Little River Canyon Trip
	February 8, 2003
	Report by: Denmark Blount

For the February Atlanta Climbing Club trip we went to T-Wall (Tennessee Wall), west of Chattanooga. We met at Tony's with many folks arriving early before 7:00am. It was too cold to stand outside and socialize the whole time, so we would stand outside a little while and jump back in the cars to warm up. We made enough noise to wake a stranger sleeping in his car and he drove off. Sue arrived at 7:15am and we divided up into car pools and headed out.

Several members met us at the T-Wall parking lot and two new members, Terry and John, joined on the spot. We totaled 15 or more.

Frank Nederhand lead Passages 5.8, Sue Rice combined with David Reed and Tom Osborne to lead Sandskrit 5.8, Denmark Blount lead Exposed Aggregate 5.7, and Mike Magalis and Tony lead Nappy 5.7. It was cool and the rock was cold for these first climbs but by the time we had set up top ropes on these climbs and Super Slide 5.10 b, Finger Lockin Good 5.10 b/c, and Digital Display 5.9 (set up by a patient Davis Peacock), it had warmed up nicely. The Sweep is a great 5.10a climb between Super Slide and Passages, but I am not aware of anyone trying it on this day. Jay Walker is a 5.7 crack climb in the same area but it was dripping with water and not climbed this day. Even the easy climbs had tough and ackward moves, just ask Lauren and Terry about Exposed Aggregate. Mary Boyd probably spoke for most when she said she liked Super Slide best. John gets a gold star for being such a good beginning climber.

These are 100' climbs, so there is a lot of rope stretch. Be sure to use a spotter and tight belay. Otherwise an early fall may result in a black and blue bruise or worse.

T-Wall is one of the premier climbing places in all of the southeast. It was written up in one of the recent climbing magazines. There is a great picture of Sandskrit, which we climbed. Finagle 5.9 in the same area was also written up and we will have to climb it the next time we visit.

As has become the tradition, we stopped in downtown Chattanooga for pizza at Lupis. There was a traffic jam on 4^th street but fortunately not at Lupis. We got home late but satisfied from good climbing and good food.

So looking forward to March's trip on the 8^th and 9th, we are having the spring kick-off. We tent camp or cabin at High Countrys Ocoee Outpost Friday and Saturday nights. Saturday we climb at Starr Mountain, a beautiful, small cliff high above the Hiwassee River. Sunday we climb at Sunset Rock atop Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga. See you there!

Denmark Blount - 2003 Trip Coordinator

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