Steven and I made the long drive down to the New, arriving after 1:00 am on Saturday morning, and set up camp.  We awoke to frost on the ground but blue skies above.  It turned out to be a warm day, for which I was very glad as I changed into my formal wear in a nook somewhere along Endless Wall.  Pictures finished, I changed back into climbing clothes, rubbing off the lipstick on my sleeve from a fear of looking ridiculous.

First up was my lead of Fantasy (5.8) which was scary at the bottom but enjoyable otherwise.  Later I led Grafenberg Crack (5.9-), my first 5.9 lead on gear.  Grafenberg Crack was cruxy but overall wasn't as bad as Double Crack (5.8) which I had led at the Gunks the weekend before.

Sunday was drizzly so we headed to Kaymoor with John and Mike, friends of Steven's.  I led Rico Suave, my first clean 5.10 sport lead and Steven got on Totally Tammy.  Then we walked over to the White Wall where John started working on Almost Heaven (10b).  Steven and I were left looking at a bunch of routes ranging from 5.11 to 5.13.  My eye was drawn to Thunder Struck, a 5.12b that starts on a low-angle block for the first three bolts.  With nothing else to do, I started up it.  The ramp was as fun as it looked and then the climbing got harder (but not as hard as 5.12).  I tried going straight up to the fourth bolt, then I tried going right, then I tried going left.  Finally, feeling like I had to at least take one fall before I could give up on it I committed to the moves on the left and came off in a nice swinging fall that ended in a bump just above the ledge where the ramp meets the vertical wall.  Luckily I had instinctively picked my feet up when I started to fall and the only damage was a bruise on my butt where I connected with the pointy edge of the ledge.

I felt like I might be able to get the move with a second try, but I thought John would run up and clip the fourth bolt for us and I could try it on TR, so I came down.  Steven and I then turned our attention to Almost Heaven, which was hard and fun, while John went up to the third bolt on Thunder Struck.  When he got there he declared that I was crazy to have taken that fall and came down without even trying the move.  I was disappointed not to have a second chance at it, but then I figured that I had a 5.12 "project" to "work" on my next trip.  (Ha!  but maybe someday . . .)
 

Monday played games with us, first drizzling, then clearing.  We got in some bolt clipping at Summersville before the rain started again in earnest with me sticking to more reasonable 5.8s and Steven pushing himself on harder routes.  Then, with a forecast calling for three inches of rain and possible snow overnight, we brought the trip to an early end and started the long drive home.

I woke up Tuesday to eventually realize that I hadn't changed any of my clocks, explaining why the drive home seemed to take much less time than the drive there.  Oops.  All in all, it was a pleasant trip with a lot of interesting highlights and some very memorable pictures to prove it.