New River Gorge: Beauty Mountain: Burning Buttress TR Solo

Was hoping to TR solo some of the routes at Burning Buttress / Beauty Mountain.  It looks like you could possible hike the power lines from the sunset overlook parking lot to get cliff-top access.  Anyone done this and have some beta they could PM me?

bump

You can get there by looking for a break in the cliff just before the “redacted” cave- before you get to the Brain.  A short, bushwacky scramble and you’ll be at the top. Eventually you’ll see power lines and the top of the Brain- where there’s a small view. There’s a faint trail usually, but that’ll disappear with leaf cover.  Use caution.  If you’re looking to do Burning Calves or Wham Bam or something along there, look for small boulders near the lip of the cliff- again- use caution while you’re rigging.  BC is about the easiest anchor to to reach, being wedged in a chimney- and if you find that one, you can use it to orient yourself to other nearby routes.  

For anyone looking at this thread for the same info: you don't need to follow the powerline trail, there's a better way.

Follow the guidebook's directions (I was using the New River Volume 1 oldest version, not the current one) to the overlook trail @ Ram's Head.  A faint trail leaves from the overlook along the top of the Beauty Mountain cliffline downstream. I was able to access Burning Calves without a problem and then oriented off of that.  Most of the routes require you to rig off of trees to get to the anchors, and there's a little bushwacking, but most of the lines can be TRd if you put in the work.

FYI, if you're following the approach directions to the decent gully @ the sunset overlook, the map in the old guidebook is a little misleading and the gully decent trail is actually about 15 feet off of the overlook trail to Ram's Head, not off the powerline trail as shown. I didn't see it at first because it makes a hard left hook around a rodo and is hidden from view.  It's much easier to spot on the hike back from Ram's head.  Pretty easy decent trail if you're trying to access the upstream routes like Super Crack.

Leave No Trace Ya'll