Cambodian Escape

Crowders Mountain State Park, North Carolina

Last weekend I had the privilege of climbing at Crowders Mountain State Park, North Carolina with two good friends from Columbia, South Carolina. Ricky  Romanek is a student home from college for the summer and is transferring to a school in Utah in the fall. Matthew Stephens is on the climbing team at Stronghold Gym and occasionally comes climbing outdoors.  These two lads witnessed me at my finest... actually, they saw nothing of the sort.

Matthew Stephens crushing!

Matthew Stephens still crushing!

I planned to run up Cambodian Holiday (5.9), a traditional line on Two Pitch Wall that doesn't see a lot of action. I removed some prickly holly tree branches that had overtaken some of the start to this route on Two Pitch Wall. The first pitch yielded satisfactory gear placement options and led me to a great platform belay ledge right under a small roof.


Once Matthew and Ricky were on the belay ledge, I set forth on what beckoned me. A great crack system under the small roof was calling but as soon as I grabbed what seemed like a great hold, it deteriorated in my hand. I grabbed another hold and it did the same thing.  This particular cliff gets a lot of wind rushing through it's gullies and it is no surprise that this rock crumbles this way.

I had asked Matthew and Ricky to study the Topo with me so that I could ask their opinion once we got on the ledge. After deciding not to climb the crack system due to rock quality, Ricky suggested I climb what the book described as Cambodian Holiday. I was too excited to climb what was calling to me that I had failed to realize I wasn't even on route.

First time I met Ricky at Crowders

The face cliff right of the dirty crack system under the roof was also in need of some climbing traffic. Some questionable rock was between me and the first placement. After the mental debate on whether I should lead this or not I told myself what I have always preached. Take a deep breath. What is the risk? Can I climb this? Does it look like you can protect it well in case of a fall? And my newest self-talk motivator thanks to the movie zombie land, "It's time to nut-up or shut-up!"

Nut-up I did, until it was time to traverse left onto the face above the small roof I had just vetoed.  I decided I had wasted enough time. I didn't have a good feeling about it this day so I vetoed the upper section of Cambodian Holiday (for now) and followed the crack system cliff right and climbed onto familiar territory. I was now on the second pitch of Two Pitch (5.4). I belayed Matthew and Ricky as they cleaned the gear on the wall below me. I asked them what they thought.

Matthew and Ricky agree that it is fairly easy climbing with great exposure but the rock quality made it intense. They didn't give me a hard time for not leading Cambodian Holiday but they still thought I was crazy for leading the escape variation.  Looking back, what I climbed was mentally challenging more than physically.  I don't know why but the feeling of the unknown when you're on a route for the first time is always what I go back for. I love the challenge of having to cope with fears and the honesty you have to have with yourself in order to climb safely.

1.Cambodian Holiday(5.9) 2.Cambodian Escape(5.6) 3. Two Pitch (5.4) 4.Eat A Pitch(5.6) 5.Two Peach(5.6) 6. Eat A Peach(5.7) 7.Predestination(5.8) 8.Destination Variation(5.8+)

What a day!

I've almost finished climbing all the established routes on Two Pitch Wall. The past couple of trips to Crowders Mountain I've been climbing at Two Pitch Wall in the morning trying to get on as many routes on the west side of the mountain before the sun peeks over the ridge. When that happens I've been hiking up and over the Fortress/Gumbies/Middle Finger Backside area and down to Red Wall.  Usually tuckered out we've been hitting up a couple of sport routes and then heading out.  My last visit was a close call on Two Pitch Wall and productive one at Red Wall. Here is how it went.

