Cambodian Rematch

It's time to "Nut up or shut up!" This past weekend was a 'nut up' kind of climbing day for me.

1) Cambodian Holiday (5.9)  second pitch
2) Cambodian Escape(5.4)

I escaped Cambodian Holiday (5.9) on my onsight attempt by traversing cliff right away from the exposed second pitch and onto Two Pitch (5.4). Since then I've been waiting for the opportunity to give it another go. I love when I fail due to fear because it challenges my ability to overcome.  The opportunity arose and this time around I was better prepared mentally! My belayer was nervous but encouraging.  I'm proud to say I overcame but it was still one of the hardest mental climbs I've ever accomplished.  I'm sure some of you are not impressed with a traditional (5.9) grade but I can only continue to sound like a broken record by always pointing out that the rock quality at Crowders is not confidence inspiring. This route was no exception, in fact it could be the poster child for mentally challenging routes.

Brandy Gibson Walters working on Burn Signals(5.10)-sport on Car Wall

After hooking up with other climbing buddies and letting them climb their projects, I kept my momentum going at Davids Castle Wall. I onsighted Respirator (5.8R) which sees very little traffic and had a couple rock chunks break off while I led it. I've learned that many of these untraveled traditional routes were mostly top-roped before being climbed ground up. I recommend this 'head point' style if you are familiarizing yourself with Crowders traditional climbing. The gear can be tricky and subtle but if you can trad climb at Crowders you probably won't have as hard a time at other climbing areas. 

Onsighting Respirator (5.8R)-trad on Davids Castle Wall

Also, noteworthy is that I did some trail maintenance at Davids Castle Wall. I removed a lot of briars and cleared some of the overgrown stuff covering up the less traveled traditional routes on the cliff right side of Davids Castle Wall. One route had briars growing out of the crack! It was a challenge to bushwhack up Handle With Care (5.6) while cleaning out the briars but it was worth it. This route is super easy physically but again the rock quality isn't the best but for the trained eye the gear is plentiful.

Matthew Stephens (13yrs) on his first traditional lead Handle With Care(5.6)

It feels good to get back on a route that scared me away. Coming out on top the second go around is a great feeling. It is this beautiful process of growing my skills that I'm so addicted to! Some are hung up on climbing the hardest grade possible but for me numbers aren't the only thing to aspire to. I love to be patient and work on being well rounded. This is probably because I want the mental, physical, and technical skills required to onsight harder and harder routes. I feel like I can probably project a 5.13 and eventually connect all the components required to send. It reminds me somewhat of my ballet years.

In ballet if we were learning a piece that had been performed before we would watch a video and pick it apart section by section and then put it together little by little until you had the dance complete. Some people were so good at learning dances that it could be equated to onsighting a route. I was not that skilled, I had to constantly rehearse in order to achieve what others could do in a handful of attempts. Partially because I started dancing at the unripe age of eighteen.




Projecting a route way beyond my onsight limit reminds me of having to rehearse over and over again in order to have a flawless performance. Although I enjoy this system of working out a route, I often prefer to work on a route closer to my onsight level in order to get a full day of climbing in.  Don't get me wrong, I love to perfect a route and then send if flawlessly but I prefer to not know the route and send it by figuring it out on the spot. For me, nothing quite compares to the first time you are on a route that you are not familiar with and everything goes just right.... or right enough to get you up the route on the first try.


All in all, to each their own. We all have different ethics that guide our climbing experiences and I'm not one to downplay others achievements. I am aware that I hold myself to a standard that not many agree with but in the end I climb for myself and not for others.  We'll save the ethics topic for another post. Happy climbing and stay hydrated!

Davids Castle Wall - I'm on Respirator (5.8R) 

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!