November Looking Glass

Kenton in the Parking Lot on The Nose of Looking Glass

On Friday November 16, 2018, Will Gotmer and I took a trip to Looking Glass in North Carolina's Pisgah National Forest. We had originally planned to climb at Tallulah Gorge, but when we arrived there after three solid days of rain, the park was closed to climbing and hiking. The rangers told us that it was far too flooded to allow anyone down into the Gorge. Disappointed but not deterred, we got back in the car and drove for more than another two hours to get to Looking Glass. After climbing Sundial Crack on The Nose just a few weeks earlier, I was pretty confident that the face would be sufficiently dry to climb. And I was itching to climb the eponymous Nose (5.8) route itself, which we had not had the time to do previously.

When we arrived at the base of the climb, we realized that I was mistaken. Yes, large parts of the climb had dried out, but there were still crucial sections that were dripping with a steady stream. Nevertheless, we had come this far, and I was not about to let that stop me. I carefully started up the first pitch, trying to avoid the wet spots. Climbing these eyebrows is still a technique that I'm getting used to and which feels at times very tenuous. After belaying Will up to the first belay station, I tried to make my way up to the ramp near the start of the second pitch. Here I was forced to aid through a short section. In dry conditions I don't think it would have been too difficult, but the crux in this pitch depends heavily on friction, and here the rock was completely wet. Pulling on a cam I had just placed, I made it through the hard part and onto the much easier ramp which led up and right to the top of the second pitch.

Will making his way up the first pitch of The Nose

The third pitch also felt challenging, but not particularly memorable in comparison. At the top, I reached an area called the Parking Lot, a large, flat ledge. I built an anchor near the back of the ledge with three cams, a more comfortable belaying position compared with the two bolt rings closer to the edge of the ledge. Will came up after me, and we discussed our options for the final pitch. This pitch was completely covered in water. There did appear to be a way to bypass the water by climbing to the right or left of it, but after I had tried both of these options, I realized that they would be difficult to protect. The eyebrows here were just too flaring to really make a cam placement safe, and I didn't have any tricams to try instead. On the advice of another party who had ascended the Sundial Crack to our right, we simul-climbed around to the left on easy 4th class terrain to the top.

Will reaches the Parking Lot with our second rope in tow

At this point I started rigging our two ropes to begin our rappel descent. Throwing the coils down toward the ground, I was disappointed to see that they didn't make it far on this low-angle slab. Will decided he wanted to go first, and I didn't realize that this was a mistake until it was too late. After he was only about thirty feet below me, he had unfortunately managed to completely tangle the two ends of the rope into a hopeless knot. I helped him make his way back up to where I was, and we re-evaluated our options. The sun was rapidly disappearing behind the mountain in front of us, and the other party to our right (a party of six!) was waiting for us to begin our descent before they could start their own. Rather than wait for us to untangle our spaghetti of a rope, I convinced them to set up their own ropes for the rappel. They graciously allowed us to follow them down on their ropes.  At one point at the Parking Lot there were eight of us tied into the two anchor bolts! Halfway down we completely lost all of our light and were forced to set up the rappel by the lights of our cellphones. Despite these troubles, we all made it down safely, thanks in no small part to the generosity of this other party. Many thanks to Chris and his friends!

I will have to return to climb The Nose cleanly and all the way to the top.

October Looking Glass

John descends from the top of Sundial Crack

Oct 27-28

Trip to Looking Glass North Carolina with John Simpson. Raining while we drove up on Friday night, and continued raining while we camped throughout the night, so rocks were wet Saturday morning. We climbed on the North Face where it is overhung enough that several of the routes were still dry enough to climb.We climbed the first pitch of Creatures of Waste (5.10c), the first half of Waverly Waster traversing left to finish on the same first pitch of Creatures of Waste, and then we finished on the first pitch of The Seal (5.10-). I particularly enjoyed The Seal, which I managed to lead on sight. This was due in no small part to a local who shouted encouraging beta during the cruxy roof traverse section near the top.

John starting his way up the first pitch of Sundial Crack

The next day it was finally dry enough for some face climbing. We started late in the morning and only managed to climb the 4-pitch Sundial Crack (5.8-). Despite the easy grade, I found this climb rather challenging in a few sections simply because its slabby style felt so foreign to me.  I led the 2nd and (final) 4th pitches, and nearly ran out of rope at the top. I was pulling as hard as I could to stretch the rope the last few feet I needed to reach the bolted anchors.

