Pilot Mountain, NC

It's not even noon, and already I'm spitting bright red blood all over the rocks at the base of Three Bears Gully.
"Shit, dude. What's going on?" someone mutters.
Luckily, this trip is fated to be much less eventful than our last one---we might as well start at the beginning, though.

The sun climbing up over the mountain early in the day.
Photo courtesy David M. 

Sunday, March 11. We meet in the gym parking lot at 6:35 AM---Pilot Mountain is a wildly popular crag, and the earlier we can set up some top ropes for the dozen or so people in our group, the better. My Sienna (fresh off a day of shuttling my kids to soccer practice, of course) seats seven people and seven racks of gear; this morning we’re only shipping out with five: myself, my roommate David, a gym friend named Alex, our buddy Mackenzie (“Kenzie,” she’ll say with a smile), and our new friend Berry from the Dutch city of Groningen, here on an internship to study cognitive neuroscience at Duke.

Berry, we will learn, is incredibly awesome.

The view of Pilot. Photo courtesy of menupix.com, found
via Google Images.

Pilot Mountain dominates the landscape as we approach on US 52. The peak is a massive pinnacle of wrinkled quartzite creatively dubbed “Big Pinnacle.” Tragically, Big Pinnacle is closed to climbers (“Aww,” Berry sighs after I break the news to my excited passengers). Those in the know generally cite vague facts about endangered vegetation or Peregrine falcon nesting grounds, but local climbers have learned to be satisfied with the less-visually-striking cliffs further down the mountain. Luckily, the areas of Pilot still open to climbing host a massive variety of routes. Our plan is to unload and immediately hit Three Bears Gully to throw down top rope anchors on the Bears and an easy chimney route nearby (it probably has a proper name and grade, but I just call it That One Chimney Near the Bears and rate it at 5.FUN).

Joe with a guitar, showcasing the gorgeous weather.

The forecast promises a brisk and sunny day, and unlike the windy cliffs at Moore’s Wall, Pilot’s climbing area faces north. That means we’ll get blessed sunlight from dawn to dusk---Pilot also doesn’t happen to have any multipitch routes, so we’ll be free from the frigid rappels and wind-scattered downclimbs of my last excursion.

Thank God.

Kenzie in front of a nice, big, empty parking lot. It filled up quickly.

We pull into a parking lot that has maybe four cars in it, proving that our asscrack-of-dawn departure time was not as poor an idea as my sleepy little entourage may have thought. The approach to Three Bears Gully is a gentle 10-minute hike followed by a fun little scramble down some boulders---David and I scout out our routes and hop back up to the anchors to set up our top ropes, and the day begins.












I demanded that my cohorts take tons of pictures, and they obliged me in spectacular fashion, so the rest of this post will be easy reading with some great shots of routes and climbers. Enjoy!

Your humble narrator.

Our first stop was at Three Bears Gully for a taste of the Bears and some of the other classics in the area. After my first few climbs, I decide to dip into a little bag of almonds for some much-needed sustenance---and almost immediately I bite down on a particularly vicious little bugger that cuts a centimeter-long gash into the roof of my mouth. David tells me to press my tongue up against it, which I do, but my future snacking endeavors are still tinted with a red haze of fear.

Alex on one of his first outdoor climbs.

Berry, hangin' out!

Trees, sunlight, and Flannery (who we didn't see much of).

Our buddy Ken after meeting us at the crag.

Alex enters the roof section of Papa Bear 5.9+
while I struggle up Mama Bear 5.10.

Berry on the roof section of Mama Bear.

After hanging out at the Bears for a while, we cleaned up all of our gear and headed off in search of more fun routes---we ended up going all the way down to the Beach and setting up some top ropes.

"Where the FUCK are my lockers!?" Setting up the top rope
at the Beach section (pretty sure this was on Body Surfin' 5.7).

Rappelling down from the anchors on Body Surfin', which
proved to be one of the most intense moments of the trip.
You can't hear me, but I'm saying something along the lines
of "Holy SHIT that was a sketchy drop."

We met some other climbers at The Beach---they did us the
favor of throwing one of our ropes up on Hawai'i Five-Oh 5.11
after cleaning their trad gear. Great group of folks!

Hawai'i Five-Oh in all its glory---one of the more
impressive routes we saw that day.

Berry suits up for his ascent up Hawai'i Five-Oh.

Alex, catching some rays as he preps for a belay.

Puppy! Hikers with dogs came through periodically, always a
welcome sight!

Pulling into the start of Hawai'i Five-Oh after getting some
valuable beta from Berry. Check that hand jam and knee bar.

And pulling over into the route!

Roommates enjoying the clear skies and awesome view.

David hanging out on the edge, Metolius PAS clipped to
one of those lovely bolts.

The view down onto the Beach section, between my
dangling (and shaking---scary, dude) feet.

Alex, looking pensive.

More of David's shiny dome!

We all finished what we wanted to do at the Beach and decided to finish the day with some lead climbing over near Black Rain and Devil in the White House---several of us got clean lead ascents of Black Rain, and Berry lead The Herculean Test 5.11- so that a few of us could top rope it (I wasn't about to onsight the 15 feet to the first bolt, and we ended up borrowing a cam from our friend Michael for protection right before the first bolt, as suggested by several members of our party and others).

Susan sending Black Rain 5.9 (I think). Feel free to
correct me, this is a strange angle.

Berry, Alex, David, and Susan chatting during downtime
in the Devil in the White House section, towards
the end of the day.

Greg cleaning up The Herculean Test 5.11-,
which turned out to be one of the most fun
routes I've ever climbed.

Packing up Bertha (the van) at the end of a long day. We
ended up with two more people on the way back!

I'm not a big fan of hand jams, so I grabbed an
undercling on my right to throw out to the flake
with my left hand on the roof section of
Papa Bear 5.9+. Photo courtesy David M.

David snapped this cool shadow shot as I finished up Papa Bear.

David stemming the chimney near the Three Bears on his
first outdoor climb, ever!

Three quarters of the way up what I'm pretty sure
is Walking on the Beach 5.9 (feel free to correct me).

The sun dips behind clouds after a long day at the crag.

Finally, at around 7 PM, we all trudge back up the side of the mountain and pack away our gear. The sun lights the clouds behind us with muted reds and oranges as we pull out of the parking lot and discuss some grub plans---pizza and beer, we decide. Half an hour away from Pilot, the eight of us still remaining circle up around three pizzas and some deliciously cold adult beverages, already discussing a plan for our next trip out.

A panorama shot I stitched together using AutoStitch: the view from the top of the Beach section.

Head over to the original if your browser doesn't load the picture fully.