Rocky Quartz Veins
We were looking for an exploratory excursion of hiking and climbing, and trying to get to Little Wilson fit the bill. Direction on Mountain Project were sparse and out dated, as that washing machine was gone, and parking lot description were not so good.
We left Charlotte in the morning and drove up to the Blowing Rock area. All while staying front of a cool pressure front, which was causing neat rolling clouds.
While driving on the mountain road, we were able to spot the trail going down to Little Wilson. It’s a very well-worn trail once you see it. If it was the dead of summer, it might be overgrown and harder to spot. The hike down is what I found to be a typical of a “longish” NC approach. It ended up being able 20 mins of hiking (it would go a lot faster the 2nd time around) with some stumbling over laurel roots.
We passed some very pretty cascading waterfalls and a cool campsite. The campsite is about 5 mins hike from the cliff, so it may be a good spot for a future trip.
We came to the cliff line, which was nestle in-between this small valley with a cascading stream running down the middle. It was a very picturesque location. Two other groups where there, which surprised us, as we thought we would be the only ones. We borrowed some of their ropes which were left up and climbed the cliff line from left to right, ticking everything we could. There were some cool lines for all type and abilities. The style is that of nice horizontal ledges and edges to grab. .
Alexis climbed some really cool routes, and made some of the hard reaches work easily for her. We all played photographer when the others were climbing. John wanted to climb Dragon, which turned out to have a really cool moves. I lost rock/paper/scissors and John went first to hang the draws, and also to let me siphon his beta. It starts with a “choose you own adventure climb” to a ledge. It then goes up to the bottom of a small dihedral and corner system.
From a great rest judge, you go to okay right hand pinch, which lets you setup for throw to a left hand-fingertip crack in the dihedral. Once you stick this, you have to surf out to good small crimps with your right hand. Holding the crimp, cut feet and use body English and heel-toe hooks hold you on the wall till you can match left hand next to the crimps. I tried to clip immediately from here, but I was pumping out hard. I had to make the next a move, shake the right hand, then go back and clip. The next moves, are pinch/meat hooker on a slopping block, which set you up for a huge backward cross, to a thank god hold and then its juggin’ to the rings.
The stream offers a very refreshing dip during the warmer months. We only got through about half the climbs there, but it was a fun outing.
