Black Fork - New NC Climbing Area

Have heard some rumors of a climbing area in NC called Black Fork. Anyone know of it? Not on MP. Sport climbing I hear. A rarity in NC. I suspect those that know about it are keeping it quiet. Anyone have any location / approach / route beta?

I have climbed there twice without any topos or beta. Good stuff. It's kept quiet for a reason.

Several reasons--one being that there are only two spots to park--maybe three if the cars are really small.

Ssshhh!

If you bolt it... they will come! Eventually.

OK, tell me where it is or I will find it myself and bring my son's Boy Scout Troop out there and set up TR's on every route. Final warning. PM on the location gladly accepted. I will keep it to myself.

Please don't do this... I found it only after speaking with the developer once or twice and talking with some other people over the phone. He specifically asked that it not go online and that we respect the area with low impact and low numbers. I would personally recommend that you speak with locals in person if you want to go.

Of course I was only joking. Will put out some feelers and see what I can find out. Certainly respect the wishes of those that developed the area.

While living in NC I found the "locals" to be friendly and wiling to share info about any and all climbing areas. I was never denied information, and more often than not people went out of their way to share beta about new climbing areas.

With that in mind, if folks are posting about it on the interwebs I am sure that this hidden gem is already "outed" to the majority of potential users. To me, this speaks volumes about the "tell NO ONE" ethic. If you don't want crowds, keep the location totally to yourself.

Cheers to whoever developed Black Fork. I hope that nothing happens to endanger access.

Found this after doing a Google search for "Black Fork NC". I don't know how accurate it is, but there is a location at the bottom of the page.

davidvidri.blogspot.com/201…

dude there are like 3 people out at the north side of looking glass on the weekends. I have never climbed "black fork" before but how could it be better than the north side? Given that so few people climb the best cliff in NC why would the developers and cohorts want to keep this on the downlow? So that two people won't be out there on a sunny nice saturday???

I reckon they are still doing first ascents out there then if they are not talking.

ok so far I have found a video of an ugly jaggy arete and some pics of some uninteresting slabs.

oh and its in linville gorge.

thats two strikes against it :/

Go explore yourself instead of lurking on internet forums...

Jonathan Dull wrote:Go explore yourself instead of lurking on internet forums...

+1

5.samadhi wrote:I reckon they are still doing first ascents out there then if they are not talking.

Not really. That place is nearly picked clean. Although I am sure Nathan-the-route-hound could find a few more lines. While there are many sport lines, this is not a sport crag. Most of the lines are mixed gear. The lack of crowd's is one of the things that makes NC great. I don't blame the developers for not wanting the place to turn into a zoo. Although I have seen more people there than some of the most popular spots, excluding the Bald. Too late!

what places in NC do you climb that are a zoo? I actually don't really get around much this year having fallen head over heels in love with the north side of the glass.

I used to climb all over though (linville, RB, boone, etc) and I never realy ran into a problem with crowds in NC.

ymmv?

5.samadhi wrote:

cereal buttress, rumbling bald -- i never go there anymore unless i'm showing someone thats new to the area. All the bouldering though makes it feel like a zoo. Cant stand being up on cereal wall and hearing the yells of some guy crushing a pebble i cant even get off the ground on.

south side of the glass -- also never go here anymore.
TNF - can also get quite busy actually, i've been there when there were ropes on everything from the sperm to the seal

tons of places that are "zoo's" - not RRG/NRG gang bangs thank god

It's all relative... try RRG, Rumney, or anyplace within 3 hours of the Bay Area/LA etc. Aside from RB and Pilot, I've rarely found anyplace in NC to be truly crowded. Now let's keep it that way!

^ lets keep it that way by being selfish and exclusionist toward other people that would like to enjoy the cliffs that are located on public land?

5.samadhi wrote:^ lets keep it that way by being selfish and exclusionist toward other people that would like to enjoy the cliffs that are located on public land?

Honestly, I know nothing about Black Fork, but not every crag needs to be advertised, publicized, and written about. Sometimes there is nothing wrong with selfish. You've had the same opportunity to find the crag as the FA's of the area, and everyone else that climbs there for that matter. Apparently lots of other people have found it, you can too. Sometimes there are just better ways of finding these crags than to paste the info all over the web for everyone to see. BTW I have no idea where it is either, but I'm ok with that since there are lots of things in NC that I have not climbed that ARE well documented in guidebooks.

Yeah nobody's putting out on this one and there is a reason. But why be buthurt it's just ugly aretes an uninteresting slabs. Why leave the uncrowded best crag in NC for that? I thought everyone had found the place. It's really not hard and the Ashville crowd is the most prevalent so it shouldn't be hard to find out about.