Summer Trad Climbing at Sunset Rock

Nick and Jacob get ready to climb A Sense of Adventure at Sunset Rock

On Saturday, July 23, I joined Jacob and Nick on a trip to Sunset Rock near Point Park on Lookout Mountain outside of Chattanooga, TN. Our goal was to start early to avoid the heat of summer, so we left the Windy Hill Chick-Fil-A around 5:30 AM. After a stop at the Starbucks in Calhoun for a hearty breakfast and a large cup of coffee, we arrived at the parking lot around 8 AM. There are at least two parking lots with access to Sunset. The first one, the smaller of the two, is at the top of the rocks. This one has become increasingly hard to find empty, and recently we have been told that they have been ticketing people who park there all day. Instead we parked at the Craven House lot and made the 30 minute hike to the north end of the cliffs. Given the heat and intense humidity, we were already drenched by the time we got there.

Our first climb was A Sense of Adventure (5.9+). I led off on it starting at 8:30. The roof just 15 feet off the deck felt a good deal tougher than it should have, because the humidity and my sweat made the slopey holds so slippery, but I successfully struggled my way over it. For me the crux of this route came 20 feet higher, on a tricky face section near the top. The whole climb was very well protected, however, so I felt confident about pushing myself through the harder sections. Jacob and Nick followed me up. Interestingly, they both felt that the roof was harder than the upper face section. Go figure!

Jacob heads into the roof on A Sense of Adventure at Sunset Rock

Jacob led our next climb, Broken Arrow (5.10-), starting at 10 AM. His claim is that I've already led this climb, which I totally believe, because my memory for the climbs I've done is horrible! On his ascent he placed a TON of gear. I'm sure that made him feel safe, but I was actually concerned he might run out of alpine draws before he got to the top. Unfortunately he had to hang on the gear a few times on his way up, tarnishing his redpoint. When it was my turn, I again got all wet and drippy. It was just impossible not to sweat profusely. My goal on this climb was to climb the lower, corner crack section in "pure crack" style, avoiding any stemming or face holds as much as possible. This was motivated by my desire to improve my crack climbing skills after seeing how poorly I performed on cracks in Yosemite a few months ago. It didn't work. I was able to make progress, but I ended up falling at least three times while trying to make it just 20 feet up this first section and had to stem the corner in the end all the same. This crack was just a bit too large for solid finger jams and a bit too small for hand jams. Higher up, I was again slipping off of seemingly solid hand jams simply because my hands were so wet. My new Ocun crack gloves did help me to avoid shredding my hands, however, which was a pleasant change from some previous skin-shredding crack-fests I've had in the past. We finished up this climb around 11:30.

Jacob leads Broken Arrow at Sunset Park

Locks, our Nick's climbing golden doodle

At this point it was Nick's turn to lead, and we started hiking towards Liberty Bell (5.9). I didn't know how far away this climb was from where we were on the north side of the cliffline, and we hiked for almost half an hour, arriving around 12:00. Nick started up the bouldery, overhanging roof that is immediately testing you at the beginning of this climb. He tried several times to clear the roof, but was ultimately unsuccessful. Lowering back to the ground, he complained that he was so hot he was "going nuclear", and wandered off down the trail in an attempt to cool off.

Jacob took the lead again, and made quick work of this low-down crux, then cruised to the top of this long (120') climb. He really made it look easy. Then it was my turn again. I fell at least twice trying to pull through the same roof that had stymied Nick. Oh well. I actually have memories of doing this climb once already, but I can't remember who I was climbing with at the time. This time it felt really hard. I just couldn't seem to grip anything well, and I struggled to lift my foot high enough to step onto the ledge over the lip of the roof. I too was exhausted, hot, and dehydrated after finally clearing this move, and I felt a strong sense that I might pass out. Slowly I cruised to the top, trying to regain my breath. Right when I reached the final anchors around 1:30 in the afternoon, the skies opened up and we were deluged by a downpour! Quickly I lowered down, we sorted our gear in the shelter of the overhang, and we made the long and wet hike back to the parking lot.

Kenton on the very start of Liberty Bell at Sunset Rock, before the real struggles began

Jacob asks the gods why they chose to rain on our already soaking climbing adventure

We all agreed that we would need to wait until colder weather arrives to try climbing outside again. What a miserable trip! I like to think that I keep a positive outlook on my climbing adventures, despite critters, bruises, and bad weather. But the overpowering effect of the humidity last Saturday was too much even for me to enjoy. It was an opportunity to get up close and personal with the local wildlife, though. I snapped a nice photo of a scary looking wasp nest, and I found a tick on my arm when we got back to the car.

We were careful to avoid these wasps, only 15 feet from the trail

I couldn't avoid this tick on the way out and was forced to pull it off with tweezers