Developing near virgin North Carolina rock can be described in one word: dirty.  Lichen grows everywhere and every route literally has to be cleaned and cleared as you go.  Luckily we came prepared and our rack included one of those steel bristled BBQ grill brushes to hopefully make easy work of a dirty job.  But even with the right tool for the job it was still a hassle but we went there to climb and the hassles that come with untrodden territory were not going to put a damper on the day.

Ben wanted to climb some virgin rock and soon found an odd flaring crack that opened to a right facing dihedral.  He made quick work of the awkward but easy start and then had the distinct pleasure of battling a licheny dihedral.  Armed with the brush he let loose and a flurry of black snow came raining down on me.  Now with clean rock for his hands and feet he popped out left of the dihedral and scrambled to the anchors that he and Wes installed prior.

I followed and was quite surprised at how good the rock was.  On the route there was nothing rotten and the rock still had that fresh grit feel that gets polished off as more and more people grab the same handholds and use the same feet.  If you’ve ever climbed at Laurel Knob then you know that fresh grit feel I am talking about.

The route is not finished because there are definitely options to continue up but while we’re still exploring the under-developed wall the shiny new anchors seemed like a good place to stop.

All in all it was probably 60 feet of 5.7-ish climbing that just oozed adventure.

ROCK!!!  That would be the word of the day while developing this undocumented wall near Table Rock in North Carolina.

Wes and Ben were by no means the first people to explore this wall.  There were already a couple of lines bolted with modern equipment when they got there but it was obvious from the overgrown lichen and friable rock that this wall had not been climbed out.  They were not the first there, but developing is not about being the first.  Developing a wall is about making it accessible to the motivated, adventurous souls looking to push the boundaries of established lines.  It is about bettering the rock climbing community by adding one more area to explore.  It is about a whole lot of work… and a helluva lot of fun.

This spring Wes and Ben are getting their fill of undocumented routes and they asked me to keep the exact location a secret but I can tell you that once it is developed it will be exciting.

I am hesitant to call anything a “first ascent” because you can never be 100% certain that nobody has climbed that route before.  What I can be sure of is that this wall is about as virgin as North Carolina rock comes.  On the whole the rock is covered in lichen which makes it very apparent where people have climbed before because you literally have to clean the lichen in front of you as you go.  Also there is an abundant amount of very loose rock sitting on top of bomber solid rock which keeps the belayer on his toes as it continually flakes off of the wall.  Unlike Crowders Mountain, where all the rock is crap, once this first layer of crap rock is cleaned the routes will eat up pro that you can set and forget.

Over the next few days I am going to write up the few routes that they have put up so far.  If you’re interested in helping with their project shoot me a message via the “About Me” page on top or leave a comment.  At the end of the day it is up to them if they want to share their baby but I can tell you that it will be fun to watch this project evolve.