Rumbling Bald Trip Report

The trip to Rumbling Bald was fantastic. First I want to thank all the participants for their great effort and engagement that made the trip to a big success and a lot of fun.

All of us arrived on Friday, some pretty late after they discovered that they drove 90 miles too far east and ended up close to Charlotte. But luckily we found the camp site and also build up the tent. Tom and Denmark had driven up early in the morning and climbed 3 routes on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning we all met in the parking lot of Rumbling Bald Mountain at 10 am and hiked up to Cereal Buttress. The weather at that time looked pretty wet but it turned into a perfect climbing day with sun and no more than a few raindrops out of a clear blue sky in the late afternoon.

Jeff and Frank were so excited that they headed up early and had Fruit Loops (5.7) setup when we arrived. It is a 2 pitch route with a nice crack in the first pitch and a fun chimney in the second one. A nice warm up for us all.

Parallel Bryan lead the first pitch of Granola (5.8+) that has 2 variants along 2 different cracks. Nice friction moves and on the second variation a pumpy climb over a small roof.

After a nice break, we (and especially Brian) talked Frank into leading Frosted Flake (5.9). He did an excellent job and finished the route.

Later in the afternoon Brian lead Breakfast of Champions (5.10d) that started on the right side of Frosted Flake.

In the evening we had a delicious dinner that Barbara and Jennifer prepared inside, with our chef Jeff taking care of the grill. During the dinner preparation Frank showed his pictures of the climbing day on the TV and Tom brought the video "Las Vegas". The video had spectacular climbs and climbers and was fun to watch. The table was loaded with delicacies that were brought from home by all the participants. It was hard to try from everything. Denmark did the dishwashing when everybody else plopped down on the sofa full, satisfied and tired.

The next day there were only 6 active climbers left. Denmark, Tom, Barbara, Frank and Jennifer drove back to Atlanta and they missed another perfect day with gorgeous weather. This time we headed up to the Flakeview area. It was a pre climb warmup through bushes and steep virtually non existant trails. Brian hiked up with us and showed us the area but needed to drive back to Atlanta afterwards and couldn't join us.

Gary lead Bear Hunt (5.7). It is not a steep climb but a lot of friction, mostly bolted. Jeff set up the first pitch of Gunboat Diplomacy (5.9+).

Carole did a great job leading Dryvin & Cryin (5.10a), which includes a difficult bulge and edge passage. As on Saturday, everybody did a very good job and I would like to thank you all. We drove back to the camping site, picked up our tents and headed home much later than we have planned but it was worth the stay. We had a lot of fun!

Climb on!
Antje
(ACC Trip coordinator)