Pilot Mountain Shit Storm

As many of you probably already know Pilot Mountain is notorious for people throwing rocks and trash off of the cliff line, but today reached a new low (high?). 

My group ran into the sadly normal accidental dropped item over the edge. The woman who dropped her water bottle said nothing as it was falling and apologized after the bottle landed right next to five of my friends. My friends took it well and said no problem, but I insisted that if she felt like she was dropping something to yell out rock as soon as she can. Middle aged mom was having none of this. She yelled back at me that she had said sorry and that that was enough, and was clearly agitated that I gave her some future advice for her mistake. I let it go and walked away to check on what routes were open. Upon walking back 15 minutes later I found that her bottle was right where it had originally fallen. She easily could have retrieved it in that time span as we were right at the bottom of three bears gulley. On top of ignoring signs warning people not to go near the edges of cliffs and dropping a bottle that could have caused serious injuries, she was now littering. I brought the bottle back up to the trail hoping that maybe she would pick it up on her way out and went on trying to enjoy my day.

After the bottle incident I began to warn other groups that this was probably going to be a day of shit raining from above. As I was doing this I heard numerous similar accounts of people throwing whatever over the edge and having no remorse for their decisions and probably zero foresight of their actions. 

Next up we encountered the inexperienced rappel duo. The route they were trying to rappel down has anchors set up just to reach the anchors of the climb itself. On their first attempt they tried to rappel from the upper anchors with their rope being hopelessly too short. I yelled up that they're probably rapping off the wrong anchors and that the correct ones were lower down. Rather than rapping down to the lower anchors they scrambled, breaking loose all sorts of debris that rained down on the hiker trail below. Not a single word was uttered during this process. My partner yelled rock for them hoping they would catch on but they were clueless. Their rope was still barely able to make it to the ground and I began to question what reality I was in. On top of all of this, the route that they were rapping down was wet and unclimbable, as was most of the area around them. At this point I had given up on them and was not ready to see someone fall with serious injuries. 

Finally we end up in the parking lot area and are managing to enjoy our remaining few hours. Now comes the tragic icing on the shit storm cake. Someone pokes their head over the cliff asking what climbs were below. I was getting set up to belay and yelled that all of the anchors were in use. They then yell back that they are looking for an injured person. I was unable to see who was poking their head out so I asked the people behind me who it was. To my astonishment they told me it looked like a park ranger. I thought surely a park ranger would know what routes are directly below the main parking lot and assumed they saw wrong. Another hour and half goes by and I see EMS coming from the parking lot trail as I'm packing up my gear getting ready to leave. They ask me to clear the trail so they can hike out an injured person. I was stunned that it took the EMS and a park ranger that long to find the injured person. Another 15 minutes go by and the whole circus comes through with a woman on a backboard covered in numerous blankets, ranger in tow, headed for the parking lot. She had scrapes on her face and one of her legs was clearly mangled as all I could see was a foot facing the wrong direction, crocs still on her feet, but conscious. I noticed another pair of climbers following the crowd that I had met earlier in the day and asked what had happened. Apparently she was scrambling around on some rocks high up with her kids and slipped. I was told she fell 50 feet but hit ledges on the way down slowing her ultimate impact. 

The day had come full circle and all the warning signs were there.  

I will probably never climb there again on the weekend and have been warned not to for most of the reasons above. I strongly urge that if you can help it, you should do the same. Also, do your best to self rescue because the local EMS are clearly incompetent. I'm not sure exactly when she fell but it took them way too long to get her out of there for such a well populated and easily accessible location. 

No surprise with a carry-out taking time, especially considering MOI for a spinal injury and other nasty internal injuries.  EMS not trained in high angle rescue would (and usually do) further stall the process.  Next time offer to help.  

Ranting here won't change anything- encouraging park officials to post cliff top signage will.  I.E "CAUTION: climber below."

Funny though the news report I saw for it says she fell 25 feet down "Three Big Bear Gulley"... They can't even get the name right when there are a ton of signs for it.

If she fell at three bears I can’t for the life of me figure out why they would carry her all the way to the parking lot area and up a chossy gulley. The guy that witnessed it said it very easily could have been a 50 ft free fall which makes me think it may have happened near the amphitheater. 

chris magness wrote:

No surprise with a carry-out taking time, especially considering MOI for a spinal injury and other nasty internal injuries.  EMS not trained in high angle rescue would (and usually do) further stall the process.  Next time offer to help.  

