Shortly before New Years, I had been climbing ice with a friend of a friend at Overland Falls in Shenandoah National Park when on our way out I ran into a friend of mine Bob Graver, coming up to the falls to climb. Somewhere during our conversation I lost focus on packing up to head out and had left my shell gloves there at the water fall. Luckily, Bob picked them up for me. Since Bob and I live some distance apart (about an hour to be exact) we figured the best and most efficient means of me picking my gloves up from him would be to go climbing together and get them then. About a week ago, I had remembered this and shot Bob and email to see if he wanted to go climbing this weekend (MLK Day weekend). Happily Bob said yes and we decided to head up to the Catskill Mountains for our trip. Last night we finally hashed out a few of the details and figured since it's [sorta] on the way, we'd stop at the Narrows, a group of waterfalls on the side of PA Route 32 outside of Kintnersville.
Today, we met up in Vienna, VA where I left my jeep in a parking garage in favor of Bob's much more fuel efficient Subaru Outback. We left Vienna around 1100 and headed for Fredrick, MD to pick up US 15 toward Harrisburg, PA. From there we picked up Interstate 78 and headed east for Hellertown near Allentown where we picked up the back roads towards Kintnersville. The waterfalls at the Narrows begin just off of the shoulder of PA 32 overlooking the Delaware River.
We pulled into the roadside parking lot, geared up, and started the two minute walk to the main falls which we found we had all to ourselves. Not bad for 14:00 on a Saturday of a holiday weekend! The ice looked solid and well developed. We strapped our crampons on and started walking towards the first set of falls. The ice felt pretty good beneath us and we couldn't here any flowing water (which is a good thing mind you).
The first couple sets of falls weren't that big: maybe 6 or 7 feet tall rated at WI4. Quick scrambling over these made for fast moving and an almost careless attitude for the climb. The next couple sets of falls, however, were starting to get a little taller. The first set over 10 feet I placed a screw not for fear of falling and hitting the ground (I knew I was hitting the ground if I fell regardless of me placing a screw or not) but for fear of hitting the ground, sliding off one set of falls, hitting the ground, sliding off the second set, and, well you get the picture. That is exactly what happened after placing the second screw of the pitch on the second set of falls that was way taller than the ones I first encountered. At this point was at the 4th or 5th set of falls from the bottom of the waterfall all together. I placed a screw while standing at the base and started climbing. I had started to reach over the lip of the falls when my ice tools hit a patch of rotten ice, peeled off, and sent me flying backwards. I fell about 10 feet, hit the ground, slid about 6 feet, fell off the set of falls below where I slid, fell another 5 feet, and slid about 5 more feet before the screw caught me. At one point throughout the sliding I was wondering when I was going to stop sliding and/or falling and what part of my body was going to stop me? At the time I was sliding on my back head first unable to see where I was heading. When I came to a stop I laid on the ground for a minute waiting for the adrenaline to wear off to see what hurt. My legs could move: great. My head and neck didn't hurt: superb. My left arm, however, was howling. I stood up with my legs shaking like shit and waved to Bob. The wind had been knocked out of me so I didn't say anything to him just yet. My arm was shaking pretty good as well. Bob screamed to me, "All you alright?!" which I simply just acknowledge and started to expose my arm. I knew I had hit my arm pretty hard when I saw a bruise the size of my wallet on the backside of my forearm; a feat for someone with complexion as dark as mine is hard to accomplish. I figured it wasn't broken considering the pain wasn't excruciating nor was I screaming. I stood there for a few more minutes shaking out my arm and hand (that all of a sudden started hurting just as badly while Bob was talking to me from the bottom. Apparently when I went out of sight, slack ended up in the rope which allowed my fall/skid/fall. Thankfully, I didn't break my neck or back, nor got impaled by my tools. I picked up my tools and tried out my arm which let me know right away it was not happy by shooting pain up to my elbow from my hand after smacking it against the ice while swinging. Without hesitation I said fuck it and kept going refusing to get injured on the first pitch of the first climb of a 3-day climbing trip. I got to the top of the first pitch, set up an anchor, and belayed Bob as he cleaned the screws I had placed. Bob apologized for the slack which I wasn't really worried about. I was ok and it was a simple mistake that I make all the time. I gave Bob some screamers and a couple more quickdraws and he took off to lead the 2nd pitch. The 2nd pitch started off like the end of the first pitch: a few short leads on WI4 ice that brought you to an amphitheater of WI3-4 ice upwards of 50-60+ feet. By the time Bob cleared the smaller falls and made it to the base of the larger ice, we had run our rope out. Shocked, Bob set up an anchor on a tree of to the side and belayed me up while I cleaned for him. I was moving slow. My hand and arm hurt like hell and I was having a hard time gripping my tool. I had to choke up on my left tool so I wouldn't bang my hand into the ice as I swung which through me off balance as I pulled up to reach for the next move(s). Luckily I made to the top of the 2nd pitch without falling. The main part of the falls themselves were huge offering several different ways to top them out. I decided to rest for a bit a belay Bob while he climbed a couple of them.
