Mar. 7-8, 2009 - Rumbling Bald, NC
Well, what can I say except a huge group of ACC members found themselves on some fine North Carolina rock with some exceptional weather. And we were treated to a dinner spread fit for a king.
With a group somewhere in the mid-twenties, the club members found themselves splitting up after arriving at Rumbling Bald on Saturday morning (with the road open -- thanks for the beer Denmark!). A large contingency ended up heading right and going to the classic Cereal Buttress area while a smaller group headed left and ended up at the Flakeview area. As one of the Cereal Buttress area climbers we had a breakfast sized fill of classic climbs including Shredded Wheat 5.11a, Fruit Loops 5.7, Granola 5.8, Frosted Flake 5.9, Breakfast of Champions 5.10d, Whiskey for Breakfast 5.10d, Bee Tree 5.5, and Doug Reed Route, 5.10a. We also climbed a couple of new additions to the area: Obamanation 5.8 climbs a somewhat dirty and loose dihedral to a roof pulled to the right and Good Samaritians 5.9 a wide crack that leads to some nice face climbing.
The second group ended up with their own adventure at the Flakeview area. Climbers partnered up and climbed multi-pitch classics like Bear Hunt 5.7/Bear Cub 5.7 to The Gift 5.7/Gift Certificate 5.8 and an unnamed route above, in addition to Gunboat Diplomacy 5.10d and Drivin' and Cryin' 5.10a. Heck, they may have climbed some other stuff as well.
After a rather warm day full of climbing, you can guess that some folks are gonna be hungry, and that was definitely the case. After meeting back at the Rumbling Bald parking lot, we headed back to the chalet for a feast only to find the chalet had no propane for the grill. The slight delay allowed for nibbling of chips, salsa, homemade spinach dip (yum), cookies, drinks and lots of catching up from the day. Finally, we got the grill rockin', cooked off some chicken and salmon and had a chance to sit down, eat and relax before heading off to bed. I think I counted 27 people for dinner.
Sunday morning brought another day of climbing for some, with folks splitting up and heading in all sorts of directions. Some headed to the Cereal Buttress, some to the Comatose area and some to Flakeview. It is safe to say that regardless of where we ended up, we got on some good climbs. Me? I ended up climbing the classic two-pitch route Lakeview 5.10b. Nice. b
The Details
Attendees: Jeff, Johanna, Derek, Mona, Tom, Barbara, Bryan, Stacey, Denmark, Trish, Chuck, Jamie, Cathi, Lucius, Mark, Frank, Jennifer, Gary, Enid, Ashley, Davis, Jim (and son), Rick (and sons) and Harry. I think I got everyone...
Pictures... and more pictures!
Mark's pictures
Jeff's pictures
Lucius' pictures
Next month:
Leda, Chattanooga, TN.