Ranting here won't change anything- encouraging park officials to post cliff top signage will.  I.E "CAUTION: climber below."

If there’s something I could have done to help I would have. I’m not the type of person to sit back idly while people struggle. There are warning signs stating significant injury or death could result from being near cliffs. There are also signs saying not to throw stuff off the edges. 

She fell 30-40 feet right of Devil in the Whitehouse.  Her fall was definitely further than 25 feet, 50 feet sounds about right, but not a freefall to the dirt. I was the second person to get to the victim, another climber who had been belaying a partner on Black Rain arrived first. I was in the amphitheater with my son taking a photo when I heard a panicked shriek, then garbled shrieking and thrashing sounds of multiple impacts; heart sank. The woman who fell was very lucky to have not been killed.  She was responsive, but she was in a lot of pain; probably broke a collar bone and an ankle.  I helped make the 911 call but the phone reception was poor when I was relaying location information.  Made 3 calls just to make sure they were getting all the information.  After attending the victim for about 20 minutes or so I ran down cliff and back up 3 Bears Gulley with my 9y/o son.  I approached a ranger at the top of the cliff near where she fell and began relaying very specific information about the victim's location and condition.  The ranger was stressed and didn't seem too interested in what I had to say; somewhat understandable given the stress of the situation.  I was becoming really concerned with the time that was elapsing.  Ran further up trail and almost to the parking lot when I started seeing lots of rescue personnel.  Ran up to the commanding officer and starting relaying very detailed and specific information again.  Told them very specifically: the quickest and most efficient extraction would be to run down to the 3 Bears Gulley with a stokes litter and to take 6 or more strong personnel.  Told them they could bring her up without engaging ropes and hauling.  The rescue personnel thanked me and said they would take care of the situation.  My son, seemingly unfazed by all this asks if we could go hike around the pinnacle, which we did.  I was surprised when we get back, that the rescue was still ongoing and that the rescue personnel had now moved their trucks up above the parking lot (previously they were parked downhill of the registration box) and were hanging out in mass at the top of the cliff.  I was exasperated, because at least 2 hours had lapsed and I know a party of 6 strong climbers with a stokes litter could have had that woman up to the parking lot in under an hour.

I've assisted in two rescues from Pilot while climbing there, both took well over 2 hours. By the time rescue arrives, assesses the situation, and stabilizes the injured a great deal of time has passed. Carrying them to a point where they can extract them up the steeper angle takes 20 to 30 minutes. During this time rescue personnel up top have been setting up a rope and pulley system near the little pinnacle to haul the victim up one of the lower angle gullies near the parking lot routes which worked very efficiently. From the news clips I've seen this morning it appears that this young girl was extracted in this manner. Pilot Mountain is as easy of a rescue as it's going to get in this area and it still takes that long.

On another topic, there is a group of climbers that all have rescue and medical backgrounds that are trying to form a response team for just this kind of rescue. Currently, we rely on local rescue personnel for these situations ,whereas a coordinated effort with people comfortable with steep terrain and trained to navigate it could greatly improve response time.

Jake Jones wrote:

Pilot is situated between Stone Mt. and Moore's wall.  No idea why anyone experienced would ever go there instead of one of the other two places mentioned.  Moore's is good in the summer as it's north-facing and Stone is great in the winter for the opposite reason.  Both are great in the spring and fall.  So unless you live insanely close to Pilot, go to the other Piedmont crags.  They're far better and you still have traffic up top, but it's not nearly as bad as Pilot.  Although you're likely to find clueless gumbos anywhere, an area that isn't conducive to top access will mitigate that quite a bit.  Sorry you experienced such a shit show, but at this point, I've kind of come to expect it at a lot of places.

Sauratown is also in season. I was meeting friends who don’t climb very hard and seem to think anything related to trad is suicidal. 

I must not be experienced :)

Dylan Barrett wrote:

Sauratown is also in season. I was meeting friends who don’t climb very hard and seem to think anything related to trad is suicidal. 

I would never go back to sauratown. The hike in is worst than anything at moores, pilot, or stone. Most of the bolts there need to be replaced as well, I have seen some that were cut halfway through the last time I was there. Pilot has some nice routes but you do have to deal with people there, not the end of the world though. Most of  the climbs I like doing there are pretty protected from the idiots and it is a good rest day compared to alot of other places.

