucky and at the Four Roses Distillery. Got home around 6:30 and unloaded, what a great trip!