John halfway up the crack which gives Sundial Crack its name

September Lost Wall Climbing

Will near the top of Black Pig

I climbed three climbs at Lost Wall with Will Gotmer on Saturday, September 29, 2018. We warmed up on Black Pig (5.8), continued with Booze and Broads (5.9+), and finished on Defoliator (5.10a). Black Pig was Will's first ever trad climb. Booze and Broads felt rather difficult for me at the beginning. It's a layback move with a high step to get going off the ground. After that it's a pretty straightforward crack climb in  a corner followed by a traverse under a roof. Defoliator was a difficult line to follow from a routefinding perspective. It was a thin crack until halfway up, beyond which point it became unclear to me exactly which way was intended. However, the climb overall felt pretty easy for me at the grade, very much my style with small but positive footholds.

Defoliator

September Foster Falls Climbing

Malcolm making his way up Saturated

On September 8, 2018, Malcolm, my nephew Phillip, and I took a two-day trip to Foster Falls. We were joined by Adam, Jacob, Kellett, and two of their friends, and we concentrated on the Jimmywood area. First up was Saturated (5.8), a long jug-haul with lots of bolts. This was a long climb for the area! We also climbed Miss Prissy (5.9), Mammy (5.9), and Diamond Cutter (5.10b/c). The most memorable part of the day for me was the start of Diamond Cutter; it felt like a reasonably difficult boulder problem, but we were able to climb it with the right beta. We finished on Bear Mountain Picnic (5.8+). At this point the boys were both so pumped that neither of them could finish the climb, so I knew the day had been a success! This climb is a beautiful, exposed arete with some fun moves transitioning back and forth from one face to the other.

Malcolm on the start of Bear Mountain Picnic

On September 9, we were supposed to all return for another full day of climbing, but Phillip and Malcolm weren't feeling well, so I was the only one to head back out. Jacob, Kellett, and their friends met me in the parking lot, and we hiked the 45-minute approach to a different area, the Red Light District. We warmed up on Pocket Pool (5.9), where I had some difficulty deciding exactly where the route was supposed to go. Did it go straight up the face, which felt more like 5.11, or did it make use of the shallow corner to the left, which made it feel more like the 5.9? In the end I chose the latter. Then we started on Mrs. Treated (5.11a). Unfortunately, it started raining pretty hard right after I pulled through the tricky mantle move, and I was forced to bail, lowering off an old carabiner.

The hike back to the car was long and very wet. Too bad!

July Piney Creek Canyon Climbing

On Saturday July 21 I took Phillip and Malcolm climbing in Piney Creek Canyon, WY. We went with Justin Case from Bighorn Mountain Guides.

I don't know the names of any of the 6 routes that we climbed. We did 4 climbs in the 5.8-5.9 range, a 5.11c, and a 5.10a on the wall closest to the parking lot.

July Climbing in Eldorado Canyon

Derek near the start of Yellow Spur

On Friday July 6, I flew to Denver. My climbing bag with all my gear came on a later flight, because Delta forgot to load it onto my own flight. I stayed with Derek and Sarah in Golden. We had to wait for my bag to be delivered the next morning, so Derek and I weren't on the rock until late in the morning, around 10 AM. We climbed The Yellow Spur (5.9+). We were in full sun the entire time, because we were stuck behind a party of 3, and the party refused to climb simultaneously. So the climb ended up taking us about 6 hours to complete. I thoroughly enjoyed this climb except for a few easier but runout sections and except for the fact that I was overheating half of the time.

On Sunday we climbed two more routes. First we climbed West Buttress (5.10a). The first pitch was one of the hardest, and I ended up doing a variation (unintentionally of course, but I felt that it was better protected than the standard route) which bumped the grade even higher to 5.10b (see photo below).

West Buttress variation that I took (image shamelessly stolen from Mountain Project)

I struggled in the crack/chimney on pitch 2 but managed to finish it without hurting anything but my phone (cracked in 3 places as I did a "beached whale" at the base of the chimney). Derek led the third pitch to the top of the Bastille.

Derek in the chimney on West Buttress

We came back down to the base and set ourselves up to climb Werk Supp (5.9). I had climbed the first pitch of this route more than 10 years ago with Rebecca, but at the time I had been too intimidated to climb the crack that formed most of pitch 2. This time I did it (hanging on gear a few times, unfortunately). I will have to return yet again to get it clean!

