The Nose

Super fun. A light rack including the doubles of the pink and red tricams, TCUS favoring the small sizes, and nothing larger than a #2 C4 will easily see you to the top. All belays are bolted. Don't miss the P4 direct finish. Careful not to miss the set of rap rings below the 'Parking Lot'...makes for some difficulties. Mar 29, 2007

The North Carolina guide book calls this the most popular climb in the state. It seems everyone wants to climb this one. The 2nd pitch is the crux. This is protected by a "lost arrow" piton pounded downward. That's all you got til you reach the horizontal crack in the ramp. There are many ways to get up on the ramp. I've gone left and traversed, straight up from the piton and traversed or right and up (most difficult). This goes up to a bolted belay. Most of the pro is horizontal placements. If there is a line go do Sundial. It's just as good. May 2, 2007

It's easy to see why this one is so popular, it's a stellar line. Though I enjoyed Sundial Crack, I think the Nose is more exciting and certainly more sustained -- few casual sections on this route. Speaking of which, don't let the 5.5 rating on P1 fool you, it's got some interesting moves on it. At the top, it was entertaining to run into people who had come up the hiking trail and were surprised to see us coming up the last pitch ("you mean you climbed all the way from the bottom?"). May 28, 2007

if you have small cams you can place some good placements near the piton and one even above it Oct 12, 2008

A few notes on the comments above. The crux is on the second pitch, but can be well protected with a pink tricam or yellow metolius tcu or equivalent. The placement is polished but solid, and is literally right before the move. I rarely even clip the piton mentioned above. Also, I place a #3 Camalot on the 1st pitch, so you can bring one if you like.

The 1st pitch is rated 5.5, but doesn't feel any easier than the 5.7 4th pitch. I am not sure if this is because the 4th pitch is as easy, or if it is because after climbing the previous 3 pitches you have just gotten used to the style of climbing. 4th pitch is a little ran out, the rest of the route can be sewn up. The traverse off the anchors of pitch 3 can be a little tricky to protect depending on how you go, I usually find myself above the best eyebrows for gear and have to make blind placements to protect the second. Great route, and definitely worth your time. Route is in the sun from around noon til dusk, and is completely shaded in the morning. Dec 30, 2009

Make sure to read how long the pitches are. I think you need a 70 or two ropes to get down.

From the top of the last pitch you need a 70 to get to the next rap rings. Jul 27, 2010

I'd advise double ropes at the Glass, if not, you might be taking the LONG way (8 miles or so) around to get back to your car! Jul 29, 2010

crux is early on both 2nd and 3rd pitch. fun climb Sep 2, 2012

Very Fun Route!! The Second Pitch is the Money, but the entire thing is very fun!! Good warm up for Peregrine and Sundial. Classic for its name sake, but if you are limited on time or the site is busy, as it often is, go for Sundial as a premium alternative!! Sep 8, 2012

Great route, super fun day! It was 23 degrees (friction!!!) Dec 30, 2013

Such a fun climb! Could be as safe or sketch as you want. I'd bring 2 sets of TCUs because there is such good pro options... eats through your small cams! Oh and nuts aren't a must in my opinion. Really, after placing some pro turn around and enjoy that view!
Jan 1, 2014

Linked P1 and P2 with a 60 for a fun pitch. Then ended up bailing because hikers up top decided it would be fun to start throwing things off the top. What we thought was a bunch of rockfall ended up being the leftovers of their lunch, including two very large half-eaten apples in a harris teeter bag, another apple, a bagel, and a half-full plastic drink bottle.

Are there any signs up top telling hikers not to throw things? If not, there should be. Mar 10, 2014

Adding to Tim's comment-- we picked up those half eaten bagels and did our best to at least throw the exploded apple into the woods on Sunday afternoon.

Great route but we felt like P1 and P2 wondered a fair bit. Take some 4' slings for sure if you plan to protect when protection is afforded to you; otherwise you're in for some solid drag.

P2-- pink tricam under crux is as bomber as it gets. Beautiful placement. That being said, we did chose the direct ascent onto the dike (fixed pin will be to climber's left). In other words, we climbed the obvious flake to climber's right off of P1 belay, and then straight up into the dike. You'll see an obvious little knob in the crux that is perfect for a right pull. So feet are on nothing great and one hand to pull (right hand just smears nearly vertical face). Felt like a fair bit more than a 5.8 move. After reading comments here, it sounds like the path of least resistance is both left and right of the "direct into dike" approach.

