Flatliners Southeast Climbing - North Carolina - Mingo Falls

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North Carolina - Mingo Falls

Submitted by Bryan Hall

Location

Owned by the Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians, Mingo Falls is located on the Cherokee Indian Reservation, about fifteen minutes from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino. Great if you want to gamble all your cash away before you gamble your ass, but it’s still one of my favorite areas to climb in. It’s a heavily visited area, with thousands of tourists snapping photos of the two hundred foot waterfall each year. Thankfully, the climbs are away from the main tourist area. Another blessing is that with a long enough rope, once you reach the top of the climbs you can rappel straight down the middle of the waterfall to cool off.

Description

The descriptions and route information is provided by Bryan Hall - e- mail rushjunkie11@aol.com

Mingo features some very easy climbs, but they are all rather runout. It’s a great place to get used to climbing with hardly any protection at all before doing it on the harder, bigger climbs.

Directions

Topo map (TopoZone.com link)

To get there, head into downtown Cherokee and keep going. You will eventually see a sign directing you to Big Cove Road. Follow the signs to Big Cove Road (you will drive past a fairly large Bear Zoo), and once on Big Cove continue about 6 miles to the Mingo Falls parking area on your right. There will be signs letting you know you’re there.

Cliff Access

There are two cliffs, one on each side of the waterfall reaching 100 - 130 feet in height. Both feature dangerously run out climbs, with one side boasting more difficult climbs than the other. The easier left cliff is described.

The left cliff is accessible by a trail that leads to the top of the waterfall. There is a bridge at the base of the waterfall. Leave the bridge and make your way to the falls. Immediately to your left will be a dirt trail heading almost straight up, littered with rocks and tree roots. About twenty feet up the trail you will come to base of the cliff.

This cliff is around one hundred to one hundred thirty feet tall (a rough estimate based on rope length) and about thirty to forty feet wide. The height of the cliff should lend itself to a single pitch, and that is an option on the cliff, but the following routes are all two pitch climbs due to the fact that after the first thirty or so feet, the belayer cannot see the leader. I prefer to set a belay station on a climb rather than continue upward, knowing that a fall will take my belayer completely by surprise.

Moss is a problem here. Every time we climb here, we clean all the moss off the holds. By the time we climb again, it has returned in full force. There are a few different kinds of moss on the rock, but all of them can be a pain in your ass.

Show large view of Josh on Crossroads

Guidebooks

None yet. You're getting a sample of things to come. Not all routes that will be contained in Bryan's guidebook are listed here.

Routes

Mingo Falls -Left Cliff

NOTE: These climbs may or may not have been done before us. We are treating them as First Ascents due to the fact that there were no other signs that anyone had climbed them before, as well as never hearing anyone in the climbing community mention the cliffs. If we’ve put up a route over one you put up years ago, e-mail me (Byran Hall) at rushjunkie11@aol.com and let me know.

My main climbing partner and stepbrother, Josh Moore, and I have put up five routes on this cliff, and it is here that we made our first-ever first ascents. None of the routes are bolted, and all are slightly run out. Some micro-nuts will give you a few more placements, due to several tiny cracks scattered about on the cliff. These climbs were first made with no cams; once we climbed them with cams we found perhaps two more pro placements than without.

The cliff features several angles of climbing depending on where you go. If you don’t like the angle you’re on, you can almost always move to your left or right a little and get the one you want. Some of the cliff is vertical; one spot overhangs slightly, while a good bit is just a little less than vertical.

Here’s a quick rundown of the five routes, with their grades:

These routes are described in detail on the Routes - North Carolina page

Land Manager:

Eastern Band Of Cherokee Indians

Emergency Information:

Call 911. You are in Swain County.

Gear:

Standard rack.

Facilities:

Cherokee has almost everything you could want

Seasons:

The dryer the better, best during fall / early winter, avoid weekend crowds.

Photo provided by Bryan Hall - Bryan Hall and Josh Moore gearing up Access Notes

One problem with Mingo is the tourists. Each day we’ve climbed there, countless numbers of people have made their way up the trail and stopped to watch us climb. No big deal, except that most of them feel compelled to start a conversation with the belayer, which can take his/her focus away from the climber. If you belay, DON”T allow yourself to be distracted by small talk. Your partner’s life is in your hands.

Show larger view of Bryan and Josh

Miscellaneous

Please be courteous to visitors, and don’t leave trash or any other signs that you were here. Also try not to dislodge loose rock, as it could very easily fly into a crowded area. We have had no problems with access here, and I would very much like for it to stay that way.

Links

About Bryan Hall

Bryan Hall is a 22 year old climber living in Sylva, North Carolina with his wife Randi Carpenter and one-year-old daughter Destiny. About 45 minutes from Asheville, Sylva is surrounded by climbing areas both well known and relatively obscure. Bryan, and his partner Josh Moore, climb almost every weekend, preferring the challenges and adventure of exploring the lesser known areas.

I’m currently at work on a climbing guide for NC to be published by Earthbound Sports, INC., one far different from previous guides. This guide will include all known routes, topos for as many as possible, with more detailed descriptions for the routes. We’ve examined the previous NC guides, as well as a few for other areas, and found some problems with them that we want to tackle head on in this guide. Starting locations for routes have been hard to determine from the guides once you reach the cliffs, for instance. Any route that may be hard to find will include detailed starting locations. Long routes will include helpful belay info, some routes will contain some gear placements you may find useful (the crux of the second pitch is protected by a #3 cam, Large hexes are useful on the second pitch,etc. for example).

We’ll also be including many cliffs not covered by other guides, and also bouldering areas. Some areas will be included in a Miscellaneous cliffs section, while most will be covered extensively.

We hope to make it the most comprehensive, detailed, and useful guide on the market for NC in these ways.

We also want the book to be somewhat of an entertaining read, therefore we’ll be including some history for most areas, as well as a new twist on guidebooks: short, one page climbing stories.

These stories will range from epics, accidents, FA stories, and more, and will be scattered throughout the guidebook.

Any questions, suggestions, or comments can be made by e-mailing Bryan Hall at rushjunkie11@aol.com