The Linville Crusher

Tim and I needed to pick a fun endurance challenge for this year and neither of us had done the crusher, nor did we know anyone else that had.

Things worked out with the cosmic alignments of personal schedules, the peregrine falcons had adjusted their nesting preferences, and weather systems seemed stable for once.

July was not the most optimal conditions for climbing but being just after the summer solstice it dig give a lot of sunlight to work with. The rain variable was another unknown, but hurricane Barry was nice enough to suck all the upper atmosphere moisture out of the region for a couple days.
The last big variable/change our the plans really was that the CCC was able to get the NC Wall opened for climbing.

Logistically, we were saved by Alexis and Nora. They decided to hang out and camp/run while we weekend so it greatly simplified our car drops and retrievals. We knew it was going to be a very hot July day, so we wanted to drink as much water as possible. So were end up with 2 simple stashes.

Early morning came fast after a nice sleep. After some terribly bland oatmeal and high-test coffee, we drove from camp to the sitting bear parking lot. We hit the trail at 1st light and motored up the trail to sitting bear quicker than we probably should have.

This was my first time here and it was a pretty nice little crag. We almost hopped on some mistaken 11, but after 1st bolt noticed our error. We found the “og route” and slab it up to the summit. The top of the spire gave beautiful purples sunrise hues down the whole canyon.

Light jogging, led us downhill and we quick came up with a moto the of saying out loud “we are not wearing approach shoes” to remind us not to be idiots and break ourselves rock hopping. The approach to Hawksbill’s came up quicker than I thought, and soon we were at the base of “Lost in Space”.

The winds picked up with big gusts and we swung pitches to the top. I led the slab-scamper and Tim (who never led the money moves) got the roof pulls. While belaying I drifted off staring at the shadowed relief of the headwall, looming out in the valley below. We submitted and the winds continued to gust. We organized and gathered up gear quickly and waved bye to a wedding photo shoot at the summit and continued on our way.

We went back down the hill and took the road past our camp to get the 1st hydration refill. The girls were actually awake and wished us well.

The connector trail to table rock was steady but easy and wide. We found the outward bound super highway around the base of table rock, and stopped below the “North Ridge”. I dug deep and pulled out some old dusty memories of how to make a mountaineer’s coil with alpine butterfly. Then off we went simul-climbing the north ridge quickly (I did almost fumble/drop a cam but caught it in the back of my knee. Don’t tell Tim.)

At the summit, I found some blueberries and gulped a couple down as I slid down the hiking path. As we hit the Table Rock lot, Alexis had her chair out and cheered us into the refueling station (Tim Pickup Truck). We chugged Gatorade, red bull, and water. My stomach hated powerbars at this moment, so munching on a leftover Baguette that was stash in the truck was delicious break.

We topped off bottles giving us 4 liters to get to Shortoff’s spring. So, after 15 mins we were back on trail pressing on. We passed Nora on the ridge trail while she was on a training run. Up until this moment, everything had come pretty easily, but the crusher was just starting to turn it up a notch.

When I think over it now, the bushwack to “Bumblebee Buttress” is a key defining chapter in the crusher experience. Bursting through laurel, falling/sliding down gullys, guestimating where to go, wondering how many snakes we are blasting by, constantly thinking of ticks, being probably the 1st people down the trail in many months, ripping and shredding of legs in thorn/jagger bushes, and fully realize that you are losing elevation down into the gorge all greatly add to the experience. During this downward adventure my blue prana mojos, went out in a blaze of glory. The butt finally decided to disintegrate appropriate beneath the Mossy Monster Tower. RIP my friend.

Eventually we hit the base of bumblebee and I pick my way up to the 1st belay. Tim rounded the chimney until we hit the last ledge before a long pitch to the rim. At this point, we made a game time decision and decided not to bushwhack back to where stash pack and water. Instead we traversed the rim to the Amphitheatre directly.

We hit the gulley, down scrambled and went to the base of the “Mummy”. I racked up and lead full rope to the big ledge. We then turn and scampered the remaining block. Now the sweat and suffering started to ramp up from here. No winds, they bushes were just high enough to block and just short enough to do nothing against the blasting sun. This continue for the up hill push till we reached the MTS trail again. We back tracked to backpack and remaining 2 liters of water. We recalculated here and realized had a lot of hiking to do for the next couple hrs. Down from the Amphitheatre to the saddle was some good old suffering. At this point, we both understood that no talking was needed. We became silent and pushed up and down further down the trail.

Eventually we reached the “sewer pipe” at the top of shortoff and drank more than our fill. At this point we were notified the signs of the dehydration and over compensated.

Constantly thing just one last climb to go, we slithered down the wet gulley. The waterfall fixed lines were in pretty bad shape. Here I realized the grigri was not very happy either using a core shot 11mm static line as I bounced down through the waterfall. Then we hit the bottom of little corner and it was being blasted by the sun. We resided to our fate of being vaporized on the wall and Tim took off on the 1st pitch. At this time, we had slowed down pretty good, not wanting to do anything dumb we opted for slow and careful. My block was up on the hard 5.6 experiences for me. Legs, knees, and feet all started to fall part. But after 65m stretch, I hit the ledge, toss shoes off, and tugged up rope so Tim could follow suit. We both sat at the rim and watch the sun start to set. (It was good to have the full summer sun for all the activities.) Out morale jumped up as we had nothing left to climb and just had I roll ourselves down the mountain.

As we hit the Parking lot, we were greeted with surprise pizza, wings and beer from Alexis and Nora. It was the best surprise ending to the day, and to boot we didn’t have to make the groggy drive by to Charlotte alone.

Time Frames