After spending about 30-45 minutes climbing the falls to ourselves another party worked their way up to where we were to share into the fun. Bob climbed one more line and then we decided to start rapping back down since it was getting dark and we still had a couple more hours of driving ahead of us to make it to New Paltz, NY. We rappelled off the tree we had been using as a belay and made it to where I had belayed Bob from the bottom of the 2nd pitch when we realized that Bob had left his backpack (and his car keys) up from where we rappelled. We yelled up to the party above us who offered a trade of them bringing the backpack down if they could rap down on our rope still anchored to the tree above. Done deal! When they made it down we decided to join forces (and ropes) in order to rappel all the way down versus rappelling two separate pitches. At this point is was dark and headlamps were in order.
We made it back down to the road, removed our crampons, and hiked back to the car all by 18:00. We got out of our boots and hit the road for New Paltz. I passed out for most of the drive and woke up as we were getting off of Interstate 87 onto NY 299 heading into New Paltz.
We pulled into the New Paltz Hostel, secured our bunks, took showers, and relaxed a little bit. Our bunk mates seemed to be from all walks of life. The guy in the bunk below me, a genuinely friendly and nice dude, seemed to be a rambler in the true sense of the word: from his tattered jacket, dark-green probably-at-one-time blue Dickies barely hanging onto his frame, speckled glasses, and weathered face, he seemed to live out of a bunch of plastic grocery bags he carried around in a small duffel bag. Let's call him John. John, although friendly and very happy-go-lucky, could not grasp the concept of the whisper...which is very important in a hostel bunk-room after 23:00. This characteristic will come back into play shortly. Our next bunk mate whom we will refer to as Jeff was a very happy, heavyset Hispanic dude in his mid-30s who also was incredibly polite and very passive. If he felt he troubled you in any way which included walking in front of your view of a TV with nothing but static on it, he would apologize profusely even after you told him several times it was ok. Jeff also had an issue with either heights or ladders because he waffled back and forth staring at his top bunk before going to the head guy of the hostel to address his issue. Since there were no other bottom bunks available Jeff went back to the bunk-room to conquer his issue with the bed. Upon attempted to scale his bunk Jeff slipped and planted his foot rather hard into the bunk of our third bunk mate whom we will refer to as Jack. Jack, like the other two was a friendly guy with a little bit rougher personality. Now I swore like a sailor and Bob would let out an epithet here and there but as far as anyone else in the building Jack was the only other person who spoke with a coarse vocabulary like I did. Jack was sound asleep when Jeff accidentally stumbled into his bed. Jack sprung up and reacted quickly: "What the fuck is going on!?" Jeff almost had a heart attack and stumbled over the several ways he knew how to apologize as he feared for his life. Jack quickly calmed down and reassured Jeff who managed to get into his bunk with little issue. This was the last we had heard of Jeff for our brief nightly stay there for I'm sure he was mortified by even thinking of trying to get out of his bed and back in until Jack left. Enters John. Our bunk room was sealed off from the common area by two doors suspended from the ceiling on tracks that recessed back into the walls. John managed to bang both doors into walls very loudly, trip over something on the floor, dumb his duffel bag and God-knows how many plastic bags onto the ground, and proclaim, "Shit!" (again in a way that can not be considered anything like whispering) all in a matter of seconds. Again, fast to the trigger, Jack sprung out of bed and screamed, "Ok what in the FUCK is going on in this fucking place?!". John, in a not so subtle voice pierced what little silence was left with a long-winded explanation as to what happened. "Dude, just stop. Just fucking stop and keep it down so SOME of us can get some sleep" cried jack. John continued his doing his thing all the while verbally explaining to himself
everything that he was doing: from looking for his tooth brush to counting his money. For about 20 minutes this went on until Jack finally got out of bed and got in John's face and asked him very forcefully to keep it down or get out. As they stood my head was 4 to 5 feet away from them at the same level. I prayed to got if they started swing I would not get hit with a stray punch or get shot or something. After all, I was already hurting from the fall earlier in the day. Finally Jack went back to sleep, and I fell asleep when John went to take a shower. I woke up a couple times throughout the night to John's tossing and turning, but I managed to get a few hours of sleep after Bob and my first day on the trip...
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