Trip Report - ECP Mountaineering School. By Sid Wiesner.

I found this buried in my harddisk. This was my first time climbing at Seneca and my first multipitch or trad climbing. I was new to Pittsburgh, and decided to join an outdoors group, and somehow got myself involved with the crazy climbers. This is the trip report from the first outing, the ropes checkout, for the Mountaineering School at Seneca Rocks in October, 2003.

Now where are they? I rechecked the directions and my watch - almost 10pm. Another slow crawl around the Princess Snowbird campground, and I saw the same thing: fake teepees with glass windows, cabins, and one fun-loving group with a large outdoor bar. But no Mountaineering School.

I took a quick nap, and woke up as a couple trucks rumbled past. I met Mark and Brendan, two students in the school, and we set up camp as more people trickled in. More introductions and then we called it an early night. Of course I had trouble sleeping. Dogs howled to each other in the distance, and every time I neared the promised land of sleep, black walnuts smacked the ground with a loud PLOP that startled me just enough to wake me back up. I could do nothing but roll over and try again.

Morning arrived too soon and I stumbled out of my tent red-eyed. The view of Seneca Rocks and some hot soup helped me get moving, and my nerves helped even more. I had very little climbing experience, and today was going to be my first trad climbing experience. Jittery was the word of the day.

I was teamed with David Micklo and after a fast hike up the Stairmaster, he explained the basics. Then we headed up Humphrey's Head. "Heh, this isn't too bad!" I thought to myself. The weather was beautiful and I was starting to enjoy myself. We descended and headed over to start another climb. Both Old Ladies and Old Man's Routes have blended together in my memory, and both were a little crowded. I remember the traverse on one of them had my pulse pounding, but the summit view afterwards was great!

On one of those climbs, we got stuck behind a very slow group of student climbers from Maryland. After two or three pitches behind them, both Dave and I were frustrated. We skipped the last pitch and headed instead to Critter Crack. He grinned and said to be ready for a challenge. It looked only 20 feet high, but my freshly minted 5.2 climbing skills could not see too many holds. Dave laced up his climbing shoes and warned me that he might fall. Very reassuring. But he zipped up the crack pretty quickly and then it was my turn. I felt wooden and clumsy for the first couple feet and struggled for every hold. I looked down one time too many, and I tasted fear for the first time that day.

"Is it normal for my legs to twitch like this, Dave?" I yelled to him. I slipped but managed to catch myself. Dave shouted words of encouragement, and I struggled upward. I was really digging deep into the crack and had good scrapes on my forearms now, but I was close. OOPS! Slipped again, but Dave had the rope tight so I only fell a few inches. Just five more feet and I pulled myself over, grinning tiredly. My legs continued to buzz.

Before I knew it, it was 5pm. We headed to the Porch and grabbed a big table while we waited for everyone. Pizza, pasta, sandwiches, and beer all around, and then down to the Gendarme to swap stories and continue the festivities. As it got darker, we got sillier. Excitement from the night included burglar alarms, perverse traverses, urban climbing, and some shaving. Good wholesome fun.

Another sleepless night for me and another early start. I was teamed with Brad Johnson on Sunday, and we headed up to Candy Corner. I really enjoyed the climb but caught myself several times being distracted by the views. When I got to the top, there was already a group coming in from another climb onto the next pitch. So we decided to rappel down. As I handed the gear back to Brad, we noticed that I had missed a biner which had been clipped to a piece of thrashed discarded pro.

We decided to climb a route right beside this and we could get the biner on the rappel. But Jenn and Mike T were taking their sweet time on the route, so we headed back to Candy Corner and reclimbed it. This time up was harder for me. I got stuck at one point and it took me a few minutes to find the layback that had been so easy to spot the first ascent and I was starting to feel pretty worn out. However, I made sure I did not leave anything behind.

We then headed for Dirty Old Man, ate a quick meal, and tried to avoid the loose rock falling from a nearby route. One large chunk hit a rock 15 feet away, ricocheted in our direction and whizzed by less than three feet behind Brad's head. He did not even notice until it hit the ground on the other side. "That was close!" he said, but he had no idea!

I was tired and struggled up the route, and then we decided to call it a day. I felt the lack of sleep starting to take its toll and decided to make a run for Pittsburgh before I crashed hard. It was a beautiful weekend and I learned and climbed just enough to make me want more.