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KEK
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 10, 2006 - 04:39pm PT
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1.) I just moved from the left coast to the right coast, Chapel Hill, NC to be exact. I know some of you are from the area, so I was hoping you could recommend where to met partners, websites or locals; or if you are interested in climbing sending me an email.
2.) Also what are some moderate routes to start on?
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Aug 10, 2006 - 04:42pm PT
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Try the Carolina Climbers Coalition web site.
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JAK
climber
The Souf
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Aug 10, 2006 - 05:20pm PT
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Goddam, you're only 45 minutes away.
Ok, the bad news - you're on the wrong side (right) of the state. Most of the good climbing is over to the left a couple hours. Nonetheless, if you have a full day to put into it, it's day-trippable.
I'm not familiar with climbing gyms in your area, but you can use your internets to dispatch that problem.
What kind of climbing are you looking for specifically? There are good trad and sport crags all within 2 - 2.5 hours.
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RockMD
Big Wall climber
Arizona
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Aug 10, 2006 - 10:18pm PT
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Hey there. I spent a good portion of my climbing years in the Southeast and highly recommend hitting "Looking Glass Rock" for starters. It's got some awesome multipitch trad lines and some nice single pitch stuff and some fun big walls on the north side. If you're really into hard/fun stuff, check out Whitesides. It's got 10 pitch trad lines starting around 5.12 and going up. Also check out Lynnville gorge, table rock, rumbling bald. All are good and you will not be disappointed. Have fun and if you get bored, head to Chattanooga and hit up T-Wall.
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Aya
Trad climber
New York
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Aug 10, 2006 - 10:26pm PT
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OR on Whitesides is nowhere near 5.12... it's like 5.10 A0 (the A0 being the two draws you can pull on to get you through the one 5.11 move...) It was great!
I really loved rumbling bald, but the eyebrows on looking glass got pretty old pretty much after two routes...
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Blumsky
Trad climber
Winston-Salem
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Aug 10, 2006 - 10:46pm PT
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I live in Winston-Salem and am always glad to go climbing around here. . . there is so much good climbing in this state, it's amazing. Moore's Wall is the closest trad 'crag' to Chapel Hill, but I think of it more as Adventure Climbing, most stuff is two pitches. It is about 30 minutes North of winston-salem. There are tons of trad climbs from 5.easy to 5.insane there, and if you like the occasional sport climb, there are a few, although the easiest one is .12. A little farther down the hill, there is some world class bouldering, too. This place has it all, and it closest to ya. As you go farther west, your options increase exponentially, though.
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Aya
Trad climber
New York
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Aug 10, 2006 - 10:49pm PT
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Agreed... even just the difference in atmosphere from going from one side of Looking Glass to the other is astounding. For whatever reason, I always just figured all the big rocks were up north... but sitting up top of whitesides and looking around, holy #!%$ there are huuuuge rocks EVERYWHERE begging to be climbed!
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blackbird
Trad climber
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Aug 10, 2006 - 11:11pm PT
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Add to The Glass the fact that 1)Laurel Knobb has just been opened to the public and 2) Linville Gorge and other areas right there and you've got a plethera of stellar climbing at your disposal.
I agree with you on the eyebrows, Aya... I was ready to hand the rack over after two or three pitches.
Also, she's right. The bolt ladder on the OR can very easily be aided with long draws. IF you are the one to lead, take a #3 Camelot to aid through the little bit to get to the first bolt. After that, sling the first bolt long for your second (only if they need it) and first and foremost, make sure you win the round of "rock/paper/scissors" so that you don't have to lead the first pitch!!!!
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Aya
Trad climber
New York
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Aug 10, 2006 - 11:20pm PT
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That first bolt is a looong way up
But actually, as the guidebook notes, you can start off to the right and you end up making the first pitch much shorter. However, it ends up being esssentially the same - either do all the unprotected climbing up to that first bolt, and then feel ok, and do the rest of it, or start off and do all the uprotected climbing up to the only piece of pro you're going to get (a cam under a loose-ish flake that will probably blow) and do all the climbing above it... sort of six of one, half dozen of the other. Either way, I've got a sort of TR of the OR here: http://smellabella.blogspot.com/2006_05_01_smellabella_archive.html and actually, there are some photos and ramblings about the other climbing we did in NC...