June Climbing at Denny Cove

Kenton climbing an unknown arrete (5.11?)

On Saturday, June 16 I went with Zach, southeast regional director of the Access Fund, to climb for my first time at Denny Cove. We climbed 5 routes in total. I believe they were two 5.10's over on the west face of the wall and then 3 5.11's a bit to the right of the Buffet Wall. Because I didn't have a guidebook with me, I was completely reliant on Zach to put me on fun, doable routes. And I don't know what they were called. The photo above shows me on a particularly fun arrete climb (our 4th of the day). The climbing was great fun, and the entire area seemed very large, with much left to be developed. I also saw the potential for several trad routes. So I'll definitely be back some time, and I'll probably bring my rack next time.

May Little River Canyon

I went sport climbing with John Simpson on May 19 at Little River Canyon in Alabama. The forecast called for rain, so he had suggested LRC as a dry destination with very overhung routes. I only cleanly climbed a single route, the (soft for the grade) Ego East. I climbed the following routes:

Obsession 5.10c
Ego East 5.11a (this felt easier than Obsession)
Guillotine Flake 5.11d
Another 5.10c (5.11a?) 20 feet left of Guillotine Flake
Slick Willie (5.11a?)
JDR 5.11d had a really hard mantel move "getting out of the pool"
Buster Brown 5.11b. I was really tired by the time I got to this one and was hanging all over it.

John climbed:

Obsession 5.10c
Ego East 5.11a
Monkey Trails (5.12b?)
Lion 5.12b (4 times). Unfortunately, he never finished it cleanly.

April Sand Rock

First trip ever to Sand Rock on April 8. Actually went camping the night before with Adam, his wife Mariel, and son Grant. It was raining when we arrived, and the temperature dropped to 34 degrees in the night! Malcolm was a trooper. Once we got a fire started, everyone was happy.

The camping is right next to the climbing. There is literally no approach.

Malcolm warming himself by the fire with Adam's dog in his lap

I spent the day putting up relatively easy routes for Malcolm and Adam's family to follow. We first climbed Kitty Litter (5.7+). Then we climbed Knob Wall (5.6) and Knob Wall Left (5.6). Both of these were interesting in the number of placements that just consisted of slinging a horn. Our last climb was a wall that I couldn't find in the guidebook (at least not with just a cursory examination). It actually looked like a relatively new area way down to the climber's right. There were 4 bolts to a set of cold-shut anchors.

Kenton belays Malcolm on Kitty Litter

Mariel on Knob Wall Left

January Tennessee Wall

January 6, 2017 I drove with John, Rachel, and Jacob to T-Wall. Weather was cold, but skies were clear. Temps were in the low 20's in the parking lot, but we were wearing just our fleeces through most of the day. The rock there just sucks up the sun, so as long as the sun is out and there is no breeze, it is comfortable no matter what the underlying temperature.

Jacob chillin' in front of John

Warmed up again on Art (5.8) and did it cleanly this time. Nevertheless, I was still very nervous and stuck in my head on this climb. Jacob cleaned.

Jacob led Nappy (5.7) and I cleaned.

I top-roped Finger Lockin' Good (5.10b/c) and had to hang on the rope two times. Jacob did it cleanly!

I led Love Handle (5.10b) and it felt easy. I enjoyed slinging the "love handle" as part of my protection for this climb. Jacob cleaned.

We returned to Finger Lockin' Good and I led it this time. I had two hang on gear three times, but I managed to finish the climb! This is definitely a project for me. Next time, I hope to get it clean. Jacob finished it clean, too!

Finished up on Sly Willie Snores (5.11a). This was a mistake. The climb is mixed. It starts trad, transitions to sport, then moves back to trad at a large roof right beneath the finish. I was unfortunately too tired to pull the roof moves after all the other climbing I had done that day, and I started to get really scared. I placed tons of gear and started trying to aid the final moves. Even that proved too difficult. I had to rest, and rest, and rest. Finally, after the sun had already set, I dragged myself to the top and had Jacob lower me, cleaning the gear as I went.

Lessons learned: 1. T-Wall is always pleasant if the sun is out and there is no wind. 2. I shouldn't get on the hardest climb of the day with only an hour of sunshine left.