New River Gorge, WV

The weather forecast seemed to be good for this weekend, and many climbers headed towards the New River Gorge to spend some time climbing outside.

On Friday, after having some bad luck with a flat tire on the highway, we arrived quite late at Summersville lake. This was not enough to discourage us to climb a few lines (finishing the last one with a headlamp) at Whipoorwhill before going to set our camp at Chestnut Creek.

The next day, we went to Bubba city with a couple of other Pittsburgh climbers, where we climbed almost every single route that we found until we were exhausted. A good dinner set us ready for a good night of rest before Sunday.

On Sunday, we went to Endless Wall to enjoy some really nice trad and sports climb until mid-day, when it was unfortunately already time to go back home.

-S. Clerc

Grand Cayman Islands

CMU explorers who went: Josephine Palencia

We stayed at the Morritt's Tortuga Resort (nice). I dove with the very professional Ocean Frontier's dive shop while Neda got certified with Red Sail.

Dives done: Did a total of 20 dives (josephin), 6 dives (neda) in over a week.

Grand Cayman east diving is mostly ~100 ft great wall dives on one side
(shoulder) then plunges into the abyss on your other side/shoulder.

Neda got certified and did 4 check-out dives, the Kittiwake wreck, and the
Stingray City dive. All of my dives start at 100ft or so followed by
60-80ft dives. I dove each one for over an hour so averaged about 4-5
hours of diving/day.

We rented a small car for ~ $200/week.
A great diving vacation. Would love to return there again.

Below are the dives. (*favorites)

Dive - Depth - Duration
1. Babylon Gardens - 100ft - 1hr
2. Club Hole - 67ft - 1hr 10m
3. Pat's Wall - 100ft - 1hr
4. Maggies Maze - 60ft - 1hr
5. Scuba Bowl - 100ft - 45m
6. Light House on the Prairie - 65ft - 1hr 10m
7. Eeny, Meeny, Miny Mo - 100ft - 1hr 5m
8. Frand Sound Gardens - 41ft - 1hr 10m
9. Turtle Pass - 100ft - 45m
10. Cinderella's Castle - 65ft - 1hr 5m
11. High Rock Drop-Off - 100ft - 1hr
12. Ironshore Gardens - 65ft - 1hr 10m
13. Andy's Wall - 100ft - 1hr
14. Eagle Ray pass - saw 2 eagle rays (mate) going towards the abyss - 100ft - 1hr
15. Kathleens' Reef - 82ft - 1hr 10m
16. Split Rock - 80ft - 1hr
17. Sunset Reef - night dive: cool with UV lights - 21ft - 1hr
18. Stingray City - 12ft - 50m
19. 3 Sisters - 100ft - 1hr
20. The Arch - 70ft - 1hr 10m
21. Kitiwake wreck - 60ft - 45m

-J. Palencia