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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