NOTE: if you want to do this route in solitude, go on a week day (we climbed it on Tuesday). Really does add to the experience Mar 12, 2014

I agree with ziggy. 5.5 P1 doesn't feel any easier than the 5.7 P4, and even a fair amount on the last part of P3. Maybe you finally get the hang of eyebrow climbing?

Super fun climb. Apr 2, 2014

Is it possible to rap the Nose with a single 70M cord? It would appear so from the description. May 20, 2014

What an awesome route, tricky move at the piton felt much more tame than last time I climbed it due to cooler temperatures and better friction, the route takes plenty of gear (double .5, .75 and tcu's especially helpful). I ended up building a gear belay in an eyebrow in the parking lot rather than using the old eyebolts for a more comfortable stance. Pitches 3 and 4 were super fun and I felt that pitch 4 was actually easier than the first pitch. Aug 2, 2014

While it may be possible to rap on one 70M with a few traversing swings, it's not really recommended unless you have the entire Nose Area to yourself. You'll be swinging in on others parties and just getting in the way. However if you do try to rap on one 70M knot your rope ends! I see folks forgetting to do this simple task all the time!

Overall this route is very classic and a great granite slab and eyebrow climbing experience. I'll climb it again and again! Tricams are nice as mentioned, if you don't have tricams then doubles in .3-.75 w/maybe an offset or two will stitch this thing right up. Very safe and fun. Oct 26, 2014

Agreed, rappelling with a 70m rope is physically possible, but not using the rappel route. I did it with a friend near the end of the day. We rapped to the first set of anchors on the rappel route, then the anchors on the actual route at the top of pitch 2, then the top of pitch 1, then the ground. On both the first two rappels it was so close that the rope didn't even make it all the way to the anchors, and we each had to clip in direct to the anchor, untie the knots in the ends of the rope, and rap off the ends of the rope in order to weight our daisy chains (while holding on to the rope so it didn't swing away and leave us stranded, because it was also a traverse). If anyone had been on the actual route we couldn't have done this, and would have been stuck waiting for some kind people who were actually prepared with two ropes to help us down. I generally wouldn't recommend it. Oct 29, 2014

This is a great route! Definitely a classic! First time at the glass so now I know what true slab climbing is. The granite here is flawless, protects well. Lead P1 and P3 , both excellent leads. The crux of the route is right above a solid lost arrow piton. At first it looks really difficult but if you locate the right side pull and smear hard it is very doable. I loved this route. Didn't take nuts, not really needed. Take a double set of TCUs and double C .5,.75,.1, and a single 2 for a nice crack below the P3 anchors. TWO ropes are needed to rap. Knot rope ends and enjoy the ride down! Dec 31, 2014

Amazing amazing route, fills up relatively quickly. We got there at 9 AM and the route offered lots of room for us as a group of 4 but got busy on a Friday at the parking lot around noon.

P1 felt like it didn't protect that great, easy but only placed 5 pieces. I agree that P2 is the crux along with the first few moves on P3. With P2 avoid going out to the right and climb up then right finding the lost arrow piton, or have lots of 4' runners to reduce rope drag. Right side pull and smear hard as Curtis says is the beta I used and felt solid once I trusted it.

Whole route eats cams and perfect for TCU's we only set two nuts the whole day and they were a pain to clean.

P4 rap needs two 60m ropes unless you trust soloing around the parking lot, then you MIGHT? down scramble to rap anchors on the right? And swing around to Pitch stations

Storm snuck in over mountain during our rap yesterday (5/8/2015) pouring and thundering all around us when we were on the parking lot rapping. Group on the ground told us to go to pitch 2 station and double rap so our first lead went to that instead of dropping to rap station. Was last to rap and the other station was being used by another group. When cleaning rap we forgot to untie stopper knot in rope and the mountain has claimed a brand new mammunt blue/yellow? 60m rope hanging from parking lot rap station. Able to rap on one 50m rope to P1 then down. Truly an epic with 4 people. Glad we didn't get struck by lightning or worse.

