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charley
May 4, 2007, 10:19 PM
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I have had two great trips to nc. this spring. The first was Easter wekend. I went down with some friends from the pburgh area, met a cpl friends from ohio, and one dear from nc. We stayed at stone mnt this trip. As you may know the east coast had a cold front and some nasty weather. We drove down on thur evening after work and stayed at a motel in Elkin. We climbed on friday. Dave lead on a route someone had told us about on the net. We started up u slot and found a ramp going up and right and ended on the top of crystal lizard. It was sposed to be about 5.4 or 5.5. Since it was my first experience with the runout slab at stone, although that is were I lead at, as I followed there where a few moves I'm not sure I would have been comfy doing on lead.
I had to solo the last twenty feet to the tree ledge after the bolts. We then got ready to do the great arch. The arch is a stone classic. A slab under your feet, a wall on your left, and a hand/ foot crack in the corner which is at your feet. Four hundred feet of the same move over and over while bent over touching your toes. It was fun but at the end of the first pitch I told Dave, I wasn't doing three hundred more feet of this. We rapped to the tree ledge in time for him to hook up with Bob and Marlene to do another climb. I waited on the ledge talking to some folks from florida.
Oh the weather was 50 at warmest following a cold morn. Day two it was cold and windy and no one wanted to climb. It snowed some in the afternoon.
Day three we were back at stone and I led the first pitch of block route which was easy, maybe 5.3. I followed Bob up the next pitch and brought Marlene up and we set up a rap and went back down cause they wanted to stay low because of the wind. The two of them did another route up to tree ledge and they rapped down and that was a day. We were a bit late coming out cause the deer were in the field when we came out. We still had half an hour before we had to be away from the rock. We got back to camp and Dave and Ann had dinner started.
The next day I decided to lead access crack 5.4R. Now everything is run out at stone so an r rating should have got my attention. I had heard about the route and it was what ppl had said about it. The route is about 150' with the first half being a protectable crack that fit my fist or hand most of the time. About half way up there is a big pine tree that I girth hitched with a cord and after making one move I took a decent sized hex and swung it over my head into the crack and set my last piece of gear. It was golden. If I fell that would be the piece keeping me off the deck. I did manage to girth hitch a small tree about fifteen feet further up. The rest of the climb was smearing along side a huge crack that would not take anything I owned. There were places I think I could have fit in this crack. There were times I was scared to pick up my foot for the next placement. I sweated and smeared my way up the climb. At one point I had a foot on each side of the crack and thought that if I slip I will just let my body fall into the crack and get stuck. I managed to make it to the top with out a slip or fall. I gave the big pine at the top a big hug and just stood there huffing and puffing for a few minutes.I brought up the next two and we scrambled to the rap station and rapped. That was it for me. That was my adventure for the day. Two of the others went on up no alternative and I belayed Bob as he led another version of uslot. We had another good meal at camp that night and got up in the morning packed up and drove home. I gotta go now but I will be back later for week two. A trip to show friends pilot, stone and moores in a long weekend.
(This post was edited by charley on May 4, 2007, 11:07 PM)
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saxfiend
May 4, 2007, 11:25 PM
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Glad you had a good time in NC. I love the climbing there, and Stone Mountain is one of my favorite places.
You should try doing the "official" line on U-Slot next time, it'll get your blood pumping! U-Slot was my first lead at SM and it really felt good to get a cam in under the overhang after that long runout section. Crystal Lizard (which you ended U-Slot on) is a great lead too; the hairiest part of that route is down low where there's groundfall potential.
I've been on almost all the routes to the Tree Ledge (leading or TR) except Entrance Crack. I don't feel bad about having missed it.
JL
PS --
charley wrote: We started up u slot and found a ramp going up and right and ended on the top of crystal lizard. It was sposed to be about 5.4 or 5.5.
