Cragmama "Not all who wander are lost…" JRR Tolkien

Tag Archives: North Carolina

Melrose Mountain Climbing

Melrose Mountain Climbing

One of our family’s first forays into post-quarantine climbing was Melrose Mountain, a small cliffline just outside of Tryon, NC. If you’ve never heard of this area, it’s probably because public access was just negotiated with the town of Tryon in 2019, courtehsy of the Carolina Climber’s Coalition and Blue Ridge Mountain Guides. Coming straight out of all the closures and having not climbed outside in months, a grade range of mostly 5.10 and under seemed like a good fit. And as a relatively unknown climbing spot, we felt pretty good about avoiding crowds. The weekend we went was hot.…Read the rest of this entry →

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Spring Climbing Grand Finale…and Time for a Break!

Spring Climbing Grand Finale…and Time for a Break!

If you’ve been hanging around this blog for a while, you may be aware that our family generally takes a break from climbing twice a year, during the “off season.”  I put that in quotes for the term off season because here in the Southeast, it’s actually pretty easy to climb year round, so long as you chase sun/shade effectively.  In fact, some of my best  climbing days have been on a sunny winter day, or a cool cloudy day in late summer.  But generally speaking, prime conditions for climbing on a rope tend to happen during spring and fall.  That means…Read the rest of this entry →

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A Weekend Escape to the NC High Country

A Weekend Escape to the NC High Country

Although we’d had plans made for the past few weeks already, I was pretty pleased when I saw that our weekend getaway to the NC mountains aligned with Charlotte’s first (of what will hopefully not be TOO many) 100 degree days. This particular escape was one of my favorite types of trips – a hybrid family/climbing/hiking weekend that makes for all sorts of fun and variety. After enjoying a gorgeous Grandfather Mountain view with our morning coffee, the CragDaddy and I headed up to the Linville Gorge for a “crag-date” at Hawksbill Mountain.  (Thank you to Bebe and Papa Joe for…Read the rest of this entry →

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Hawksbill Round 2: A New Personal Best!

Hawksbill Round 2: A New Personal Best!

Though my spring climbing season got off to a slow-ish start, these last few weeks have been unseasonably cool, and have allowed me to string together some hard (for me!) sends.  Since the CragDaddy had spent most of the previous week in NY on business, our family opted for the day trip this past weekend.  After accumulating some sending momentum at the Red the week before,I was psyched and ready to try hard on my project at Hawksbill Mountain. I wrote about Tips Ahoy 12d a couple of weeks ago , when I hopped on it while a friend of mine was…Read the rest of this entry →

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Big C’s First Slab Climbing Adventure

Big C’s First Slab Climbing Adventure

If you’ve noticed that our family has been fairly quiet both around the blog as well as social media, it’s because there are big changes in the works!  Our family is about to open up a new chapter in our lives, and we’ve been pretty busy getting ready for it. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you the whole story in the next week or so.  And to slow the wheels of the rumor mill a bit, I’ll go ahead and give you a hint that our news has absolutely NOTHING to do with adding any new family members 😉 But with that said, just…Read the rest of this entry →

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“Not all who wander are lost.” —JRR TOLKIEN