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KEK
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 10, 2006 - 11:40pm PT
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Thanks for all the great input, and keep it coming: it is helping me to get fired up about being here!
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
St. Louis
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Aug 11, 2006 - 08:30am PT
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KEK, in no time, you'll wonder why you waited so long to get there! The climbing in that area of the country is superb!
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Aug 11, 2006 - 08:43am PT
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BirdBrain, you described tha ankle breaker pitch on the OR with the long sling for second. THat move is quite pullable with no aiding. Some peopel claim that move should still be 9+ instead of 10 b or c, all because a hold right below the bolt went from a two handed jug to a one handed (for guys with meat hooks) hold. I couldn;t say, but if the day is dry then it's not too bad, but if it is damp then it's much harder, and that broken hold is not the factor in make or break.
There are about 3 distinct ways to do the first p of hte OR at WS, the far right, 5.5 or less, takes some pro, the 5.7, to the left of that, and the 5.8 to the left of the 4.7that goes over the old rescue bail bolt.
Anyone going to do the OR shoudl really go with someone who has done it before, the route finding is for real. One of the best climbs though.
You guys don't like eyebrows? Tricams were made for eyebrows, so were zeros and aliens, if the eyebrows are small enough.
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Ultrabiker
Ice climber
Eastside
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Aug 11, 2006 - 08:56am PT
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OR is only 9ish!! 16 years ago, it may have been a little stiffer cause it was full of lichen as there were only a few of us that played on it. Took a 25 foot whipper towards the top when I pulled a 10' block off. The crux move, getting off the deck on one of the longest RO's on the "Sides"!!! Better be a slabmeister to play on this one!
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Aya
Trad climber
New York
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Aug 11, 2006 - 09:28am PT
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This is getting a little OT, but whatever...
And take whatever I say with a lot of skepticism, since I am not a NC climber, and I did OR with a coupld of other NY climbers, so obviously our opinions will be those of out of staters etc....
But...
I guess there are two "crux" pitches on OR - the fourth pitch is the "ankle breaker"; it goes up a big inverted v-shaped thing right off the ledge and the crux is getting to the bolt on it (up by the tip of the v). Absolutely doable, I would still call it 5.10-ish (probably easier if you're taller than me...), and only scary for the ledgefall potential.
The seventh pitch is the 11a pitch - the bolt ladder - 3 bolts, very easy to french free through (although, as I found, a little strenuous if you've got the pack on...)
The hike in was super easy, finding the route was super easy and routfinding was very easy. There was only one time where I was thinking hmm, am I going the right way? And then I pulled over a bulge and the belay ledge was right there - it'd been totally hidden from view. The hardest "routefinding" was locating the first bolt from the ground (and then deciding not to go that way).
We were staying down there with a local climber who couldn't make it with us that day, but he told us that out of staters "always epic" on Whitesides... I don't know... it really didn't seem that intimidating to me. I think all told, we left the car around 9:30AM and got back to it around 5:30-6ish, plus we were a party of 3 so we were a little slow.
And... I don't like eyebrows not because of the lack of gear (I love tricams; I am a gunks climber after all), but because of the repetitiveness. It was just the same move, over and over... plus just going by aesthetics... I prefer a really beautiful line over the choose-your-own-adventure wandering of the eyebrows.
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jager
Trad climber
Raleigh, NC
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Aug 11, 2006 - 09:31am PT
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KEK, the local climbing gym, vertical edge is just inside durham on the raleigh side. Its a decent gym, their routes are rated 'spot on' for the most part. There is also a board with people looking for partners you can checkout. I live in Raleigh, my crew usually tries to hit the gym up on Tuedays and Thursdays, mainly just to get ready for the outdoor trips we tend to take about every weekend. Some times its a day trip to moores or pilot and other times we camp and hit up linville. We are actually in the process of trying to climb one or two different spots in the state a month. Hope to climb shiprock and the glass in the next month dpending on schedules. Sometimes there are just two of us, sometimes 4 or more. We do a bit of everything TR, sport, trad, and bouldering depending on the experience level of the people with us. There is great climbing to be had in NC and it is only getting better thanks to the CCC!
