Pilot Mountain

My buddy and I went up to Pilot mountain yesterday in hopes of trying out a new climbing area but the weather had other plans. We went with limited knowledge and mountain project without any real plan for what we wanted to hope on. We are planning on going back and I am trying to put together a tick list. What are some must do routes? (Sport 5.12+ and below, Trad 5.10- and below)

There aren't a lot of great trad lines at Pilot. Most people use gear to ease a few runouts, or to practice leading on gear in an area with a ton of bolts. The rock quality is also kind of sus on a lot of the routes too. For those reasons, and the excellent trad crags in the general area, most folks use Pilot as a sport crag. 

There's a ton of great routes that go on bolts, with the standouts being Chicken Bone (5.8 60m is a necessity and knot your rope), Black Rain (5.8+), Hot Yoga (5.10- (I've climbed it so it's probably 5.9)), Devil in the Whitehouse (5.10+, a lot of folks will place a cam before the fist bolt ~20ft off the deck), Overhang Hangover (5.11-), Any Major Dude (5.11), Mr. Heiner (5.12-, there's an intermediate anchor that turns the bottom half into Heiner light, 5.10c), and Black and Blue Velvet (5.12+). There's a ton of pretty quality climbs scattered around, some more traveled than others, but those are the ones a lot of folks crowd around. In general, everything can be done on a 60, just knot your rope. The amphitheater has the highest quantity of sport routes, but don't knock the TR climbs in the area too. Pilot has a history of cool climbs on TR long, long before sport climbing came to Smith, much less the east coast. 

Caleb BR wrote:

There aren't a lot of great trad lines at Pilot. Most people use gear to ease a few runouts, or to practice leading on gear in an area with a ton of bolts. The rock quality is also kind of sus on a lot of the routes too. For those reasons, and the excellent trad crags in the general area, most folks use Pilot as a sport crag. 

There's a ton of great routes that go on bolts, with the standouts being Chicken Bone (5.8 60m is a necessity and knot your rope), Black Rain (5.8+), Hot Yoga (5.10- (I've climbed it so it's probably 5.9)), Devil in the Whitehouse (5.10+, a lot of folks will place a cam before the fist bolt ~20ft off the deck), Overhang Hangover (5.11-), Any Major Dude (5.11), Mr. Heiner (5.12-, there's an intermediate anchor that turns the bottom half into Heiner light, 5.10c), and Black and Blue Velvet (5.12+). There's a ton of pretty quality climbs scattered around, some more traveled than others, but those are the ones a lot of folks crowd around. In general, everything can be done on a 60, just knot your rope. The amphitheater has the highest quantity of sport routes, but don't knock the TR climbs in the area too. Pilot has a history of cool climbs on TR long, long before sport climbing came to Smith, much less the east coast. 

Thanks for the reply. After looking at most of those routes, they all sound enjoyable. My partner and I are trying to explore more climbing areas and Pilot isn’t too far.

Kyler Gilbert wrote:

Thanks for the reply. After looking at most of those routes, they all sound enjoyable. My partner and I are trying to explore more climbing areas and Pilot isn’t too far.

No problem! Because there's not a great guidebook for Pilot, a lot of folks either use MP or partners for beta. There used to be a great website with a ton of pictures (and I'm embarrassed I don't remember the URL), but the man who was keeping it updated unfortunately passed away and it's since disappeared. If you're looking for anything specific feel free to ask.