minimum gear/rack and beta for a day at Stone Mountain?

Hey all, I'm hoping for some guidance here.

I'm traveling down to the Chapel Hill area this holiday season for a few days, and am hoping to get a chance to spend one day at Stone Mountain (if the current cold conditions ever end...).

Question: since my wife and I are flying, and want to avoid checking bags, I'd like to bring the absolute minimum of equipment. One 60m rope okay? What about slings and gear? Handful of cams and a few nuts?

Anyone want to suggest an itinerary for the day? For reference, I'm anticipating being okay climbing up to hard 5.9/easy 5.10. I've had lots of experience with slab climbing in Yosemite/Tuolumne. Great Arch looks beautiful, so does Mercury's Lead, Grand Funk Railroad, and Great White Way. How's the walk-off? Can we rap with just one 60? Is the preferred shoe something stiff for micro edges or super soft for maximum smearing? I may not have another chance to visit for a loooong time, so I'd like to make the most of the one day that I may be able to have there. Thanks!

You are traveling to the land of runouts at Stone mountain. The great arch, however, will eat gear all day long from TCU's to a number one camalot up top. The climbing is super casual and with a single set of those cams you will be well protected. I suggest the U-Slot as an approach to the bench. It is of course runout with two equalized tcu's for protection at the crux. Once you are on the face climbs you are climbing bolt protected trad (think jtree) with some genuine runouts that only require qd's or single length runners. Travel light. Comfy, soft slab shoes, and a good head are a must. The walk off is fairly long(45 back to the base) and two ropes are needed to rap back to the bench. Enjoy! it is a special place.

Grand Funk Railroad! Grand Funk Railroad!

Yardarm! Yardarm!

Great Arch has to be done cause of it's look from afar, but it's nothing special.

Bring burly pants, just in case!

...the belayer selects a flight path into the woods... oh, those were the days

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Yeah, I've got an idea about the lack of gear and long runouts... like I say, I've done a decent share of runout slab climbing. Sounds like the lightest option would be a single set of cams to #1 C4 at the most, plus one rope, and we'll just commit to doing the walk off.

I have rapped back down to the ledge (the start of the great arch) with 1 rope before. You have to find the anchors at the top of the arch and start from there. Just never skip an anchor. It requires a little creative rapping, but nothing major. The anchors are sometimes located to the right or left of a straight line. This will allow you to get more climbs in. After your last route of the day, you can then hike off the top.

Barry Brown wrote:I have rapped back down to the ledge (the start of the great arch) with 1 rope before. You have to find the anchors at the top of the arch and start from there. Just never skip an anchor. It requires a little creative rapping, but nothing major. The anchors are sometimes located to the right or left of a straight line. This will allow you to get more climbs in. After your last route of the day, you can then hike off the top.

Watched someone do it last time I was there.

The first pitch of the Arch is yellow camalot size for sure.

Diego Rivera wrote: ...the belayer selects a flight path into the woods... oh, those were the days

Good one Diego. That made me laugh and brought back memories. This can work really well on the first pitches at Stone for sure. Be careful though, I once saw a guy fall about 25' above a first bolt there; his belayer ran through the woods and stopped him right at the bolt! Only problem was she tripped over a root right at the end of the flight path and broke her arm, I think, or messed it up real bad. He was fine except for a little palm burn and rubber loss, but she paid the price.

Have fun Alexander. That place is beautiful with impeccable stone.
Grand Funk for sure. The Pulpit is a good mental warm up too for the more serious routes. First pitch of Rainy Day Women is an all time classic. Another Rotert gem.

Check out Electric Boobs. All of the climbing is in the first two pitches and then very mellow.

