Stone Mountain

I had the privilege to climb on one of the most beautiful pieces of stone in North Carolina on Sunday with a group of experienced climbers.  The entire day was wonderful.  I learned a lot about climbing as well as picked up some new skills with the rope.

The area we visited is called Stone Mountain.  It's slab climbing and quite different than Pilot Mountain or Moore's Wall, although it is similar to both Looking Glass and Cedar Rock.  Stone Mountain is quite tall, so multiple pitches are required to send its summit.  Instead of leading the sketchy runouts, however, we hiked a nice trail to the summit and from there, we rappelled down and top-roped multiple pitches using ascender-like devices shown below.

Tibloc

Petzl Basic

I was climbing with Brian Fritz who set up a double rope fix rappel allowing us to both rappel simultaneously.  The pitches were long, so we have to tie two ropes together to reach the next "belay" station.  I use the word "belay" loosely because, in effect, there was no belay from the bottom as we used a Petzl Basic and Tibloc to self-belay.  This technique allows rapid climbing with little to no fall distance.  It's extremely safe and easy to use.  The only gotcha is rope tension needed at the beginning of the climb, but after that, you send without any concern of a belayer, slack in the system, or other belay issues.  Down-climbing might be the only downside.

The pitches were hard and slab climbing is more about foot placement (smearing mostly), shifting body weight and balance.  Hands are used for balance and friction, but there are no real hand holds.  This style of climbing teaches you to trust your feet on the smallest of holds.  Sometimes foot holds aren't to be found and then you're hunting for the smallest imperfections on the rock to place your feet on.

02DEC12