Seek info on Champe, WV

can anyone give me advice on access and route descriptions at Champe, WV? What part is on public land? What water conditions are appropriate for the approach (I have an old Mad River Malecite)? Does the crag start at the water, or is there a hike/portage? Can I camp at the cliff, or is it daylight use only? Where are the put in and take out? Can you recommend any routes for the less good leader? Feel free to email me singletaryjim@yahoo.com.

I think you might want to give the Seneca Rock Mountain Guides a call about some of this beta, or alternatively the Gendarme. I think of Seneca as a "wild" place-- I can't imagine what Champe would be like.

the most climbed route at champe is a 5.9, and a stout one that involves a very weird offwidth from what ive heard. also the access is suuuper tricky and weird. Needless to say, champe is not exactly the best place for the "less good leader"

hell it makes seneca look like limestone from what i've heard about all the loose rock...

I can't speak to access currently, as I climbed there in 1975 and 1976, but it wasn't all that loose on the single climb that was being climbed at that time, the neat 5.9 spoken of above. Don't know if there
were any other routes, but that was the standard route at that time.

steve, thats still the standard, and really one of the only routes i hear of people dealing with the access to go to champe to do...from my understanding, the little route exploring they've done there has led them to just a bunch of loose and rotten rock.

talked to a buddy of mine at work about it this afternoon, and he said the guys at SRMG would be the best to talk to about it.

I did the classic 5.9 route mentioned above around '84 - I forget the name of the route. Getting dragged up it was an early initiation to the area. The issue was pretty much just getting permission from a land owner to cross their property so you can ford the creek. Fording the creek might have been the crux for me, but that will normally depend on time of year and water flow. Canoe access will depend on water flow, though I can't honestly say where you'd put in because it's been a while. The stream is also fished a good bit so watch out for fishermen. The routes do not start out of the water, they're a good bit uphill as I recall. I guess you could camp there but unless you want isolation it's probably more sane to car camp at the normal Seneca facilities. I recall the climb being sort of obvious on the second (eastern) fin, west face, and the mental crux a long layback up a wide section which should be easily protected these days. Three pitches then, probably could be done in less. I thought it was quality and a good adventure, certainly for the Seneca area. A number of bolted or mixed lines were put up in the area later.

Psychotic Reaction is the obvious 5.8-5.9 line in the middle of the west face of the east fin on the south side. It's wide but you don't really do it as an offwidth.

You can put in at the swimming hole at Seneca and take out just below Hopewell Canyon where the river gets very close to the road. It's class 3 at most. Not so much fun at really low water levels and doable pretty easily in high water levels if you are even marginally competent in a boat. I am sure there are other options but those are easy and obvious.

It's about an hour walk from the river to the cliffs depending on where you go. I've usually approached from the right side looking up to the cliffs from the river. Long pants are a good idea because there are large fields of stinging nettles near the river. You could bivi at the cliff but I don't recall any obvious good spots.

All the easy routes will be dirty and covered in lichen. Nobody goes there to climb the easy routes so expect loose rock as is typical of any crag in the area that isn't picked clean like Seneca. If you get hurt, it will take a very, very long time to get help in there. I would say it is a horrible idea for a not so good leader to try to climb there without guidance. If you are used to climbing at the undeveloped areas in the North Fork Valley, it is no big deal and there is a huge amount of climbing to do there.