Friend of ours was able to recover rope today (5/9/2015). Thanks Doc. May 9, 2015

P4 can be rapped with a 70m if you knot block the rope and use a cordalette as a pull cord. A 70m is only about 4ft shy of the Parkinglot. May 23, 2015

For a detailed history by Steve Longenecker, take a look here: grounduppublishing.com/?p=978 Jun 14, 2015

Pitch 1: 5.4
Pitch 2: 5.7 (for all of one move)
Pitch 3: 5.7 (Again for only one move)

a fun way to cool down and end the day Nov 7, 2016

Grade III? Dec 21, 2016

I rated this route 5.9-. It's just my humble opinion. I climb cracks at Vedauwoo, so I'm use to feeling secure with a solid hand jam. So, the 5.9- rating reflects a guy like me, who has NEVER climbed eyebrows, and hardly ever climbs anything that's not secure. So, the 5.9- rating is really purely a rating on the "mental" challenge of leading the route, even though I only led P's 1 and 4. Also, we were dealing with severe wind, I'm talking 40-60 mph gusts, no joke, ask the guides that were at the base of the route, haha. So, it's just crazy that I can lead 5.11 offwidth (still with much struggle), and feel more comfortable and secure than on the 5.8 eyebrow climbing, haha :) Maybe if I do it again I'll downgrade my own rating, to the 5.8 consensus, I was starting to use better mantles towards the top. But, such a fun route, even in the wind. So glad I got to climb it :) Mar 19, 2017

So my personal experience is that a 70m does not rap from P4 to P3 anchors. It was close but then I didn't want to risk it so I stopped at the parking lot area and downclimbed to the p3 anchors. Not for the faint of heart and I wouldn't recommend it as it's pretty committing even though it's easy 5th. There is no way to protect the downclimb. Apr 20, 2017

Ok so some recent beta: P1 is definitely the scariest one- once you get past the start (reach up high and place a grey0.4 on the left) there is good gear, it's just kind of run out. Use lots of slings as others mentioned. For me there is a scary run out at the top- I think I must not have seen some placements because the second party coming up behind us found gear more towards the left of where I was. Anyway, p2 is the crux pitch, and its early on getting into the dike, but don't let that scare you because you can protect it with a bd 0.5. Def bring at least 2 of those and 2 0.75s or pink tricams too. The angling dike is sweet bc you can just lay it back and walk up the ramp (there is gear in there). Then continue straight up on eyebrows (there is again good gear but kind of sparse, but it is on easier ground). P3 is THE BOMB! It is so much fun, there is good gear all over in the eyebrows and they are not spaced super far apart like on the first pitch where you have to make a slab move with no hands/ friction feet then there's a sweet crack at the end, lol. Just make sure to head RIGHT a bit off of the belay, unlike what is shown in the guidebook. P4 is similar to p1 but didn't seem as runout as P1 and you kind of traverse a bit, again good gear but kind of sparse like p1. Hardest part is getting up to the flake, which didn't look too bad.P4 is straight up but after the flake angles to the right. I led p1 and 3, Sammy led 2 &4. If you can do p1 you can do the rest, don't let the other people's comments scare you! May 9, 2017

Does anyone know if the route links up with tourist trail and then can link up with the scramble downclimb between the Hidden Wall and North Wall?

Some cross-referencing in the guide book gave me this. But anyone able to confirm? Oct 9, 2017

Christopher Knippenberg,
You can easily get to the tourist trail from the top of the Nose, but there isn't a proper trail that connects to the North Side descent trail. The top of the North Side creates a shoulder that is well below the summit off to the left as you are walking down the trail. You'll have to bushwhack down to the shoulder first to find the descent trail. Getting a visual on the Hidden Wall would be key. Oct 10, 2017

Can anyone confirm whether you need a 70m or if two 60m ropes are enough? Apr 18, 2018

Two 60s work fine for the standard rap line. Apr 20, 2018

My first time leading on a Trad climb. It was about 20 years ago, but still remember it like yesterday! The climb, the challenge, trusting my protection, and most of all the views!
BTW, pretty sure I always usd 60m ropes. Oct 7, 2018