After a two year hiatus from North Carolina rock climbing I finally made it back to climb at Moore’s Wall with my old partner Ben and his ever lovely fiance Tonya.  We ended up climbing the super classic Zoo View (5.7+ 2p) and some 5.6-ish line on Sentinel Buttress.

I’ve climbed Zoo View once before during the early days of my climbing career.  Ben and I had been hitting all of the classic 5.6’s in NC and feeling confident after climbing the Maginot Line (5.7 3p) at Shortoff Mountain we committed to Zoo View.  The thing that establishes Zoo View as a super classic climb is the daunting roof halfway up the second pitch that is home to the most bomber jugs imaginable.  The holds are deep and positive and confidence inspiring to even the most novice climber.  With these church of the solid rock holds you can relax and enjoy looking like a superhero as you pull a good size roof with great exposure.  It felt good to pull that roof again and even better to get to the top with a shit-eating grin on my face and relive the climb with Ben.

I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the rappelling situation at Moore’s Wall.  There are not a lot of rappelling options and the set of bolts that dumps you to the Crow’s Nest drops you down a popular route on Sentinel Buttress.   When we were there we accidentally rappelled over a team.  I am highly embarrassed and it is inexcusable but it happened.  Be very careful about what is below you when rappelling on Moore’s Wall and expect to wait at the top or at the Crow’s Nest for the parties below to clear.  It is just the way it is, but hey we’re in the South where people are friendly and afternoons  are lazy.

My old trip report on Zoo View has more pictures and beta if that’s the sort of thing you’re into.  Also if you have any thoughts on fixing the rappelling situation at Moore’s Wall I’m all ears.

An unknown climber wrote this comment on an old post of mine.  I think he or she has a really good point.

Climbed at Moores Wall, NC last week and there must have been 10 people waiting to rap down the sentinel anchor. There were two people on Zoo View, two on Air Show and at least 6 on the ledge.

There is a big discussion on rockclimbing.com about putting in more anchors around Moores Wall. This issue has been discussed for years and seems to never go anywhere.

So does anyone actually know if they are going to put in some bolted anchors above certain one pitch routes to make it easier to get down so we can do more routes in a day instead of waiting for 45 minutes to get down????

I would put them in myself since I have bolted a lot of routes an CO but everyone around NC states they will be cut.

I think the next step is to call the Hanging Rock State Park and explain that there are more and more inexperienced climbers coming to Moores and someone is going to hurt themselves if we don’t get safer anchors up.

I have been climbing for 12 years and I saw some very unsafe issues this weekend.

FYI

As rock climbing becomes more popular in North Carolina the standard exits are becoming overwhelmed which is creating a real danger.  The ledge referenced above is fairly substantial, maybe a large pickup truck bed, but six people on it is getting a little too cozy.  What are your thoughts?  Should Moore’s Wall get new bolts?

I recently climbed Zoo View at Moore’s Wall, which is just north of Winston-Salem, NC.  This climb is the definition of classic.

The first pitch follows the path of least resistance along the right side of Sentinel Buttress up to the Crow’s Nest.   It really is much of anything but a nice warm up.  The second pitch is the money pitch.

The beginning of the second pitch is a thirty-foot traverse that is protected by a lone bolt halfway through.  The standard way is to stay low below the bolt but if you are a glutton for punishment and like balancy moves you can go a little bit higher and work your way around a bulging mini-roof.  Either way, you move to the left of the bulge and then start climbing upward.  Besides the bolt there isn’t any worthy pro on the traverse.

Once you start moving up the climbing is straightforward.  The crux is definitely the traverse but the entire second pitch is a consistent 5.7+

Once you work your way under the roof you have a comfortable enough stance to shake out your forearms for the intimidating roof.  This roof is flat out intense.  Bring some double length runners and drop some gear in the railing below the roof and get ready for some heroic fun.

It’s all there and you have a myriad of hand and feet options so just go for it and keep moving.

The rappel from the top is a little weird.  Once you top out, walk about 100 feet to climber’s right.  You’ll have to down climb a bit to get to a really weird fixed anchor setup.