Get to the Top

Here's a little adventure I had Saturday May 7th that spilled into the night and Sunday morning.

Took a Dutch girl I am friends with climbing to Linville Gorge, North Carolina. The plan was to tackle an easy 5.5-7 multi pitch trad route and come back. Well, it was a heck of a bushwhack getting to the climb and we had no idea if we were even close until we met a couple of other climbers that confirmed we were on track. This just over a mile from the parking lot. Turns out the mountains in the east have what we in from Wyoming call 'vegetation' growing on them, these had 'thick vegetation.' Also this vegetation had been burned once, blown over, and more vegetation was growing in. BYOCS (bring your own chain saw). Our choice to sport sandals on the approach was a poor one.

We made it to the bottom of our climb around 4ish and decided to go ahead and go up. At this point we had run out of water and all the food we had was a Little Debbie's snack and an energy bar I had found on the trail earlier. We started up and the climbing was great. Protection was solid and even though there were no established belays there were obvious locations to do so, thus providing simple anchor setups. It was perfect... and then I noticed the sun had gone down and we were still about 100 feet from the top. By the time I got to the next belay it was almost dark and I brought Nynke up just as things got black. To make matters worse I had just established a belay in a nice arching dihedral that I'm sure would have been scary if it would have been light enough to see what we were up against (no head lamps). I led out in the black of night barely able to see and topped out a short 10 minutes later. The wind was really howling, so Nynke couldn't hear me yelling that I was ready to bring her up so I just started pulling in line figuring that she would get the drift. She did, and we climbed out to find that we had no idea where the descent trail was. We remembered the guide book saying something about an exit trail that followed the rim of the cliffs back to the main trail. The fact that we were on a 400ft tall detached block wasn't very comforting either, and we quickly located the edge of the cliff by crawling along until you noticed the hair on the back of your neck standing up. About then you could see that instead of grey (rock) there was inky black in front of you. At this point we decided to send a prayer heaven bound and make and unplanned bivy under a rock next to a hard spot.

It was a cold night, but it could have been worse, I could have been with a guy. As it was we were really cold in our tee-shirts and jeans. It makes me laugh now but man it was pretty miserable especially when the wind really started blowing around 3 a.m. When the first light came we scouted around locating the trail and cliff edge previously found by the neck-hair method, packed our gear and headed out. I am so glad we stopped and had a cold night because one of us would have been a goner if we had tried to crawl out in the dark. The trail back was literally right on the edge of the cliff and parts were quite spooky even in the day light. We made it back to the car at 7:20 drank a ton of water and drove 2.5 hours back to Columbia, SC in time to clean up and go to church just as if nothing ever happened. Indeed no one suspected anything.

What an adventure. In total 5 pitches, the last in complete darkness, and about 400 vertical feet. This highly recommended route located somewhere on the 'mummy buttress' is a must for anyone who makes the trek to Linville Gorge (I think we started on the 'daddy' but finished some where else). This climbing experience also begs this question: How far off route do you have to be before you can call your 'route' a new variation?

For the record Nynke still talked to me afterward-even gave me a kiss after she was back safely to her house (it is yet to be determined as a "good-bye" or "I need more" kiss), my mother was disappointed in my level of preparedness, my father wishes he was there, and in the least I am going to put an LED, space blanket, and a pack of matches in the pouch of my gear sling. Of course you can pick out, or should be able to see, my own planning short comings, and I advise you to learn from my mistakes. While still on the record, I just want to say I wouldn't have changed any of it if I was to do it again. We wanted an adventure and it sure was. Can't wait to go back!