New River Gorge Easy trad lead recommendations

A few routes listed here: mountainproject.com/v/heade…

Nathan Flaim wrote:I'm going to throw in a note of caution if you're traveling there for the first time. I'll start by saying that Seneca is truly an amazing destination and many of my best days have been had there. However, It is a complex place to climb. The layout of the crag is very 3D. It is a fin of rock oriented roughly north/south. North peak and south peak each have an east and west face. Just navigating to the base of whatever climb you choose may be more time consuming than you anticipate, so plan accordingly. Although some of the easier routes do have bolted anchors at the top of the first pitch, many do not. This means you'll need to do a second pitch or more to reach a rappel route. If you are a brand new trad leader, I'm guessing you have little if any experience in multi pitch climbing. (If this is erroneous, I apologize). Lastly, the grades at Seneca are just different than at other crags in wv. I'd recommend starting a full two grades easier than what you're used to to acquaint yourself with the rock and nature of the grading. I'll make a brief plug for the two excellent guiding services at the base of Seneca rocks. A half day with either of them will buy you an excellent orientation to the crag and some excellent instruction in trad and multi pitch climbing Happy climbing.

Hi! Sorry I missed this earlier. Thanks for your insight! I actually took my intro to lead course at Seneca earlier this year, so I am familiar with the guiding outfits at Seneca, and I think they are excellent. I'm hoping after spending a bunch of time out west practicing these skills to cut my teeth on some of my own leads to start gaining more confidence in my own skills. I'd love to hear more about what you think I should be practicing before I head back out there or should review.