My name is Matt and my email is matty22c (at) msn.com. Hit me up and maybe we can meet in the gym next week, we are camping at moores next weekend (aug 19) for some bouldering on sat and will probably goto pilot on sun cause we'll have a newb with us.
BTW...check out the NC pics thread I started after coming back from linville two weekends ago.
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Aug 11, 2006 - 09:37am PT
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So Aya, you would just walk up to the OR and call finding the traverse pitch easy route finding?
Um, if you see that first bolt from the ground you are technically off route, and on harder ground than to the right of there, that is an old bail bolt from the broken ankle. But that area dries out quickest and that's the way I had to go once.
Sounds like someone had local beta or a good topo, hehe.
Jagging back 160 feet traversing with all sorts of apparently climbable stuff in fromt of you seems a bit...prescient?
Um, if you see that first bolt from the ground you are technically off route, and on harder ground than to the right of there, that is an old bail bolt from the broken ankle. But that area dries out quickest and that's the way I had to go once.
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Aya
Trad climber
New York
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Aug 11, 2006 - 09:55am PT
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We found the first bolt as it is described in the two guidebooks for the area (I can't recall the titles, but one was the Harrison Shull one?), so I don't think we were "off-route". It was in the dark streak, just as described. It was just hard to find because it was so far up there. The rest of the pitches, again, were just as described in the books.
The only topo I can find online is here:
http://www.bigwall.com/whtsds.html
It barely matches what we climbed.
However, using the two topos in the books (and no local beta; our local had not climbed at Whitesides), we had no problems finding the route. The traverse pitch? Big deal... you just go straight right one ropelength, and there are the bolts. The only difference we found from what was described and what we climbed was at the end of the fifth pitch; the book showed bolted anchors and I just found a couple of rusty scars in the ledge. However, it was clearly the anchor, given what was coming up next (the crescent pitch - best pitch of them all). Maybe we were lucky not to get off-route, who knows? It didn't seem like it, though.
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dirtineye
Trad climber
the south
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Aug 11, 2006 - 10:17am PT
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call it what you will, but you DID have topos, so I guess a 160 foot jag right seems Normal then.
Guess you'll never know the other feeling hehe.
As for the bail bolt, It's not up for debate, no matter what someone wrote in their book. That ain't the original route, and this info is from someone who has guided the OR 50 times, and climbed it many more, including way before the jug on p4 broke.
It is the original escape though.
Before you call it an easy read, send someone in there with no beta and no book, see what happens. Watched a guy who is a known mountaineer and been up WS a few times get confused on p5 cause of running water.
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Aya
Trad climber
New York
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Aug 11, 2006 - 10:35am PT
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No guess I won't know "the other feeling". Woe is me. Also, I guess I didn't climb the "original" Original Route. Goodness!
All things considered, I didn't think OR wasn't that great of a route specifically because it DIDN'T really follow any obvious natural lines, etc. It's not very aesthetically pleasing, and you certainly never feel particularly exposed or anything despite climbing on a nearly 1000' face.
Without a topo? I agree, I'd never call it an "easy read" exactly because of what I just mentioned.
With one? No problem.
Besides, in the context of this thread, I don't imagine that a newbie to the area looking for moderate climbs is likely to go in to Whitesides to try to find the OR without a topo. But hey, kudos to you for knowing a guide and knowing a known mountaineer who got lost!
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craig510a3
Trad climber
Asheville, NC
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Aug 16, 2006 - 08:39am PT
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We just moved to Chapel Hill from Asheville. If your looking to get out to WNC give me a yell.
My wife Carrie works at Vertical Edges now. Introduce yourself. We are typically in together.
-Craig
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