Trip Reports - 12/03/00 - Our Epic in Linville Gorge

Submitted by Eddie Medina

I hadn’t been able to get “the last climb of the season” in by the time the end of November rolled around. Between climbing abroad and family reunions our long-awaited trip to Table Rock/ Linville Gorge was put off until the last weekend in November. I had talked my good buddy Jason Bowden into flying down from Maine to join me and at the last minute my wife made me take her brother-in-law Jeff Holman along too. Jeff is relatively new to the sport, but unnaturally strong. It is very commonplace for him to rip holds out as he cranks down on a route. Our initial plan called for an early Saturday start from Charlotte, but as fate would have it, (fate would have a heavy hand on this trip), Saturday’s weather did not cooperate. It started raining on Friday night and didn’t stop until Saturday night. So our start was postponed until early Sunday morning.           

After an uneventful 2.5 hour drive to the Table Rock parking lot we geared up and headed in the general direction of the Mummy Buttress with hopes of climbing The Daddy . Our climbing muses abandoned us right at that point. We spent about 3 hours just looking for the Amphitheater. I figured that with a guidebook and the nice map sketches included in it we would have no problems. About halfway to Shortoff Mountain I found what I presumed was the descent trail into the Amphitheater gully. Recent fires in the Gorge had turned the ground into a thick layer of ash and the preceding day’s rain had turned that ash into a black mush. Our descent was more slip and slide than actual walking. Jeff took a 10 foot slide down a slope on his belly and got ash all the way down to his skivvies.

Enlarge photo of Jeff and Eddie

At this point our muses were rolling in mirth at our futile efforts. Somehow we made it down to the foot of the cliffs. We descended through an awesome chasm between the main cliff wall and a buttress that had separated from it. It was about 5 feet wide with sheer walls rising about 300 ft. I assumed that if we kept heading south we would eventually get to the Amphitheater since it was the southernmost feature of the NC Wall. I had no idea where we were and still don’t, but noontime was approaching and we had no intentions of staying in the Gorge overnight. Returning the way we had come was going to be impossible and we could no longer continue going south. By this time Jeff was pointing to his watch every five minutes to indicate the importance of finding a way out in a timely fashion.

We found a ramp/crack that was rising to the left up to a large wooded ledge, but from where we were standing there was no way to see if there was any way to climb from the ledge to the top.  Having very few options left we headed up to the ledge. Since I was already racked up it was decided that I would lead the first pitches. Pitch one started with an interesting face climb into the ramp. Once in the ramp/crack the climbing was not difficult, but overrun with mosses and small bushes as well as an ever-present water runoff. Pitch two was more of the same and ended at a more vertical section. Pitch three was perhaps the scariest section.   I stepped left out of the crack and onto the face and climbed for what seemed to be an eternity before I found a good placement. The mosses on this section were quite useful. They provided a lot more friction than the damp rock. Pitch three ended at the aforementioned ledge on a lush carpet of moss.

At this point we bushwhacked around on the ledge looking for a feasible ascent route. Jason found a ramp at the far left end of the ledge that rose to the right into a large roof system. We decided this was the best option we had. Jason took the rack and started on what was probably the most vertical pitch we had yet done. He traversed up and right , slinging a small tree on the way to the roof. Then he switched directions and traversed up and left to some positive holds into a small dihedral and on to the belay ledge. At one part of the route the water was running so regularly that if you held still at one point for more than a second or two it would run right into your sleeve. For the greater portion of the day we had been in the shadows and even fog for a while, but while I was belaying Jason the sun finally peeked out. Things were indeed looking up and even a little soaking couldn’t dampen our suddenly upsurging spirits. Even Jeff stopped whimpering and browbeating me for dragging him to this godforsaken place. 

Enlarge image of Jason

Jason led pitch five which was really a third class scramble interspersed with some interesting bouldering moves. We had left the car at 9:15 that morning and it was now 3:30 PM. Jeff took one last look at his watch and determined that we would indeed have enough sunlight to complete this epic journey. As far as we could tell this was a first ascent, and although it felt like a 5.8 in the damp condition in which we found it, we all agreed that it would probably be more of a 5.5 under ideal conditions.

Enlarge photo of Eddie belaying

We headed back to Charlotte and our warm beds with the intention of dropping Jeff off (he had to work the next day) and getting an early start for our next day of climbing at Table Rock.

Our return trip to Charlotte included a stop a the much touted El Chapala Restaurant.  I had to nap after all that good food, so I made Jason drive all the way back to Charlotte.

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