North Carolina Trad?

[mtnrgr]

I just got back from Green Beret Selection, and am on my way to becoming a Special Forces medic.

 

The only problem I need to find some good places to climb in North Carolina. Anyone out there have any route suggetions for southern trad near (within 4 hrs) Fayettville/Ft. Bragg, NC.

[slothrop]

I just borrowed a copy of Selected Climbs in NC for my upcoming trip to Winston-Salem for Thanksgiving. It looks like there's a big granite dome called Stone Mountain north of Winston with some good slabby climbs. Moore's Wall is in that area, too, and apparently is all trad, with some pretty stiff climbs. Linville Gorge has a lot of routes, and there's some hard multipitch stuff to be done at Whiteside Mountain near Cashiers. Looking Glass is a big place, with lots of hard multipitch and aid routes.

 

Overall, it seems like trad is where it's at in North Carolina, so you should be set. Fayettenam is a little far removed from the climbing locales, but it's all within a few hours' drive.

 

That Selected Climbs book is new, and I'm pretty sure there are some others.

[KFox]

I just moved here from NC in april !!!! North carolina is posibly the greatest TRAD stronghold in the east if not the country as far as states are concerned. For four years I climbed once to three times a week and only spent 1 afternoon only climbing "sport". While there are a few sport climbs they are usually in the middle of mostly traditional aread, and they are frequently at the harder grades. Go get your NC map and I can take you on a little Tour.

 

As someone said, fayetville is a bit to the east side of the state but a little driving will pay off. First find Winston-Salem on !-40 Head north and a little east and you'll see Hanging rock state park the home of Moores Wall. Mores is Steep Quartzite. Some of the sweetest, and most sandbagged, routes in the state. This should be your first stop from where you're located.

 

If you head west from here you will eventually see stone mountain state park. This is the place to get your Slab game on. The "mountain" is really a big granite dome. There are close to 100 routes, only one follows a continuous crack system, and all but one were all put up on lead. Needless to say it's very traditional even though you spend a great deal of your time clipping bolts. It is somewhat reminiscent of the slab routes on the apron in Squamish, with much less gear.

 

Find I-40 again and head west to Marrion. If you follow hwy 221 north Linville Gorge is to the East. Linville, one of the deepest gorges in the east, is full of spetacular climbing areas. More steep quartzite appears and from north to south you find, Hawksbill, Table Rock, The NC Wall, The Amphitheatre and the crown jewl Shortoff. Linville is and always will be my fav place in the state to climb.

 

If you look back at the map and follow 40 west to Asheville Then look south west and find the town of Brevard. Outside Brevard is Looking glass. The rock has 3 distinct personalities. The south side had moderate crack/face routes on the sunny slabs. The sun wall and nose areas follow pure slabs or water groves (one 4 pitch route is named for the 20 or so feet of crack found on it). But the north side is different. Steep aid and yosemite like layback cracks Some of the best routes in the state are found here.

 

For our Last stop keep following the road through Brevard, south a litle but mostly west on 64 to a town just north of the State line named Cashiers (when you pronounce it pretend the "i " doesn't exist) Just south of Cashers is whitesides mountain, the biggest stone in the South. Routes of 10 pitches exist here on some seriously funky granite. Try the Original Route your first time and go from there. This one route, in my opinion, would be worth the drive all the way from fayetville.

 

Climbing in NC is awesome, can you tell I miss it? The mentioned guidebook, NC Select, is new and is suposed to be pretty good. The climbers guide to North carolina, 3rd edition, is also very good.

What I have given is by no means a complete list of places. Keep looking and you'll find loads of great stuff. If you have any other questions or want any route recommendations feel free to drop me an email kfoxwnc@yahoo.com

 

Enjoy Nc,

Kfox

[offwidthclimber]

i was thumbing through an old climbing magazine this morning and read an article about looking glass mtn, which is north of ashville. apparently its got a ton of trad routes and is considered the aid climbing nucleus of the southeast.

