NICHOLAS COUNTY, W.Va. (WOAY) – Every spring, while many take time off to rest, a growing group of climbers head into the woods, not to send routes, but to make sure they are accessible for years to come.
It’s called Not Work Week, a tongue-in-cheek name for one of the most labor-intensive weeks of the year hosted by the New River Alliance of Climbers (NRAC). Volunteers gather to perform trail maintenance, build retaining walls, and prevent erosion in some of the region’s most heavily trafficked climbing areas.
“We call it Not Work Week because we have so much fun that it doesn’t even feel like work,” said NRAC president Matt Carpenter. “It’s a major trail project or erosion control project, and it is to prevent erosion in climbing areas as the sport gets more and more popular.”
This year’s focus has been stabilizing a heavily eroded slope near a popular climbing wall, where years of foot traffic have stripped away vegetation and left only mud. Without roots to hold the soil in place, the area had become hazardous, not just for the land but for belayers standing at the base.
Volunteers are building crib walls, backfilling them with rock and soil, and redirecting traffic to more durable pathways, all to keep the hillside from sliding further.
Each stone they place is more than erosion control, it’s a promise to leave the land better than they found it.
Now in its tenth year, the effort has expanded dramatically. This week alone, volunteers tackled over a dozen retaining walls, replaced life-saving hardware, and improved the trails for the mountain state’s newest state park, all by hand.
“As these climbing areas get more popular, we’ll do projects like this to give everyone a nice place to hang out and then section off other areas for revegetation and regrowth,” Carpenter said.
“Because it’s our duty as climbers to not only just take care of what we’ve had, but I continue to take care of what will be,” volunteer Red Aylor said.
As many of the regions’ most travelled climbing destinations sit on private land, user groups like climbers find themselves acting as stewards, caring for the land to preserve what is here for years to come.
“It just feels good to give back and take care of the land that we’re using and the land we care so much about,” one volunteer said.
“This area will be fixed. It’s going to revegetate and repair all the trampling that’s occurred over decades,” Carpenter said.
For those who utilise these lands and cliffs year-round, seeing the land heal is what it is all about.
“We are just giddy at the end of the day, you know, we’re beat down and tired, but we’re just so psyched to be doing awesome stuff like this that no individual can do by themselves,” Carpenter said.
“You know, I come out here, I use these lands a lot. So I feel like it’s just good to give back and I can do that pretty easily by just giving my time,” another volunteer said.
In a place known for its sandstone cliffs and sweeping views, it’s the hands in the dirt that often go unseen. But without them, the paths wash out, the roots collapse, and access disappears.
As the sport grows, so does the responsibility, and the best way to protect the cliffs we love is to tend to the ground that holds them up.
To support or learn more about the New River Alliance of Climbers and their work, visit https://www.newriverclimbing.net/.
