Question: What is the difference between a female raft guide and a load of laundry?
Answer: You can put a load in the wash and it won't follow you around all season.
Question: What is the best thing about West Virginia?
Answer: It's not Ohio.
This season I am guiding at the New river and working at Waterstone. The above jokes are ones that a fellow climbing guide told me one day.
I would like to take this time to share some of my guiding experiences from the season so far.
Was doing a short rappel mission with three clients. The female in the group went first and was fiddleing with a small canister before she went down. I tied her off and asked if I could hold something for her, her response was, "no! I have to spread my son's ashes." So, she spread them in the breeze off the top of Bridge buttress into the faces of about 15 young Appalachian Bible School campers. May her son rest in peace with those children of the Lord.
Ok, July 4th weekend. Took out two young brothers (19 and 20) who were on vacation with Mom and Dad and were getting into climbing. The trip is coming to an end and I am at the top of the cliff breaking down the rappel talking to another guide; they are at the bottom waiting. While in the process of coiling my ropes, the guide next to me tells me that a guy fell and hit the ground and we need to get down ASAP. Got to the bottom acessed the situation and found that the climber was soloing aroung 5 guided groups and about 30 other climbers. Well, me clients witnessed the incident and SPLIT. I had to chase them down. When I asked what happened they said the climber did not have a rope and he fell from the top of the cliff (Zag 5.8) hit the ledge at 15 feet and bounced 20feet into the brush.
I would like to end this blog with a recent portrait of myself kickin' after sending at route at the Meadow River called "B-52." (Yeah kids, I still got it.)
