First taste of NC

Well, my first taste of this trip anyway. I climbed in Linville Gorge with Eric, Bobbi, and Bev a couple years ago and had a great time. So far, I've climbed at two areas I hadn't been to before and had a great time at both.

But, before I get into that, I promised some pictures from my last couple days at the Red.

Jason belaying Jana on Fuzzy Undercling (5.11a). A strong lead! I was tired at the end of the day and didn't get much past the first bolt on TR.


The beautiful dihedral of Cheaper Than a Movie (5.8). Cool route, with some pretty strenuous laybacking, but great rests.

So Friday, I drove to Asheville, did some laundry, and camped out in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I was surprised but he number of RV's, vans, etc. camped out there. There must be a whole sub-culture there I didn't know about. Anyway, Saturday, I drove to Chimney Rock, and met Kent to climb at Rumbling Bald. We did three routes at Cereal Buttress, then went to the Comatose area, but most stuff there was wet. We ended up top-roping a 5.11a slab route that I'm not sure of the name of. It was fun and I felt pretty good on it, despite a couple falls. I took about a 10 foot lead fall on Frosted Flake at Cereal Buttress. The route ascends easy climbing to a roof, which you traverse out, then goes up a flake with a 3" or so crack. I pulled around the roof into a layback, moved up a few feet and got a piece in, moved above my piece a ways, and my left foot spit out. Oops. :-) It was a good, clean fall, and I got right back on it, and finished it out. Fun climb!

Here are some pictures from Fruit Loops (5.7, also at Cereal Buttress, if you couldn't guess).


Looking down the first pitch.


Looking up the second pitch chimney.


Looking out from the top at Lake Lure (I think).



A waterfall in the distance (near Chimney Rock, I think).

Apparently, Dirty Dancing and Last of The Mohicans (I think) were shot in this area....

Anyway, Saturday night we drove to Laurel Knob. Kent had never climbed there before, but wanted too. We drove up the steep, twisting mountain roads and got to the trailhead camping area well after dark. Kent set up his tent, and we both grabbed some food and hit the sack, preparing for an early rise in the morning, since the approach can take 1.5-2 hours, and the climbs are long.

Our objective was Groover, a 6 pitch, ~900' 5.8. We knew there was another party that was going to be on it, and they left 20-30 minutes ahead of us. When we got there, they were still leading the first pitch, and moving pretty slowly. Kent led the first pitch, and then we sat for a long time at the belay. After the other party started leading the third pitch, I started the second. I finished it, establish a belay and waited about 20 minutes before the other party's leader finished the next pitch. This had to change if we were to have any chance of hiking out in daylight. I talked to them and they agreed to let us pass at the third pitch belay. I led the third pitch and shared the other party's anchor, brought Kent up and led out on the 4th pitch. Of course, after asking to pass the other party, I had to make a fiasco of it. You climb up high and get a piece, then down climb to where you can cross a water groove (running with water), then climb over to another water groove, which you climb up. Crossing one of the water grooves, I lost my balance and took a little fall. I was basically on TR off of the high piece, but there were several feet of slack out that Kent had not taken up. Anyway, it was no big deal, and was easy to get back on, but I felt stupid. Then, I climbed to wrong water groove (because it had a crack with gear, which seemed like a good idea to me, since my last piece was like 30 or 40 feet away). I started up it and got a few pieces in before Will yelled to me that I was going the wrong way. So, I had to down-climb and traverse (with no pro) back to the correct water groove. It was easy climbing, but the gear was extremely sparse. I missed the belay ledge and climbed to the end of the rope, then had to down-climb to a decent stance. All this after we had passed the other team. Boy, did I feel like a dufus. Oh well. They didn't seem to mind. I finally set a belay and brought Kent up. I was a little flustered, but he was very positive and was not bothered with what I considered to be a poor performance on the pitch. So, that made me feel better. I took the next pitch, which continued up a crack system then traversed across a slab to a bolted belay. It had some runout and committing sections, but wasn't too bad. I also led the final pitch, which was quite a fright-fest. I traversed a slab to a water groove, which I worked up a bit, getting one questionable piece in (20-30 feet out of the belay), then continued up the groove, finding no gear. Before long there was a sopping wet section that I didn't want to try to pull through unprotected (and with one questionable piece far below me), so I pulled out of the groove, onto the face, and looked for gear potential. I saw something I thought would take a #3 Camelot and climbed toward it. It was flaring garbage. I placed a #3 with 2 lobes making good contact, and two completely tipped out, because it was that or nothing, then continued up to a crack that took a bomber number 4. What a relief! Gear I could trust! No more fear of a 100 foot factor 2 whipper (if neither of my pieces held, which seemed likely)! Yikes. More poorly protected slab climbing led me back to the water groove and easy, but runout climbing to the anchors. Wow. I was done and lived. Awesome. Six miserable raps, with the rope inevitably falling down groove after groove running with torrents of water, getting completely soaked, got us back to the ground. There's nothing like rapping on a soaked rope with your rappel device wringing cold water onto your groin. At least it was a warm, sunny day. I got back to camp as final light was fading. Kent was about 20 minutes behind me. I made chicken stew for dinner and Kent was grateful. Hot food and cold beer. Yum. Checked the weather and forecast was for 70% chance of rain over night, and 80% chance today, and cold, with highs in the 40's. They were also calling for a 50% chance of rain, Tuesday. Kent decided to head back to Charlotte, and plan to meet up with me again Wednesday, when it is supposed to be nice again. I need the rest anyway. My fingertips are shredded from over-gripping on sharp granite. What a great adventure.

Here are some pics.

The first pitch goes to the tree. It's further than it looks. The tree is huge.

The second and third pitch follow the crack system behind the tree. The fourth pitch goes around the corner at the top right (I think).

Looking down from my second pitch belay at two members of the other party (of three) at their second pitch belay, and, in the distance, Kent, at the first bitch belay.

Kent coming up the water groove of the final pitch.

That last pitch made my hair stand on end. Kent, you could have told me my hair looked like that, and I would have put my helmet back on for the picture. :-)

Route List for 4/11-12:

• Fruit Loops (2 pitch 5.7 Trad) (Onsight)
• Granola (5.8+ Trad) (Onsight)
• Frosted Flake (5.9+ Trad) (Led with one fall)
• Unknown 5.11a bolted route in Comatose area (TR)
• Groover, Fischesser Finish (6 pitch, ~900' 5.8R Trad) (Followed pitch 1, Led pitches 2-6)