Red River Gorge Kentucky trip highlights 06-18-2010 thru 06-22-2010
This trip is the first in quite a while where we've been able to go to The Red with a large group of friends. Planning began a while ago and while some were unable to fit the trip into their schedules, we missed the presence of others who could not. Nine of us arrived in three cars at various times during the day/evening on Friday.
Sasha (climbing), Bob, Molly, Adam

Bob, Sasha, Lynne, Carmen, Adam, Molly 		Lynne, Joel, and I left mid morning, arriving in time to get in a couple of climbs at Torrent Falls before heading to True North Inn as the light faded and at about the time Bob and Sarah arrived. Molly, Adam, Carmen, and Sasha all arrived around midnight.
The weather was hot and humid (as expected) and looking at the weather radar Saturday promised a thunderstorm, so we decided to go to Muir Valley's practice wall, which has an assortment of easy to moderate routes and stays dry in the rain.
Joel, Carmen

Molly 		The storm must have dissipated as we only receive only a light sprinkle and after working all of the climbs of interest at Practice Wall, we moved to The Great Wall and climbed some more challenging routes, including Dynabolt Gold, Edge-a-Sketch, and Momma Cindy. Carmen had little difficulty with the bouldery start of Momma Cindy, but it nearly shut me down, taking me several ugly tries before I was able to move onto the route.
Sunday, we returned to Muir Valley and spent the majority of the day at Johnny's Wall and Techtonic Wall, but with only a couple of hours of daylight left, we finished at Inner Sanctum as Carmen wished to get onto on her project, Psyberpunk.
Adam

Lynne 		Following the long day of climbing, we returned to TNI to shower and relax with beer, wine, cheese, and crackers before dinner.
Adam, Carmen, Sarah, and Sasha planned to return on Monday afternoon, so we made plans for an early start and some climbing at Global Villiage before they had to leave. Global Villiage has one of the best long, dead vertical, single pitch, easy (5.6) sport routes - Eureka.
Sarah

Sasha 		After the first group's departure, we continued to climb and clean the two trad routes which Carmen had led for us (Father & Son and Vision), but as we were finishing up on Vision, another storm moved in quickly and we just managed to get all of our gear down before it began to rain.
Soaked from hiking in the rain, the weather forced an early end to the day and so we went to TNI for a shower before heading to Miguel's for dinner. The heat and humidity, along with the climbing had been taking its toll on us as we all decided to go to bed early after a short game of Scrabble at TNI in which Molly severely beat Bob and me.
Bob

Joel, Tom 		Tuesday was Lynne, Joel, and my last day and as Joel was excited to climb Overlord, our remaining group went to Phatasia. Even with the heat and it being a weekday, the wall was crowded with people. Overlord was as good as ever and Bob overcame some previous anxiety about both it and Lord of the Flies before we waited for a party of four to finish up on Pogue Ethics.

This trip was a much needed break from our currently hectic life and we thoroughly enjoyed sharing it with everyone who joined us. We are looking forward to more good times in The Red...