Little River Canyon Trip
	January 18, 2003
	Report by: Denmark Blount

The January Atlanta Climbing Club trip to Little River Canyon was a big success.  We left Tony's promptly at 8:15am and had 5 cars in caravan.  No one got separated, thanks to the leader waiting.  Two single cars also came.  The roads were all paved and in good shape.  We headed west on Alabama 35, crossed the river at the falls, and immediately took a left on Alabama 176, Rim Parkway.  We went 4.0 miles, passing Lynn Overlook and Hawk's Glide, and parked at a dirt pull out just before the road bends right at a big overlook.

While Tony's and the canyon rim were breezy and cold, the bottom was sunny, calm, and warm.  Climbers wore T-shirts but belayers wore jackets.  The scramble down into the canyon started 100 feet north of the cars and was short and easy enough with one steep section but good ledges.  The first climbing section to the south is Crazy House and all the routes are bolted.

Scott lead Rocktober Fest and Green Bolt.  Denmark lead the easy part of Scorpion up to the big, blank roof.  Gary lead the hardest climb with a heel hook and the tiniest of crimpers crux move.  Does anyone know the name of Gary's climb?  We set all up as topropes.

Rocktober Fest had a tough opening move:  Match hands, high step left foot, rock up and balance on it, and extend left hand high to a thin side pull, almost a Gaston (sp? - spell check did not help here) move.  The difficulty eased up until the overhung top where two moves before the anchor you had to match hands on a thin 3/4" slightly sloping lip.

Green Bold had a difficult opening hip jam, yes, hip jam (well, you might call it a half chimney move), followed by fully shifting your weight from left to right as your right hand went up high for the next finger jam.  Then it eased up but the top was overhung with bomber holds if you were not too pumped.

Scorpion had a tiny roof to open on the direct route or a slight arete to the left that was not too hard.  Then it was easy.  That is, unless you were Tony and had to make that long stretchy reach to set up the top rope anchor.

Gary said he has never been more worn out and sore than after his climb.  But he mastered a good portion of it and used team work to complete it.  Bryan, still recovering from his lead fall at Looking Glass, was up to climbing and lead Gary's climb from start to finish.

Other climbers, namely Steve and Amy, were climbing near us all day.  I swear they climbed 5.12+ routes with ballet moves.  You should have been there to see.

While the climbs were tough, most made it to the top of one or more routes, maybe hanging on the rope once along the way.  One climber even put into practice what the January meeting speaker described, that is, he climbed a tree (and then moved to the rock).  Most said they wanted to come back, even Frank's daughter, who was the least experienced among us.

And we made it home in time to catch the game.

So looking forward to February's trip on the 8th, we go to T-Wall (Tennessee Wall), with all different grades including easier climbs than Little River but with challenging climbs as well.  And an aerobic, uphill hike in.  See you there!

Denmark Blount   -   2003 Trip Coordinator

This page was last updated on 05/20/2003 .