Mountain Project Logo
To save paper & ink, use the [Hide] controls next to photos and comments so you only print what you need.

Carboman

5.10c/d PG13, Trad, 200 ft (61 m), 2 pitches, Grade II,  Avg: 3.3 from 11 votes
FA: Jeep Gaskin, Joe Coates (1978)
N Carolina > 1. Southern Mou… > Looking Glass Rock > Hidden Wall

Description

Pitch 1: (5.10a) Start just right of the large offwidth corner, following a nice hand crack until you can step left into the steep weakness. Step up through fun pinches and flares and past an ancient bong to the beefy bolted ring anchors. (80')

Pitch 2: (5.10d) Here is the fun stuff. Leaving the belay, move up and right, passing under steep lichen covered flakes. Wander up the right side of these blocks and then back towards a clean face on left. Making some heady friction moves above your gear, get to a stance and clip the ancient rusty SMC bolt. Make another fun move and then run it out to the anchor bolts way up and right.

(Special note: "Selected Climbs of NC" calls this second pitch 90' which is WAY SHORT. The second pitch is actually more like 130 feet, which won't put you back to any anchor with one rope...)

It is possible to continue up for two more pitches of dirty eyebrow climbing at 5.9 and 5.7 and then walk off in the gully between the North Side and Hidden Wall.

Location

From where the trail exits the woods, look up and right for an off-width corner, Carboman's first pitch crack lies directly to the right. You can see the anchors up and left above the large corner.

Protection

Standard single trad rack up to a BD #3, with nuts and a few tri-cams.

The bolt on the second pitch needs replaced.
Anchors have already been replaced on pitch two and are set for rappel but one rope won't get it done.... we had to lower off a single shiny new bolt in the middle of the blank face directly below.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

From the p1 anchors, looking down.
[Hide Photo] From the p1 anchors, looking down.
The tough slab section of P1
[Hide Photo] The tough slab section of P1
Placing the first piece a bit off the deck. Photo: Courtenay Roche.
[Hide Photo] Placing the first piece a bit off the deck. Photo: Courtenay Roche.
The flutes right before the finish of P1
[Hide Photo] The flutes right before the finish of P1

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

[Hide Comment] really enjoyed the first pitch of this. Have to brush up on my lichen/friction climbing before tackling that second pitch. Wonder if the bolt on the right is for anything other than a one rope descent? May 30, 2011
rock-fencer
Columbia, SC
  5.10b/c PG13
[Hide Comment] P2 has a new camo 3/8 in bolt. After the bolt you can get a purple tcu in a flake before running it out up and right to the new set of anchor bolts. P3 rides a very fun black/red dike up to a gear belay and should be done! P4 climbs through some dirty eyebrows, generally trending up and right. We found a next of old nuts with rusty cables that you could probably rap off if you had two ropes, but it looked sketch. Jun 12, 2011
Bryan Haslam
Asheville, NC
  5.10c/d PG13
[Hide Comment] I'd agree with the description of the upper pitches... I think they're worth doing.

I did the route with Drew Dekle and Swis Stockton in the 90's and we got forced left off route on P3 and P4 by a wet streak we couldn't cross. The nest of nuts may be ours when we rapped out of trees at the top back down the line. Jan 21, 2012
[Hide Comment] I replaced all the 2nd pitch bolts and 3rd pitch anchors bolts in 2011. You can now rap from the top of the 3rd in two ~55m raps. Didn't have the right tools for pulling out the old bolts that day, so some of the old mank is still there. The third pitch follows a nice feature and takes a handful of tiny units in and right of the groove as well as several #1-#3 cam placements left of the groove higher up. Nov 26, 2013
Barrett Pauer
Brevard, NC
 
[Hide Comment] P-1 is a must do for the 5.10 glass leader. Tricky and a bit mental but overall super fun! May 19, 2017