Alexander Nees wrote:Hey all, I'm hoping for some guidance here. I'm traveling down to the Chapel Hill area this holiday season for a few days, and am hoping to get a chance to spend one day at Stone Mountain (if the current cold conditions ever end...). Question: since my wife and I are flying, and want to avoid checking bags, I'd like to bring the absolute minimum of equipment. One 60m rope okay? What about slings and gear? Handful of cams and a few nuts? Anyone want to suggest an itinerary for the day? For reference, I'm anticipating being okay climbing up to hard 5.9/easy 5.10. I've had lots of experience with slab climbing in Yosemite/Tuolumne. Great Arch looks beautiful, so does Mercury's Lead, Grand Funk Railroad, and Great White Way. How's the walk-off? Can we rap with just one 60? Is the preferred shoe something stiff for micro edges or super soft for maximum smearing? I may not have another chance to visit for a loooong time, so I'd like to make the most of the one day that I may be able to have there. Thanks!

Soft shoes for sure.
You should be fine with a handful of cams and some nuts. I usually take about 6 cams up to a .75 Camalot. The most useful are smaller, 00-orange TCU sized. If you are climbing 10's then even the Great Arch with minimal gear should be ok. I usually carry 6-8 draws/sling, and that is including the anchors.

The routes you mentioned are classics: GWW, Great Arch, Grand Funk, Mercury's, Storm in a Teacup, Yardarm, Pulpit, Rainy Day Woman...the best route there in my opinion is a little harder, but still low 10...Bombay Groove/Yankee Go Home. Also check out Fantastic, it is not a slab climb and is really fun.

It is very difficult to rap with a single 60 and would likely involve getting on other people's anchors. It is faster to just go to the top and walk back down. It is a short (<30 minutes) straight forward walk.

When will you be in CH? I could lend you an extra rope, I think I have an extra skinny 55m rope that would be ok for rapping. Get in touch if you want.

Alexander Nees wrote:I may not have another chance to visit for a loooong time, so I'd like to make the most of the one day that I may be able to have there. Thanks!

If you really want to maximize your climbing in one day, having two ropes will be advantageous. The walk-off will definitely cut into your climbing time, especially with the days so short now.

Having said that, if you can find a way to rap to the tree ledge with your single rope and there are other climbers on hand, here's a solution for getting back to ground level at the end of the day: fix your rope at one of the bolted rap stations and do a single-rope rap to the ground, then one of the climbers who's still on the tree ledge can untie and drop your rope to you. Or you could just ask nicely if you can hitch a ride on someone else's double-rope rap.

One note on the notorious "running belay" that others have mentioned -- this works only on routes that start from the base. Due to the irregular terrain on the tree ledge, a running belay there would be out of the question.

Hope you enjoy Stone Mountain, it's one of my favorite places!

JL

Wow, thanks for all the responses, guys! More psyched than ever to check it out now, just crossing my fingers that the weather cooperates. I'll be in CH from the 27th-30th, so hopefully one of those days will be okay. I've heard great things about that NC granite... and the good old ratings.

Looks like if we can only do one climb, then Grand Funk Railroad is the one to do. Can anyone compare it with Dike Route on Pywiack Dome in Tuolumne? Looks very similar, slabbing up a dike feature.

Kind of confused about the actual size of Stone Mountain, though. Some of the routes are listed as 2 or 3 pitches, others like GFR as 6. Do the shorter ones not top out? This is important to know with only one rope. Maybe I really should take csproul up on the generous offer of a tagline.

Some routes are shorter because they start from the Tree ledge (which is one pitch up). Grand Funk's length comes from the angling nature of the dike feature. It levels out a lot in the final pitches--but the first two are really fun.

I've climbed at Stone with 6 inches of snow on the ground and stayed toasty. As long as it is not windy you will be fine. And definitely get the second rope--you will more than double your fun.

Scott

Hey Alex,

You don't need much for Stone Mtn. Just some small cams and quikdraws/trad draws. You might want more if you're going to do The Great Arch, but for everything else you won't use it. I'll be heading out there on the 31st until the 8th or so with a couple of friends. Give me a call if you want to meet up and climb with us. 252 245 2227