Moore's wall is probably the best climbing but it also has no sport climbing so unless you do trad or climb 5.12+ sport you aren't going to see bolts (bouldering is great at moore's but once again you really need to be able to climb V4 min or you won't have much to do at the boulder field). Stone is mostly runout sketchy climbing so I don't see a ton of average climbers wanting to go there. I really wish more bolts would get added to some routes at stone but I am not going to go up a 5.10+ slab route where you risk ground fall (not just slidding down 20-30ft) at half the bolts if you were to fall.

Weird rant.  Someone dropped a water bottle by mistake, a group was confused about rap anchors, and a hiker slipped and fell.   There's no real take-away.   Pilot is not a rock climbing area, as its primary function.   It's a state park for regular people.  In fact it could be said that the climbers are irritating to the hikers.

I can understand all your points, but to me it sounds like you manifested your own reality out there.   Perturbed all day that others weren't doing things according to your ideas.   The nightmare for you got worse and worse, in concordance with your growing irritation.   I don't know man, I hear no sympathy about the injured person or the people rapping wrong or whatever.   All your own inner complaints.

Dylan B. wrote:

Most of the bolts have been replaced in the last year or so. And as for the hike, if you can’t hike 30 minutes uphill, maybe you need to get a little more exercise?

Shortoff hike is way more fun! 

Literally every climbing gym in NC has a flyer on the wall about getting beginners to go to Pilot Mountain for their first time outdoors... That's what you're gonna get there on a weekend.

I don't mind climbing Pilot right after it rains or when it looks shitty out, it thins out pretty quick.

Jordan W wrote:

Shortoff hike is way more fun! 

Literally every climbing gym in NC has a flyer on the wall about getting beginners to go to Pilot Mountain for their first time outdoors... That's what you're gonna get there on a weekend.

I don't mind climbing Pilot right after it rains or when it looks shitty out, it thins out pretty quick.

This is exactly why we went there. 

Dylan B. wrote:

Most of the bolts have been replaced in the last year or so. And as for the hike, if you can’t hike 30 minutes uphill, maybe you need to get a little more exercise?

Are you me? Am I you?

Sean Barb.....you are definitely not experienced.    You should defintely send all of your gear, ropes, hooks, drills, tag lines, etc to me.  Your sons, too....but I think they might miss their school and parents. Sorry, I laughed pretty hard when I read this. 

As someone who moved away from the Piedmont, rather than ranting about what Pilot is/isn't, or that the hike to Sauratown is heinous (come climb with me any day of the week and that hike will be a stroll, seriously, OR try living there without it!) or that someone might think trad is suicidal..........the climbing in the Piedmont is fine.  Pilot is what it is......just don't go on the weekends (go to a different gym in the state for the day....you'll likely get just as much out of it).....Stone is good...Moores is amazing and somewhat seasonal.....you have ALL THAT bouldering there for the winter! (...and it is phenomenal bouldering!)

Ultimately, AJ is spot on.  The rescue scene in NC is riddled with people who are strong EMTs, but not climbers.  Or 'in shape' to handle the terrain safely with a backpack, let alone a litter with a 100lb+ person in it.  (Hence why a lot of us always handled our own situations, for good or bad.)  The Jackson Co/Cashiers scene is quite different.  There were efforts a long time ago to have the Surry and Stokes County SARs more climber friendly.  It only took one person to change that entirely and it looks like that has still not been undone.  Again, AJ is right.  Climbers need to be involved, but that is going to include helping the hikers and guests who misguage the setting.  Matt at Pilot used to be approachable.....I suspect he'll be reading all of this. 

Russ Keane wrote:

Weird rant.  Someone dropped a water bottle by mistake, a group was confused about rap anchors, and a hiker slipped and fell.   There's no real take-away.   Pilot is not a rock climbing area, as its primary function.   It's a state park for regular people.  In fact it could be said that the climbers are irritating to the hikers.

I can understand all your points, but to me it sounds like you manifested your own reality out there.   Perturbed all day that others weren't doing things according to your ideas.   The nightmare for you got worse and worse, in concordance with your growing irritation.   I don't know man, I hear no sympathy about the injured person or the people rapping wrong or whatever.   All your own inner complaints.

I don't know about you but I would never walk up to someone's anchor with something I could potentially drop. I tried to be as nice as I could to her. The last thing I want is to make a bad name for climbers. The bottle was just one case of many things being dropped or thrown off the cliff that day. There are signs right in the parking lot warning of climbers and hikers below. I was out there looking to enjoy my day and spent most of my time worrying about stuff raining from above. 

