Big Green

Panthertown Valley, NC

Description 

Are you skeered yet? You ought to be. If you want sketchball runouts over tiny bolts, slabbing and stemming on the blankest of blank, obscure routes authored by NC's hardest of hardmen, then this is the place. A short hike from the Panthertown Valley trailhead finds you deposited at the base of Big Green. Be prepared for fear. Be ready to commit.

Upon encountering Big Green, you will be impressed with the size and expanse of the granite dome above you. Rock quality is actually quite good for such a rarely visited dome. Established routes well into the double digits provide a good opportunity for the most technical of granite slabbers to find challenge. Expect easy ground to be runout. There are feature that takes natural pro, but they are generally stretched out. Paralleling, Joke the Chicken, Panthertown Knobs provide for some of the technically easiest climbing, but still should be treated with the utmost respect. A fall here could be nasty.

Getting There 

From Panthertown, hike down the road, past the gate. Salt Rock overlook will come up on your left after a couple minutes. You get a good view of Big Green and Little Green from here. Continue down the road for 5 or 10 minutes until you come to a large trail leading off to the right. Pass the first trail you see on the left. After an area of thin trees, then thornbushes, look for the second, more faint, trail leading off to the left. Take this trail to, passing over a stream, and encountering the plush Camp Merrywood shelter. Walk past the shelter, keeping it on your right, to the trail continuing off into the woods. After another 5 - 10 minutes, find a small trail on the left. This takes you to the face in the neighborhood of Camp Big Green, 5.11a.

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