 

if you're into bouldering, boone is a little farther north and supposedly has excellent bouldering.

 

cheers,

[Rick_Sharpless]

Thankfully - NC is pretty much all trad (a few sport routes of high difficulty have been established at Moores, and, I think, at Ship Rock and maybe in the Gorge).

 

The rock is generally great - it's a choss-free zone. Since it tends to be hard rock it's pretty vertical, often overhanging.

 

Within 4 hours of Fayette-nam:

 

Moores Wall - 150-300', almost all trad except for a few very intense bolted lines. Nice rock. Faces NE-NW so maybe not good on cold winter days. North of Winston-Salem - NW of Greensboro.

 

Linville Gorge - trad - lots of opportunities - some with quite a walk to access them.

 

Stone Mtn. - near Sparta. Slab. Not been there myself yet. Long runouts.

 

Looking Glass - near Brevard - Granite - all levels, almost all trad - 1 -2 pitch to multi-day aid. Both northern and southern exposures.

 

Whitesides - Near Cashiers. Granite. Trad. Big (700-1000'), bold, runout, difficult. (7-8 pitch to multi-day). South facing. This may push the 4 hour limit.

 

Lots of bolted routes at Pilot Mtn - NW of Winston Salem about 40 minutes. Single pitch. South facing.

 

Both the new guide by Lambert and Shull and Kelly's guide (1995) are excellent.

 

There are other areas, some in the guides, others not, some of which have access issues. Look at www.carolinaclimbers.com.

 

Email me off list if you need a partner. Nice palce fr climbing - little choss and nice weather (tho this weekend sux).

[Rick_Sharpless]

Sorry for the bad link - it's www.carolinaclimbers.org

[johnny]

But wait, if you call now theres more......Sauratown (sport, mixed), Crowders (everything) Rumbling Bald (bouldering, trad, bolts), Cedar Mtn.(scary bolted), Green Mtn.(even scarier bolted), Hawksbill (steep gear), Likely more cragging here than just about anywhere!

 

Rick, drop me a line, our little "Tuesday Night Climbers" club will be meeting this tuesday (19th At 7:30pm) at the Childrens Home wall in W-S. Membership is quite exclusive, some hazing and other humiliating antics may be required......Might actually do a little plastic pulling too.

[Dave_Schuldt]

There was a guy who posted as jedi who moved to NC last year. Do a search and see if my memory is correct.

[ryland_moore]

I thought Jedi still lived in Virginia? Anyways, I second what others are saying. There are some great routes at both Looking Glass and Stone Mt. Althought Stone may be a little far for you to drive from Fayetteville. You will have more than enbough climbing at Moore's Wall. Enjoy it and prepare for some cold climbing!

[turn_one]

if you can find your way down to tennessee for a weekend both obed river & t-wall in chatanooga offer some good trad/mixed sandstone. obed more steep, more sport and t-wall trad classics.

 

some friends of mine have been working on some difficult new lines at white sides, plenty of steep, BIG granite they say.

 

stone mtn, 500+ft of slab. had a friend say he never grab on to 'nothing' so hard in his life, teaches excellent footwork. sharpie is right when he says, runout. all slab sport routes were put up on lead w/ some pitches having but 1 bolt, 1 very old bolt. however there are some trad slab/crack routes which are apparrent local classics.

[luthor22]

Looking Glass is fantastic. The infamous "eyebrows" can take some getting used to, though.

 

Another great area to climb is Shortoff Mountain, which is part of Linville Gorge. The hike in is kind of long so it's best to get an early start. Chances are, though, that they'll be no one else around.

 

I don't really recommend Crowder's, but one thing it has going for it is acessibility.

 

Also worth mentioning are the loads of climbing areas around Chattanooga, TN. T-Wall is amazing! Foster Falls is a great sport climbing area.

[mtnrgr]

Thanks for all the beta!

 

I'll be moving to Bragg in the spring, but my training schedule will be insane for awhile. I'll definetly be looking for partners on my 4 day weekends.