Whitesides

I just returned from honeymooning in the mountains of North Carolina, and while I didn't do any climbing while honeymooning, I did hike around and investigate Whitesides, one of the largest and certainly one of the most intimidating cliffs on the east side of the country. The rock that I saw was almost Rumney-esque in texture and friction, but certainly not in features - much of the wall is slabby to vertical, with very few weaknesses into which gear or hands might fit. I guess this is why most of the routes here are so difficult and so bold - N. Carolina is a pretty traditional-minded state, and on the biggest, baddest cliff in N. Carolina you're expected to come prepared with technique and a cool head. Just to give an idea, the first pitch of the Original Route is a 140 ft. long 5.7 slab with just one bolt, according to Mountainproject (descriptions at the cliff itself said no bolts; I don't know which is accurate). The route then goes free at 5.11, although you can french-free the crux moves to bring it down into the 10 range. Pretty inspiring stuff.

Blog Update

I'm trying to restrict this blog mostly to climbing, which means that unfortunately there's not much to write about over these past two weeks - with everything going on in the other aspects of my life (wedding, car problems, etc) climbing has unfortunately had to take a backseat. That should all change by the end of this month, so look for some hopefully more interesting posts here around that time.

JJ