It's a rant. I had a stressful day at the crag and was hoping venting here would help. Take from that what you will. 

boo wrote:

Sean Barb.....you are definitely not experienced.    You should defintely send all of your gear, ropes, hooks, drills, tag lines, etc to me.  Your sons, too....but I think they might miss their school and parents. Sorry, I laughed pretty hard when I read this. 

As someone who moved away from the Piedmont, rather than ranting about what Pilot is/isn't, or that the hike to Sauratown is heinous (come climb with me any day of the week and that hike will be a stroll, seriously, OR try living there without it!) or that someone might think trad is suicidal..........the climbing in the Piedmont is fine.  Pilot is what it is......just don't go on the weekends (go to a different gym in the state for the day....you'll likely get just as much out of it).....Stone is good...Moores is amazing and somewhat seasonal.....you have ALL THAT bouldering there for the winter! (...and it is phenomenal bouldering!)

Ultimately, AJ is spot on.  The rescue scene in NC is riddled with people who are strong EMTs, but not climbers.  Or 'in shape' to handle the terrain safely with a backpack, let alone a litter with a 100lb+ person in it.  (Hence why a lot of us always handled our own situations, for good or bad.)  The Jackson Co/Cashiers scene is quite different.  There were efforts a long time ago to have the Surry and Stokes County SARs more climber friendly.  It only took one person to change that entirely and it looks like that has still not been undone.  Again, AJ is right.  Climbers need to be involved, but that is going to include helping the hikers and guests who misguage the setting.  Matt at Pilot used to be approachable.....I suspect he'll be reading all of this. 

Is there any way we can get some funding through the CCC for a more specialized rescue group? I would gladly pay more to have a group that could get to pilot, stone, moores and sauratown.  

Not being there anymore, the CCC could certainly be an advocate...but it is really outside of the mission of a climbing access group.  This is a county based problem.  And while you might not live in that county or pay taxes there, being a regular user in that county gives you leverage to your concerns and thoughts.  Sounds like a first step might be, get in touch with AJ....find out what he knows...he's there and dialogues may already be started. 

Be mindful though....this will take time and you need to be prepared to commit to that as a stakeholder.

Dylan Barrett wrote:

Is there any way we can get some funding through the CCC for a more specialized rescue group? I would gladly pay more to have a group that could get to pilot, stone, moores and sauratown.  

Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Each county has different jurisdictions and policies. Plus, funding a rescue team would be quite expensive. The CCC has been working with the state parks to improve the rescue planning. We have been GPS locating extraction points and providing guidebooks and cliff breakdowns for best access for rescues. We just gave a bouldering guide and a route guide to the fire chief in Lake Lure yesterday. That way they can more easily locate people needing help based on route names. We have been doing the same at Moore’s.

Like AJ said, even with all that a rescue cam take some time and the team will make the call on the best way to do the extraction based on the terrain and the injuries. The rigging requirements for hauling for rescue are a lot higher than a typical climber set up and sometimes they can’t rig to haul or the injuries don’t lend themselves to hauling. In my experience in working with them, the rescue teams are committed and doing the best that they can for patient care  It’s easy to criticize from the outside, but  let’s give these folks the benefit of the doubt.

We will talk to the park about the cliff top issues. We wrote a letter supporting funding more fencing to keep people away from the edge, but I have not heard a recent update on that. 

Thanks to Sean for helping to facilitate the rescue. 

" I had a stressful day at the crag and was hoping venting here would help. "

Fair enough.  I understand.  You are probably a very competent and safety-oriented climber.  And likely in life you are thorough and conscientious about things.  It's hard to grasp that other people out there are careless slobs.   There's nothing you can do short of being a hermit!  

ViperScale . wrote:

I would never go back to sauratown. The hike in is worst than anything at moores, pilot, or stone. Most of the bolts there need to be replaced as well, I have seen some that were cut halfway through the last time I was there. Pilot has some nice routes but you do have to deal with people there, not the end of the world though. Most of  the climbs I like doing there are pretty protected from the idiots and it is a good rest day compared to alot of other places.

You apparently have not been to Sauratown in some time. There are no half cut through bolts and the majority of them have been upgraded to stainless 5-piece, certainly on the popular routes. There is also a new trail going in and the first half is almost done. It makes the hike significantly better. That work is being funded by grants the CCC wrote and received from REI.