Table Rock State Park Climbing

Over the last 10 years, the Carolina Climbers Coalition has been working on improving access at Table Rock State Park. In 2011, the CCC hosted the first trail day at Table Rock. This introduced many climbers to this once shrouded climbing area. In the spring of 2016, the CCC was given permission to build the climbers kiosk. The kiosk was built thanks to a generous donation from the Rock&Rave event held annually at Stone Summit Atlanta. The new kiosk gave climbers the ability to start their approach as soon as the Park opened rather than waiting until 9am when the ranger station opened. At the same time the kiosk was built, the access was expanded at Table Rock to give climbers an additional month on both ends of the normal peregrine closure.

In 2018, the CCC hosted the first ever SC Climbers Fest at Table Rock State Park. The weekend was focused around stewardship of the trail after the devastating 2016 wildfires. The funds to support the trail day were from the AAC's Cornerstone grant that the CCC wrote and was awarded. From 2018 to 2020, the CCC worked tirelessly with the SP to open access at Pumpkintown. This is the major cliff on the SW side of the escarpment. In order to open Pumpkintown to climbers, the CCC needed to build a trail to the wall. The CCC partnered with the SP system to layout the trail and learn how to build the trail with machines.

In early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck. This threw a big wrench in the plans to fund the building of the Pumpkintown trail. With most conservation grant sources drying up, the CCC decided to recreate the old CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) model. The CCC came up with the idea to hire out of work climbers to build this new trail to Pumpkintown. Stimulus checks went out to support American's out of work. Many generous climbers and business donated money to the project. The CCC was able to hire 8 unemployed climbers to build this trail, make improvements at Big Rock, and build the Rocky Fork climbers trail.