Tallulah Gorge aka Sandrock Trip Report

At 4:30pm Friday afternoon the report from the Tallulah Gorge ranger was sunny all day with some wind. She could not predict whether the rock would be dry on Saturday; she said it all depended on what happened overnight. So the club die-hards went rock climbing this past Saturday.

When we met Saturday morning at T.J. s, we traded weather reports. Friday evening Atlanta had showers that were heavy at times. It appeared Tallulah Gorge did as well and the chance of rain Saturday was back up to 30%. Even if it did not rain, the rock was surely still wet. Chattanooga had a likely chance of snow. Sandrock had a prediction of partly cloudy and dry. So we switched the plans from Tallulah Gorge to Sandrock.

Tom set up a toprope, Denmark lead an easy toprope, and Antje set up a toprope on Jaws Block. Several including new member Bill Sabine zoomed up these routes. On Holiday Block Frank lead trad route **Pump Handles 5.9, Denmark lead Kennel Club 5.8+, Tom lead Oyster 5.9 (?), and Gary lead ***Walking The Dog 5.9. All the rest toproped.

The sun poked its head out only two or three times. The rest of the time it was gray and most of that time it was misting. (The weatherman was off a little this time.) Frank said it snowed and sleeted once. It was a cold 45 degrees Fahrenheit, especially when the wind whipped between The Pinnacle and Holiday Block. But the rock was relatively dry. There were almost no other climbers, just two small groups. Trish's cat Buddy could not stand the cold and went back to the car to cuddle in a fleece blanket.

At 3:30pm we called it a day early and went back to Centre. After a bowl of warm chili and a hot coffee, we headed back to Atlanta.

Climb on, Denmark Blount