Trip Reports - 3/26/03 Picken's Nose, North Carolina

Randy and Bryan Hall, Jackie and Wayne Busch visit Picken's Nose, North Carolina

I was looking for a nice place to spend some time climbing with Jackie. Bryan had mentioned how much his wife Randi liked Picken's Nose. It was close, and I'd never been there before. I always like something new. So, I suggested we make a trip down there.

We rendezvoused in Dillsborough, then sped down 441 / 64 towards Franklin. About 5 miles south of town, just after the small green sign for Otto, we came to the the turn onto Coweeta Lab Road. We followed it until it turned to gravel. It took five miles of steady climbing to reach the 4800 foot trailhead. 20 minutes walk up the easy trail took us out along a narrow wooded ridge top It got narrower as we progressed. We started finding short trails to the cliff tops after about 15 minutes.

We looked at each cliff as we made our way further out the ridge, coming to one with 3 good anchors atop it. I rigged a rope on the first set of anchors while the others descended a gully just beyond. We took turns on the rope climbing the moderate faces. Once satisfied with all the ascents from one anchor, I would move to the next set of bolts. The last had an overhanging start that was more than I could hang on to today - close, but no cigar.

We toured the other cliffs to give our fingers a rest, following along the cliff bottoms. We saw a few good trad routes, several aid lines, but no overwhelming propensity towards any one type of climbing. Picken's Nose has just a little bit of everything, but not enough of any one thing thing allow categorization as to one type.

Returning to the cliffs, we pulled down the top ropes, and set about trad leading several routes in the immediate area. By mid afternoon, the overcast skies and damp wind had chilled us enough that we called it a day.

We had a nice day. It sprinkled just a bit on the way home, making us feel a little better about not staying all day. A good first climbing trip of spring.

Yahoo scalable map - shows turn off 441 near Otto

Topozone.com Topo Map (link)

Picken's Nose climbing area page

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