Saturday, January 31, 2009
Upstate Bouldering
Starting a blog to discuss climbing & bouldering in the Upstate region of South Carolina, including areas near Greenville, Pickens and Oconee Counties. I would also like to talk about other bouldering areas in Western North Carolina (besides the mecca that is Rumbling Bald), for example, the variety of boulderfields around Pisgah, random boulders around the Nantahala River, and the often overlooked maze of Granite City.
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Brad,
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear more about Granite City! Some Cashiers locals had mentioned this place to me a while ago. It sounded pretty good. You ever climbed there?
Cheers,
Zachary Lesch-Huie
Granite City is a maze-like area, similar to LRC in Chatty, that is located at the base of Blackrock Mtn south west of Whitesides. It has gotten a pretty negative reputation, mainly because of the other incredible climbing nearby, but if this were in another state besides NC, it would be a well used area. I've been climbing there for about 5-10 years now and its still in my regular summer spot rotation. Especially because its close to the headwaters of the Chattooga, which is good for some great after session swimming holes. Granite City has some great bouldering and highball/TR stuff. The "Main Street" area has about 20-30 different V0-V2 variations along a long 10-15' high wall. There are also a lot of easy dynos to practice. I havent really climbed anything much harder than a V3 here, but that's not to say there isnt some good high grades around. I dont really think too many people have made a real attempt at developing it, so there are plenty of routes waiting to be cleaned and climbed. There was a YouTube video showing some guys boudering but their grades were WAY off...their V5 dyno is really a V1. I've also noticed one set of anchors at the top of one of the spires in the middle of the maze, probably a 5.10-11 route. I have also seen some people TR'ing in the back "Stronghold" area, looked pretty hard but worth checking out. They just anchored to some trees at the top of the 25-35' wall. If you are in the area, its definitely worth checking out. The V1 slightly overhanging arete on the other side of Main Street is the local 3 star, and the sharp arete, with paint on the face, to the right of the V1 is a great project for some big ballers.
ReplyDeleteI posted a picture of an easy dyno on Main Street of Granite City. You can barely make out the lower part of the overhanging arete project in the upper left of the picture.
ReplyDeleteZach (and Brad),
ReplyDeleteSeems like we might have the same idea; perhaps we need to venture to Brad's part of the woods and scope things out in light of the bald closure. Whaddya think? Granite City looks like it may have potential!
Just let me know when you guys want to visit and I'll make sure to roll out the hospitality:) I've got a buddy that can climb most of the V4-6 stuff, but we havent really hashed out anything harder than that. All those hard lines are just waiting for you guys to FA!
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