Linville Gorge

Climbers: Tim, Carine, Eric H

Location: Linville Gorge, NC

Climbing: Moderate yet epic

As June neared its close, I felt the need to get out of St. Louis for some exposure to the outdoors, so I did what any normal person does these days – I posted a message on Facebook. Eric responded mentioning freedom over the 4^th of July weekend, and Carine was in for our third. We debated a little on locations, but in the end the desire to do moderate multi-pitch climbing won out, and we were set on the quartzite wonderland of Linville Gorge. Eric would lead, Carine would second, and I would clean.

After our 12-hour overnight drive to our secluded camp off the side of the road to Table Rock and a brief nap, we set out for Table Rock with our goal being to climb My Route. The first two pitches of “My Route” were shared by Cave Route. The first pitch, a 5.4 slab, was a meandering pitch with 3 bolts (1 of which spun quite freely) and plenty of places for Eric to place gear. The lower grade was a nice introduction the the quartzite of Linville Gorge, though it seemed like no more than two pitches of the weekend shared the same features.

The second pitch was a slightly longer slab that went at 5.5 that had some great slab climbing to a crack, and finally to a giant ledge where Eric belayed from trees. At this point we went off route a little as we neglected to bring any paper with beta on the route. Instead of going right to the 2 (or 3) pitches that would consist of My Route, we went left to what we thought was the obvious line. The first pitch was as we expected, though a little shorter than we remembered. 5.5/5.6 slab climbing lead us to a ledge under an arcing roof. The next pitch didn’t look like a 5.7, but Eric sussed it out, looking for a way around the roof. After a little work, Eric found his way to a suitable belay above, and Carine and I took our turns on what would be the last pitch of the day. The last challenging moves of the route ended up climbing through a manky dihedral with your last protection below you, the rope trailing away left, and climbing up left again through more dirty handholds (where Eric placed a clutch lien) to finally reach safe harbor. The 5.7 became a 5.9+. We scrambled through yards of lovely underbrush, made our way to the top of the mountain, and walked the trail back to our packs.

Our goal for day 2 was to climb the Mummy, a 350 foot 3 pitch 5.5. After more bushwhacking (including some harrowing scrambling through precariously-perched shrubbery) we found our way to the Mummy. While the rock and climbing style on Table Rock was mostly uniform, the Mummy showed a glimpse of many different features. Gone was the slightly slippery quartzite of the east side of the ridge, replaced by a rockier, rougher stone. The first pitch started at a low angle, but moved more vertical into a fun, slightly overhanging crack system with good holds. As we moved up the route, holds became a bit more fractured, but not chossy. Pitch 2 eased up things a bit, with slabby climbing around more interesting cracks. Pitch 3 offered more of the same, but moved out right to the arête for the most exposed, and fun, climbing of the day. After cooling down at the car with beers and water, we packed up our campsite, ran into town for some grub, and headed to a campsite at the base of the trail to Shortoff Mountain.

A hour or so hike in the blazing sun took us to the gully we would descent to our final route of the weekend, Paradise Left (5.8), a slightly easier variation on Paradise Alley (5.8+). This climb had some amazing features, and each pitch was completely different from the previous. The first pitch of Paradise Left was just over a hundred feet long, with the first part of the route going up a 20 foot ramp into a fairly long dihedral with lots of features on either side that served as really good holds. After moving out left a little and whaling up on a ledge, you follow good holds to the first large belay ledge. The second pitch was most notable for its start, moving vertically through a system of detached blocks before wading through a couple shrubberies en route to another good face climb and a huge belay ledge. The third pitch was the highlight of the trip for me. The first 30 or 40 feet of this 5.6 (or was it 5.7?) pitch is a slightly overhanging wall with giant incut jugs. There’s a nice seam that runs alongside the jugs, making for easy gear placement. As I climbed the overhang, I looked down a couple times in order to take in the incredible exposure below. Once you pull the overhang, the remainder of the climb is a scramble to the final pitch.

In order to reach pitch four, you step up on a block, and reach over to an overhung wall of 5.8 climbing. What you don’t realize until you step up on the block, however, is that up until this point you have been climbing on a detached block. Stepping onto pitch 4 puts you back on the mountain proper, but also leaves you with a 350 foot drop below. Talk about a head game! Once you’ve worked the head issues out, you still have to step across, jug up on crimps, and move through some blocky, nasty-looking holds. Thankfully, the holds were all better than they looked and after we all did a few false starts, we got through the crux, scrambled to the top, and the climbing for the weekend was finished.

Long routes at moderate grades with beautiful exposure…I could get used to this stuff…