Ohio
Ohio still sucks1. That is all.
West Virginia
Bouldering
Nuttall Sandstone is bullet hard and lacks crazy features found in softer stone. Reportedly it’s conducive to hard bouldering2.
I didn’t really get all excited about the river bed bouldering in the New River Gorge3 until someone pointed out that these boulders are really, really, epically old. The New River system is probably second only to the Nile in terms of age. The boulders exposed by damming of the river have been underwater for a long, long time.
The locals are doing an awesome job in the development of bouldering areas. Cleaning, making trails, figuring out circuits, etc. A new guide book is in the works and there are thousands of problems to include.
To circuit the NRG bouldering you have to be willing to drive and hike in between all of the areas, possibly visiting 3 or four spots in a day. Once you start to get an idea of how the loop road that drops you down into the gorge works, it’s a lot less irritating.
The New in the winter is beautiful. I can’t imagine how good it must be in the fall and spring.
Weather
West Virginia weather is notoriously unpredictable. I got hammered with record lows, snow and rain. I only got 3 sessions outside of the 7 days I was there. I did however have two great night sessions with mild evening temps.
