| When: | 7/26/2003 |
| Where: | Moore's Wall, NC (Hanging Rock State Park) |
| Who: | Lisa Lorenzin |
| What: | Sentinel Buttress (5.5, in 2 pitches) |
| Easy Hard (5.5, in 1 pitch) |
Lisa and I had planned to go to Table Rock this weekend to camp and climb, but at the last minute, the forecast looked iffy with tropical depression #7 predicted to head up through NC Saturday afternoon. So we reset our plans and decided instead to get up early, day-trip to Moore's, and climb as long as we could until the rain started.
Didn't get up as early as we had planned. <*grin*> We got on the road around 8am and made it up to the Moore's Wall parking around 10am. We hadn't been up there is almost a year, and there were a few changes. There is no longer parking in the "lower" area. It's blocked off with signs saying no parking. So I headed up to the "upper" area. It's still a rough drive, but not as rough as it used to be since there's now large gravel smoothing out around some of the big rocks. No problem for the Outback. The other change is that the registration box is no longer at Tory's Den. The message board says to register at the park office or the head of the Moore's Wall trail. When we hiked in, we never saw the box or a place to register. Don't know what happened to the box.
Ours was the only car parked up there. Since we weren't that early, I guess other folks were deterred by the possibility of rain. We got geared up at the car -- me carrying my load in my pack, Lisa wearing her harness and toting a rope bag. While we were getting ready, we both felt a couple of light sprinkles, even though the sun was shining. We looked at each other and decided to head on in and just get wet if it really started raining. It never did start raining.
We hiked in and decided to start of easy with Sentinel Buttress since it had been close to a year since I last lead a trad route. I was a bit nervous, but I kept it to myself as I got ready and racked up. I started leading the first pitch around 11am. It went pretty well. The only moment of panic was when I was trying to step up and over and one of the Camalots on my harness got caught. Argh! I was in mid-step, and I was committed to the move. I had to ease back down and shake my hips a couple times to finally get it to let go. I was definitely a bit shaky for a little bit after that, but I finished the lead with no problem. Lisa seconded the pitch with no problem, although she had a slow start committing to the first move. After that, she climbed up with no problem.
We decided to go ahead and climb the second pitch since the weather was still looking good, and there was no one else on Sentinel. In fact, we had only seen one other couple so far. The second pitch went really well and was a fun lead. After I topped out, I got the anchor setup pretty quickly and extended it out so I could sit at the top with my feet over the edge and see about half of the route. Gorgeous sunny day, incredible view, nice breeze ... you can't beat that.
Lisa started up and didn't have any trouble with the climb. The only issue she ran into was trying to clean a #2 WC Rock that I had slotted into a crack. It had just barely fit in, and when I tugged it, it pulled past a slight constriction. I knew at the time that it would be tough to clean ... so I left it there for my second to work on. <*grin*> Well, she worked on it for about 5-10 minutes. She gave me the play-by-play as she was working on it, and we eventually decided to leave it, and she finished the pitch.
We had thought about walking off rather than rapping, but I wanted to have a crack at trying to get that nut unstuck so we rigged for rappelling. The anchor at the top of Sentinel is an odd pulley and bolt combo. Since I was last up there, someone had added a quicklink to backup the pulley which makes it a little nicer. Lisa still doesn't like it so I let her go first, and I backed up the whole thing with the three pieces of gear I had used to build the anchor I used for the belay. There was no problem. After she was down and off rappel, I took down the anchor and got on rappel. It's a lot harder to actually climb down there and commit to the rappel than it is to watch your girlfriend do it. <*grin*>
I rapped down to where the nut was stuck and worked on it for a few minutes. It helped to know how I had put it in. It would wiggle around, but there was a constriction or nub behind/above it that was keeping it from moving up. I eventually figured out the right way to reach behind it with my nut tool and push it from behind and below to get it to pass, and I got it out. Yay! Rapped on down and pulled the ropes. Lisa rigged the rappel on the first pitch, and we both got down safely.
It was around 3pm, and the Clif bar we had split at the top of Sentinel was wearing off so we stopped for lunch. PBJ from squeeze tubes on homemade whole wheat. A climbing classic. (For us, at least.) It was yummy. The coolest part was that while we were eating, a sliver spotted skipper (a kind of butterfly) came over to investigate us. It landed on one of the biners on Lisa's harness and sat there investigating the pink cord then moving on to investigate the biner. It spent about half an hour flittering between Lisa's biners and mine, not seeming to mind us at all. Very cool.
After lunch, we bundled everything up and moved over to Easy Hard. It was around 4pm, and there was still no sign of any rain. We knew it would take us at least a couple hours or climb and get back down, and we decided to go for it. Even though the guide lists both Sentinel Buttress and Easy hard at 5.5, Easy Hard is definitely more challenging. There were two places where I thought to myself "this is the crux". Both were going up and over or around a slight bulge or roof. By the time I got to the top, there was major rope drag. I could have used a couple more of the 4' slings. (I only have 2 of them, and I used them both early on. Need to remember to save at least one of them for below the last roof.) Got to the top, and I was glad to get into the shade and into the alcove at the top where there was a cool breeze. Most of the route had been in full sun, and I was very tired.
Setup the anchor and belayed Lisa up. She did well. She got an appreciation for the rope drag since she was trailing our 9.8mm rope since 2 ropes are needed to rap off of Easy Hard. Once she topped out, I rigged the ropes for the rappel One neat thing that happened is that as I turned to setup the rappel, a hummingbird flew up, hovered in front of us for a second and then flew off. Another mountain spirit saying hello.
The rap station -- some slings and a coated steel cable through a couple of quicklinks -- wasn't pretty, but it looked like it would do the job: the slings were weathered but probably OK; the coating on the steel cable was worn through in spots, but the cable looked solid; the quicklinks were rusted, but looked serviceable. I thought about cutting a piece of webbing to add to it, but decided that it was OK as-is. Next time, I'll probably bring another quicklink to back it up. Lisa rapped off of it with no problem. By the time I setup to rappel, I was pretty tired, and I was going through everything methodically to make sure I didn't screw anything up. When I was ready I called down to Lisa "On belay!". Oops. That's not what I'm supposed to say. She (rightly) questioned me about it. I stopped and looked everything over, looking for what I might have screwed up. After checking everything a few times, it still looked OK, and I rappelled down without incident.
Once I was down, Lisa pulled the rope, and we packed everything up. The hike down to the car was tough (because I was tired) but uneventful. Still didn't see any climbing registration box on the way out. We got to the car tired, sweaty, and smelly around 7pm. It was still a beautiful day out, it never even looked like rain. What a great day!
I ended up with a little sunburned on my upper arms and the tops of my thighs from when I was sitting at the top of Sentinel Buttress belaying Lisa up. Other than that, Lisa and I only had the normal compliment of sore muscles the next day. A small price to pay for getting back out on the rock and having such a good time. And Lisa didn't have any trouble with the knee she had hurt when we were last climbing (at Pilot back in June).
We happened to note the time throughout the day and wrote it down on on the way home in the car. Here's how the day went: