Summary

Description

Angelique had a couple days off which coincided with MLK Jr. Day that I got as holiday for the first time this year. We decided a week before to plan to head out and climb at Rumbling Bald which neither of us had been to before. Throughout the week, I got the occasional e-mail from her about how her crew couldn't make it, but I was able to get in touch with a couple different friends of mine who climb at Rumbling and line up climbing with one of them each day.

Sunday, 1/15
Angelique showed up around 7:30. I gave her a quick tour of the house, then we loaded her stuff in my car and we got on the road around 8:10am. With one stop for gas, we made it to the Rumbling Bald parking lot by noon. We had called Tim from the road, and he said he would meet us at the lower parking lot. Getting to the parking lot, there's were cars out the wazoo. The dirt road was pretty rutted, and we had made the right choice to take my Outback rather than Angelique's car with the low clearance and low profile tires. I even made it down the hill to the lower lot ... although I wasn't completely sure about making it back out. The lot was pretty packed, but I was able to squeeze the car in next to the left trail head, and there was enough room to pull it in so that it didn't block the trail. After waiting about 30-45 minutes for Tim, I called his home number, got his wife who gave me his cell phone number. I called his cell and found that he was waiting for us at the other end of the parking lots. He assumed he had gotten there before us and was waiting for us to show up.

We hiked up the right-hand trail to the Cereal Buttress. It was kind of a zoo up there with people crawling all over the rock. That's what happens on a beautiful weekend day when the weather's been nasty for the preceding few weeks. We ran into Sean Coburn and a friend who were on Granola and waited for them to come down before getting on it. Tim led up and set it up as a top rope. Challenging climb. The feet on the left traverse along the undercling were very small and interesting. I think it was a good introduction to Rumbling.

After that, we headed over to the Comatose Area and had to wait for a party to finish up on Comatose. While we were waiting, Tim pointed out the line two to the right of Comatose that he had put up that's mostly 5.8 with a 5.10 move. Also while we were waiting, two more parties came up behind us. The first was Nathan (from Duke) and a friend of his. The second party didn't stick around since the line was getting long.

Tim led up Comatose, trailing two ropes. I followed, back-clipping the second rope in so Angelique would be protected. I came off right near the start when I stopped paying attention to my feet and they blew off, sending me swinging out along the slabby face and tearing up the knuckles of the left hand that had been underclinging the crack. I got back on and kept climbing. I tried to step over the corner/roof too early, and Tim let me know that I had to continue on up to where the crack widened to get the 5.8 move. He was right, and it was so worth it. A little strange as the crack got wider, but there are bomber holds to reach up to for the step up and over.

We scrambled off rather than rappelling down. Tim gave Angelique a belay across the first exposed part then followed her so he could downclimb and spot. Nathan had made it up to the anchors and was kind enough to give me a belay across the exposed section. (As he said, it only took a second was cheap insurance. I didn't mind at all.) Tim spotted for both me and Angelique on the one short downclimb section, then the rest was an easy scramble.

It was beginning to get late, but we headed back over to the Cereal Buttress area and got on Fruit Loops. Angelique and I were fascinated with the sound of the waterfall coming through the crack to the left of the route from deep within the rock. Someday I want to take headlamp and go in and find it. Tim led up the first pitch very quickly and again set it up as a top rope. Angelique climbed second, then I climbed. I loved the route. I think it's one I could probably lead. The sun had set by the time I was going up, and I could feel warm air coming out from behind the flake. It was getting a bit dim as I rigged the rope and was lowered off. The hike out got more and more interesting as the light faded. We were doing a bit of leaf skiing on the way down, and I finally slipped and decided it was time to turn on my headlamp.

Tim had invited us to come back into Asheville to a pub to have dinner with him. I was able to get my car back up and around the big dropoff on the road down to the lower parking lot, and we headed out. Just after we got on the road, he pulled over in Chimney Rock and asked if we wanted to crash at his place in Asheville rather than drive back out and camp at a campground. Did we? Of course! Sleeping bags on the living room floor would be much better than sleeping in a cold tent. Plus, we'd get to meet Tim's wife and his three cats.

Dinner (and beer) at the pub was good, and Tim's wife, Michelle,showed up part way through. She's very nice. After dinner, we headed to their house. A cute little ranch house owned by three cats: Max, Louie, and Ava. Max and Louie are Bengals, and Ava is an 8 month old Serval, which is a breed from East Africa. Ava is about 20 lbs. and will grow to be about 50 lbs. All the cats are very pretty and were fun to play with (although Louie was a little shy). We eventually went to bed, with me and Angelique camped out on the living room floor with our thermarests and sleeping bags.

