First Buttress  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Page Views:  4,107. Good page?    Administrators:  Ladd Raine, Tom Erickson Submitted By:  Jeremy Steck on Jul 16, 2009 Make this area a Favorite What's New   Print a Mini-Guide with routes Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event  Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 86° | 64° 81° | 63° 77° | 46° 61° | 41° 64° | 45°

Elliot funking his way through the intro dihedral

Description 

This area is popular when it's raining....and when it's not. There are some very high quality routes here and if you're not content with these, it's only a short walk to the 2nd or 3rd buttress along the cliff.

Getting There 

The parking is the same for the Main Meadow area (pull off at the top of Underwood Road). From the pull off, hike down the ATV trail, heading left when the first option presents itself as rock begins to appear on the right. Follow this down to the bottom of the hill until you reach the old railroad bed. (If you make a left too early, it's OK, just follow another ATV trail that runs parallel to Route 19 and go under the bridge to reach the old railbed). Once you reach the river, head left, east of Route 19 along the railbed that runs along the Meadow River. Follow this for about 10-15 minutes from this point and keep an eye out for cairns on the left at a small path. Follow this path up the hill until you reach the cliff. The path should lead you directly to Push. If you miss the path you will notice a creepy looking shack on the right side of the old railbed that's covered in orange spray paint. If you see this, turn back or continue a short distance until you locate another set of cairns on the left at a path. This path will lead you to the 3rd buttress. You can walk left along the cliff to access the 2nd and 1st buttress.

The Classics

Featured Route For First Buttress

Cross Eyed and Blind 5.10d  WV : New River Gorge : ... : First Buttress

This route makes a nice warm up for many of the other harder lines at this cliff and it's a great climb. Start is the same as for Lambda but at the first bolt head left and continue to diagonal up and left. Use a long runner when clipping the first bolt on Lambda to reduce the rope drag. The entire climb involves making long reaches to really positive horizontals, many of these horizontals offer great hand jams for rests. Continue to a large ledge under the upper overhanging headwall. ...[more]   Browse More Classics in WV