New Areas, New Adventures

Once again I return to make yet another sparse update to my seldom nurtured travel/climbing/stream of consciousness blog. Since last time, I have moved on from Bishop to the great state of North Carolina that will be home for at least the next couple of years. Leaving Bishop was difficult to swallow, but the prospect was eased by the fact that I had such an amazing time while there.

I got to catch up with several old friends I had not seen in quite some time as well as make a few new ones, enjoy the local life and fare of Bishop and generally just bask in the amazing scenery that is the Eastern Sierra. I suppose I also got to climb on some of the most amazing rock in the world while I was there as well.

In the total span of three weeks of climbing (including rest days both chosen and forced by the infrequent bout of bad weather), I managed to tick off ninety new boulder problems ranging from VB to V8. The philosophy for the trip was simply to climb as much as I could, regardless of the grade, and enjoy every minute of it. Simply go to the area and try to climb whatever piece of rock appeared to be the most appealing. I really benefited from this mindset because it forced me to devote little more than a few tries to any one boulder problem. I think there is something to be said for projecting/epicing on a route/boulder problem that is very difficult for you and will mean a lot to you once you eventually send said section of rock, but I think the necessity of frequency for such action should be fairly minuscule by comparison to the rest of your climbing.

I have definitely done my fair share of epicing that resulted in both great joy at their conclusion and a few benders along the way; but I think they can sometimes cause us to lose scope of things. Rock climbing is fun. I am psyched to go out and try hard and throw myself at things that feel near impossible and hopefully eventually send. And I think we have to be willing to do that in order to push ourselves both physically and mentally in the sport, but I think sometimes it is fun to do a tour de force and just climb. If you happen to be drawn to a line that is hard and amazing, then do it. If you happen to be drawn to a line that is well below your level but also amazing, then do that is well.

For me at least, I would be lying if I said that I do not want to do hard routes/boulder problems, but I also want more than that. Climbs of all grades offer something special and have the potential to house amazing movement, holds and/or pure aesthetics of rock formation. In a situation like mine, where I only had such a short time in such an amazing place like Bishop, then, I just wanted to climb as much of that amazing rock as I could. And so I did.

After my painful departure from Bishop, I made a quick pit-stop in San Diego to recover the rest of my belongings I did not already have with me and proceeded to high tail it across the country to return to the land in which I feel most at home...the Southeast. I stopped for a couple of days in Chattanooga to visit some really good friends of mine. While there, I had the opportunity to make my first trip to HP40 in Alabama.

I have to say that the climbing there is otherworldly and definitely not what I had expected. All of the HP40esque climbing was wild. It was like climbing on slabby, warbly concrete with nothing to hold onto. I was expecting slopers, but I guess I figured they would be more thuggy slapfests rather than delicate balance problems. Either way, the climbs were amazing and definitely atypical from anything else I have ever been on.

The sloper problems were not all that HP40 had to offer though, as I soon discovered. There was also a healthy dose of steep, powerful crimping. I was lucky enough to cross paths with some local guys from Birmingham, Alabama that were nice enough to give me the nickel tour of sorts. The place as a whole is kind of theme parky as it is privately owned and a pay per use location that used to be the site of many a bluegrass festival, but the climbing is so good it definitely warrants swallowing the locale's oddities.

And now, North Carolina. I have been pleasantly surprised with the accessibility to great local climbing. Obviously Boone and Rumbling Bald are amazing hotspots for the bouldering enthusiast, but they are both far enough away from me to only be accessible as weekend trips. Practically right in my backyard, though, is some of the best climbing I have ever been on. I have been exploring the boulders at Pilot Mountain State Park since moving here, and have found some world class lines. The breadth of climbing is admittedly small, but what is there is just as good as any other climbing I have been on anywhere. As far as climbing goes, the area is known for a cliff band that runs below the main hiking trail that houses a good amount of sport/trad/top-rope routes, but the bouldering seems to be an afterthought at present.

So far I have found one good boulder field a good ways down the trail from the top of the mountain, and one area with three main boulders with several good lines on them right on the main hiking trail toward the top of the mountain. I uploaded a video below of one of the lines at the trailside boulders. This particular line starts on good holds at the back of the roof and traverses out and over the roof/bulge with some difficult long pulls. There was unfortunately no topping out that day as it was snowing pretty hard and the top was soaking wet, but the meat of the climb was sheltered and bone dry. I apologize for the grunting in the video, but, alas, I was trying hard and grunting seems to be what I do when trying hard.

The line in the video shares a boulder with two other equally spectacular problems. One of them is a little easier and one of them is quite a bit more difficult. I plan on spending a lot of time climbing here and will hopefully be adding several videos of the climbs I happen to find that are particularly amazing. I am psyched to get people out here to climb on these problems as it seems that they are currently not very well traveled. Make the journey, and I promise you will find yourself happy with your decision to do so.

Come and play!

Bouldering at Pilot Mountain from Bryce Tuggle on Vimeo.