Two Pitch Wall - Main Wall
1)Two Pitch(5.4)  2)Eat A Pitch (5.5)  3)Two Peach (5.6)  4)Eat a Peach (5.7) 5)Predestination(5.8) 6) Destination Variation(5.8+) 7)Secret Service(5.10) 8)Double Naught Spy(5.9R)

After showing up late due to my relief at the firehouse, I happened to meet up with a fella from Ashville named Daniel who didn't have anyone to climb with either. He and I hiked to Two Pitch Wall and geared  up. I led the first pitch of Two Pitch for the sixth time and belayed Dan up to the second pitch belay ledge.  I climbed the purple route in the picture above and this is where I had the close call of the weekend.  As I pulled past the crack (in the picture) the gear options started disappearing, the rock quality was deteriorating.  I was get farther away from my last piece so I place a mental piece and started up the next section of rock.  As I laidback on a rather large chickenhead, the hold the size of a softball popped off and I was almost thrown off the rock. Instinctively I held on with my opposite hand and came away with only a couple of scratches on my ankles. I finished the route but was skeptical of the rock the rest of the way up.

After that little ditty, we lost the shade and had to retreat to the other side of the mountain on to Red Wall.  I wanted to get some easy trad lines climbed so we went to the Red Wall Chimney area. This was where I was productive. I sent, what in my opinion was a great beginner trad route, unknown(5.6) and I got on what I thought was Spring Fever(5.7) but after inspecting the topo later on I found out I climbed Spring Break (5.8). We were tuckered out after all the trad climbing and called it a day as we planned to climb at Looking Glass or Table Rock the next day. We ended up getting too hungover to go climbing the next day... so much for climbing two days in a row!

Overall not a bad day of climbing even after getting to the mountain late, not having a climbing partner, and only climbing three routes.  I look forward to climbing again on Saturday! See you on the mountain.

Send Sunday

Another fun day was had on Sunday May 20th 2012 at Crowders Mountain State Park, in North Carolina. I know what you probably thinking, "Don't you ever get tired of climbing at Crowders?"  I get on something new at Crowders almost every time I visit so I'm not yet bored. Although I would love to climb somewhere new, I don't want to spend half my day in the car getting there. Crowders being the closes rock to Columbia, beggars can't be choosers.

Destination Variation is the first roof and Secret Service is the second roof.

After catching up with several Crowder's locals, I met my friend Ashley Navarro at the Linwood Parking Access at about 9:45am and we were off.  Ashley and I kept a steady hiking pace all the way to Two Pitch Wall were we continued our smooth pace.  As we geared up and I opened my pack, I realized I had forgotten my climbing shoes and I was happy I at least brought my Evolv approach shoes. We warmed up on the first pitch of Two Pitch (5.4) and then I onsighted an unknown pitch that I refer to as Two Peach (5.6) because it is in between the second pitch of Two Pitch and Eat A Peach (5.7).  Ashley hit the nail on the head when she finished up Two Peach (5.6) and said, "That pitch was very exposed!" It was a great way to start the day.

Poop Gully in between Middle Finger Wall and Two Pitch Wall.

Ashley and I hiked down and got back on the first pitch of Two Pitch (because it is the first pitch of five different routes on this wall).  I snugged up my shoes and got to work on Destination Variation (5.8+) and as I slipped on several spot through-out the climb I exclaimed,"I wish I had climbing shoes!" As I heard myself saying this I realized I was whining and quickly stated, "oh well, gotta use what you have."  This pitch of climbing was absolutely thrilling. It starts with a mellow traverse and then gets straight to work as you climb on a dihedral under a balcony-sized roof and then traverse cliff right to pull-out of the roof. The exposure is great and the climbing is fun, especially exciting on lead. The feet get smeary and I would have enjoyed having some better stick to the wall but the hand holds were big enough to keep me calm about the lack of footwear.

After climbing Destination Variation we hike back down the gully between Middle Finger Wall and Two Pitch Wall (someone apparently didn't know that this was a high frequency gully because they decided to poop right in the middle of the gully). We packed our goods and then proceeded to the base of The Balcony (5.5) on Middle Finger Wall. This route has been one that I've wanted to do for a while. I've heard of a flake on this route that moves quite a bit. As I led this route I pulled on a lot of rock to find it but I had no luck. Ashley did find it on her way up and said that it moved quite a bit. Anyway, it is a fairly easy route with a lot of gear options but definitely some questionable rock. The nice thing is that the anchor is bolted and can be Top Roped easily. The sun said hello as Ashley climbed so we moved to Red Wall to have lunch and decide our next plan of attack.

