Shortoff Mountain Trip Report

October 6-8, 2007
Report by: Jeff Mekolites
 

The club trip for the month of October was to Shortoff Mountain. Shortoff Mountain, located in Linville Gorge, NC features classic multi-pitch climbing on a remote, granite wall that is up to 600 feet tall. Shortoff is also known for its beautiful wilderness setting.

After getting out of Atlanta in a hurry on Friday, Bryan, Scott and I began the 4 ½ hour-ish drive up to the Morganton, NC area. We made good time despite the usual Friday rush hour traffic and arrived near Marion early and hungry. We found a hole in the wall restaurant/barn and grabbed some quick dinner. We then headed towards the parking area for Shortoff. After loading up, we began the hike by headlamp into the camping area on top of Shortoff. After a few stops, to make sure we were still on the trail; we arrived on top and found a great spot to camp. We quickly dumped gear and rolled out bivy and sleeping bags. Our next thought was…FIRE. We scrounged up some dried wood; lots of it partially burned and got our fire going. Afterwards we walked out to the “diving board” to get a great look into the gorge by the moonlight. Bryan mentioned stories of mysterious lights that have appeared in the gorge in the past, and we all thought we saw them at some point…turned out to be a small campfire…probably…maybe…

Throughout the course of the night, we heard several parties stumbling into camp…first Huong and Gary, and then Luke and Matt and morning brought Sunny…literally.

Anyways…the climbing… Yeah, the climbing in the gorge is incredible and it is definitely located in a beautiful and remote wilderness setting. There are some true classic climbs at all grades. Between Saturday and Sunday parties ticked off:

  • Maginot Line, a 3 pitch 5.7 that keeps your attention and makes you laugh because you can’t believe how much fun a 5.7 can be
  • Little Corner 5.7, 3 pitches, which actually features a big corner system
  • Dopey Duck, the best 5.9 climb to do in the entire state of NC, is a 3 pitch, 5.9(+!) with steep, horizontals that would fit in at the Gunks.
  • Straight and Narrow, 5.10a, 2 pitches with a couple of distinct cruxes
  • Julia, 5.10b, 3 pitches with an overhanging, finger-crack corner as the crux
  • Construction Job, 5.9

Saturday night brought another great campfire, hot dogs, adult beverages and more searching for the magical, mysterious Linville Gorge lights with most folks turning in relatively early to get ready for the climbing on Sunday.

This page was last updated on 11/27/2007 .