(This post was edited by saxfiend on May 4, 2007, 11:32 PM)
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charley
May 4, 2007, 11:44 PM
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Part two A couple weeks later I went with two other friends from pittsburg area. Now those of you who know me know I am not a young guy and I climb hard but on small numbers. My friends John and Hank are near my age and climb at similar levels. We lead 5.4 at seneca and sometimes we find a sport route easy enough for us to lead. John and I took friday and monday off to make a long weekend. Hank has been retired forten or fifteen years so he doesn't care what day it is. We left after work on friday and stayed at a motel in wythville va. We got up in the morn, did breakfast and drove the rest of the way to pilot mountain and set up tents in the campground. We then drove up to the top and walked to the rock and set up some topropes. We set up some 5.6's and a 5.8 near the descent gully. Hank and I did the sixes and a variation or two but left the eight for John. We walked along the wall and checked out some other climbs that we might do some other day. I had thought about leading mild mannered secretary but water was running down the route. The first bolt looked far up there.
We went out for barbecue at aunt Beas restaurant. A little local flavor. We went back to the campground and after showers watched venus, the moon and stars for awhile. We then got a good night sleep. After breakfast at cousin gary's rest. we set off for stone mnt. We were going to take it easy today. First Hank led the first pitch of block route and we rapped. We then went to access crack and John led to the big tree half way up. He brought Hank and I up. I showed them the crack and what we could see of the rest of the route. No takers to lead it. We set up a top rope and did some variations of the first pitch. It was saturday and we saw few other climbers. It was also 73 degrees and sunny and we were told the locals stopped climbing here when it got warm. We drove back after a great day climbing to have dinner, showers, star gazing and another good nite sleep in our tents.
Day three found us at Moores wall. I had been at moores once before. The new parking lot was new to me. The walk was a decent walk for old farts. John is close to my age and Hank is in his early seventies. We found our way around and John started leading hopscotch a nice 5.3. He disappeared for awhile but soon ended up at the tree. He brought Hank and I up and we found he had gone a bit too far left and had to circle the tree and bush and come down to the tree causing a bit of rope drag but nothing we couldn't deal with. We had talked too several ppl and some said it was a long walk to the descent gully on top and it wasn't that good of a descent anyhow. We did not like the look of the downclimb that crossed the route at the alcove so we didn't go to the top. We rapped from the tree. I was first and was glad I backed up the rapell. I had to stop three times to get the rope out of the tree, off a ledge, and get the rope going where I wanted it. We thought we could figure out where scrambled eggs went but it also goes up to the top and we weren't sure how to get off. There where lots of ppl on the 5.5 buttress so we called it a day. The next morning we got up packed and left for pa. My two friends got to see some of nc.'s climbing. Three new places for them was a nice weekend. Thank you nc. for a couple fine weekends. I'll be back in the fall.
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euphoriagtrst
May 5, 2007, 12:09 AM
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Hey Charley,
I think we saw you guys walking in at Moore's. I was the guy who gave you the bad directions on the trail that had us all winding up at the back of the boulder field. Glad y'all had a good trip!
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ja1484
May 5, 2007, 1:41 AM
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Yeah, despite all it's other flaws, there is a hell of a lot of good climbing here in North Cackalacky. If you're a traddie, it's probably the best place on the east coast outside of the Gunks (but in fairness, we have much better weather for much more of the year).
I mention the state as "the place" because most of North Carolina is within 3 hours of excellent climbing. If you're way over there on the coast, you might stretch to four or five hours of drive time, but you can still make weekends out of it easily, so yeah, I consider the entire state one location.
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charley
May 6, 2007, 10:10 PM
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Saxfiend, the contrived route that starts on u slot then uses the ramp to the topof crystal lizard is sposed to be about 5.5ish. I was told that by someone on the internet. I'm not sure that it wasn't harder. I only lead 5.4- 5.5. I had no trouble making the moves but was not sure I would lead it.
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macherry
May 6, 2007, 10:44 PM
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Registered: Sep 10, 2003
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good stuff bill!
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saxfiend
May 7, 2007, 12:35 AM
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charley wrote: Saxfiend, the contrived route that starts on u slot then uses the ramp to the topof crystal lizard is sposed to be about 5.5ish. I was told that by someone on the internet. I'm not sure that it wasn't harder. I only lead 5.4- 5.5. I had no trouble making the moves but was not sure I would lead it.
Too bad it's getting hot up there now, I'd love to go back to Stone Mountain. But there's always the fall.
JL
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