Monday, 1/16
We got up around 7am, said goodbye to everyone, packed up and headed out around 8am. We stopped by McD's for breakfast and coffee for Angelique and headed back to Rumbling to meet my fried, Doug, at 9am.

We rolled into the parking lot a little after 9, and Doug was there waiting for us. After a quick meet-n-greet, we saddled up and hiked in, taking the left trail this time and heading for the Screamweaver Area and getting on Chickenhead City.

Doug struggled a bit at the beginning of the route, trying to get gear in to protect the step out from the fractured vertical cracks onto the left traversing face with the high crack. The rock wasn't the best quality, but he eventually got some pieces in and got moving on it. Watching him climb, I was a little nervous about the route. I was tired from the day before, and my left hand was a bit banged up. (I taped my knuckled and my thumb where I had torn them up on Comatose.) Angelique followed Doug and climbed beautifully up through the beginning sections then got a little stuck under the roof but worked that out and continued on up.

Then it was my turn. I started up, not in the best frame of mind. I got to the transition from the vertical to the face, and there were only a couple nubbins for feet and a higher diagonal hand crack for the hands. I moved out onto the face like I'd seen Doug and Angelique do, tried to make the next move, and my feet blew off, and I took a swing. Argh. I got back on, but then I was pretty much stuck, standing on the only two small but passable feet that I could find, with my right hand jammed in the crack. Seemed like I stood there for half and hour, but it probably wasn't more than a few minutes. I thought about backing off and having Doug lower me. Just wasn't on my game at all. I kept trying to find a good jam for my right hand that I could trust and crank off of to be able to move my feet, and I just didn't like any of it. I eventually decided to go for it, and with much struggling made the next couple moves. Having to stop and clean the gear along the way didn't make me very happy either. At least I didn't get stuck under the roof like Angelique did. Because I'm taller, I found feet lower down and didn't get sucked up along the crack.

After getting around the roof, there was a nice rest above before another tough move of jamming, stepping around and onto a slight overhang with a bunch of chickenheads, a quick traverse left then climbing the face. Sounds a lot easier than it was for me. I was very tired, and it took a lot of grunting, swearing, and a little bit of weighting the rope for me to get through it. I was beat by the time I made it up to where I could see Doug and Angelique and the belay. They were a little chilly in the breeze up there so we didn't waste and time, and I was the first to rappel down since it was the easiest way for me to get out of the way. Two 60m ropes just reached the ground.

When I got down, I was thinking to myself that I might be done for the day. We decided to head over to the Flakeview Area to look at Bear Hunt and The Gift which are two 5.7 routes that were put up by Angelique's friend, Steve. Even if I didn't climb, I wanted to see where they were since they are in the range of what I might be able to lead.

Doug led up Bear Hunt. The gear and rock quality were pretty crappy. He put in three pieces low in a crack with very friable rock before heading up higher to a couple of bolts. He set it up as a top rope for us. Angelique got on that route while I got on the rope of a couple climbing the next route to the left. The guy didn't know the name, but said it's another 5.7 that's been bolted three times and chopped twice. It is very well protected -- overly protected by the normal Rumbling standards. Both of the routes there are mostly slab climbing which I like, and I had a blast climbing them. I could lead the unknown 5.7, but because of the rock quality, I wouldn't want to lead Bear.

When I got to the top of Bear, we decided not to go on up and see The Gift since it was getting late, and the sun would set before all of us could get up there. So I rigged for a rappel off the rap rings on slings, we packed up, and hiked out. The hike out from this area was more covered with leaves than the trail from Cereal Buttress the previous day, and I was glad we still had light to see by.

We sat in the parking lot for about an hour and chatted with Doug and each had a beer that I had brought. It was a great way to wind down from a great day. We could stay too late because Angelique and I had to get on the road for the 4 hour drive home. We said goodbye to Doug and got going around 7pm. We stopped for dinner at Wendy's and got gas just before getting on the interstate and had an uneventful drive home.

It was a wonderful weekend of climbing. The weather was good, and it was great to hook up with friends who are fun to hang out with, know the area, and are strong climbers. It was also a great way to celebrate Angelique's birthday.