Brandy Gibson Walters leads Master Beta (5.10c) on Red Wall at Crowders.

As we arrived at Red Wall  we met up with some of my friends from Columbia. They were set up on Master Beta (5.10c) and were taking turns watching the children and belaying each other on the route.  I lead The Gimp (5.10d) in my approach shoes (which was awesome and hard) then Ashley and I had our lunch break (mostly water and trail mix).

The rest of the day was spent top roping Master Beta and The Gimp until we tuckered ourselves out and headed to Azteca Mexican Restaurant and filled ourselves with food and beer. What fabulous day I had and we climbed mostly (5.8) and under. I am always grateful to share the mountains with everyone. Which reminds me of what a small world it is. I met a gentleman whom is the father-in-law to a friend of mine that lived in Columbia and now resides in Charleston, South Carolina. Luke, the father-in-law, was at the top of Two Peach and Destination Variation.

All in all it was a fabulous day at Crowders and I love that I can head to the same mountain to get multi-pitch experience as well as climb hard sport routes. People who knock Crowders all the time are missing out on one of the most versatile climbing areas that I know of. Not only that but you can climb year round at Crowders if you know your way around the mountain. I'm a couple more routes closer to climbing all the guidebook recorded routes at Crowders and look forward to completing my goal. I also look forward to climbing the routes that haven't made it to the guidebook pages as well as climbing some harder variations. I know that most everything, if not everything, at Crowders has been climbed but it is still and adventure to me when I haven't climbed it!

Two Dudes on Two Pitch...

Rappelling off of Secret Service (5.10) on Two Pitch Wall (rope was in the tree).

After my shift on Saturday morning, I met up with Kenny Johns from Columbia, SC to climb at... you guessed it, Crowders Mountain State Park, North Carolina. I was intent on climbing some less traveled traditional climbs.

Hiking up the Backside trail is a great way to get warmed up for your first climb of the day and as we arrived at Two Pitch Wall I asked Kenny if he wanted to lead the first pitch. It was a big deal because Kenny hadn't lead anything traditionally but had experience cleaning routes to learning how to place and remove gear. I could tell Kenny was anxious. With good reason, he asked questions like, "Any words of wisdom?" "Can we talk about the anchor again?" "How do I belay you up there?"

Kenny leads his first Trad climb Two Pitch!

Kenny did a great job leading the first pitch of Two Pitch (5.4), his first traditional route. He also surprised me with three awesome nut placements as well as having all solid pieces. Good job Kenny!  He had some trouble with the anchor and something inside me said that I could free solo this route anyway. So, I did!

It was my first time climbing this route so I studied it carefully from the ground and prepared myself mentally with a couple of deep breaths. As I started climbing, I cleared my head and focused on climbing smooth, safe, efficiently, and I reminded myself to breathe.  

The first pitch of Two Pitch(5.4) has some challenging moments but has good gear options throughout the whole route. My favorite part of the climb was the near the top of the first pitch because it had some great had  jams and was heady with no protection.

Kenny and I built an anchor and I led Eat A Peach(5.7). This diagonal crack is super exciting with exposure and well protected through the crux. Jugs lent themselves to me as I placed gear and pulled the small overhang at the end of the crack. The climbing mellows out but the rock quality becomes less inspiring. This route is a great introduction to multi-pitch climbing and has some great crack climbing sections.

Kenny and I  hiked down debating what route to do next. We decided he would lead the first pitch again and set up an anchor and I would lead the second pitch of Two Pitch(5.4). This route offered great gear options, fun exposed climbing and wasn't too chossy(bad quality rock).

Kenny finishing the first pitch of Two Pitch

After climbing to the top of Two Pitch we rappelled off the backside into what's known as Car Wall.  I led the traditional route Entertainment For Men (5.9).  It was a good short route that was fairly sustained with good gear options. This wall doesn't see a lot of action because it is fairly hidden and has only one sport climb/top rope set up.


This was the end  to a fabulous day at Crowders and the exciting part was that I was coming back the next day!

To be continued...