About Water Stone Outdoors
Water Stone Outdoors has anchored the corner of East Wiseman Avenue in downtown Fayetteville, West Virginia since 1994. The shop describes itself as a home-town operation with a national reputation, which is fair: its owners helped develop and document climbing in the New River Gorge long before the area became a national park.
The floor covers climbing hardware, ropes, shoes and chalk, camping and backpacking gear, apparel and footwear, plus the guidebooks and local route information that are hard to find anywhere else. They rent gear as well, which matters for visitors who flew in or are trying climbing for the first time and do not want to buy a rack before they know they like it. Staff climb the local crags themselves and will talk through conditions, access and which walls suit a given grade and forecast.
What keeps people coming back is the local knowledge. Fayetteville sits on the south rim within minutes of Bridge Buttress, Kaymoor and Endless Wall, and the shop functions as the informal information desk for the whole gorge climbing scene. It is also the usual first stop for anyone planning a weekend of climbing, hiking and paddling and wanting a straight answer about where to go.
