[Hide Comment] I agree, this is the much better finish. Dec 5, 2009

[Hide Comment] any body think that a four foot sling right before and after the roof would clear the rope drag Jan 30, 2012

[Hide Comment] Loved this route to finish Golden Earring in one big long pitch. Defintely gives the route a whole new type of variety. Had me smiling the whole way!

William - 4' slings could help there but so could being very thoughtful with your placements. I used long runners (24") throughout most of the line and placed a cam in the horizontal where you hand-traverse out over the roof (I had placed a piece lower at the roof but I back-cleaned it...good choice). Drag was minimal as I climbed S&F. My rope drag problem came at the end where you traverse left to finish S&F...I placed a piece too far right and it was killing me by the time I topped out. Jun 25, 2012

[Hide Comment] variation of golden earring finish that makes it a much more exciting and memorable climb. Good gear, just make sure to extend slings after jumping right. Do it. Finish with a gear-anchor and scramble over and down to golden earring anchor to descend. Apr 30, 2016

[Hide Comment] Both MP and the Carolina Rocks guidebook give the route beta as "the path of least resistance" or "follow the jugs". Can anyone who has climbed this more than once verify that there is only one way up the steepness at the 5.8 grade? I climbed this on Saturday but have no idea if what I did was "standard" or not. More traversing than I expected.

Otherwise, great climb. Any pro placed after the key crux placement (w/ 4' runners) on golden earring should be back cleaned before starting up the steep face. Feb 20, 2017

[Hide Comment] @Benandstuff: It's been a while since I've been on it, but every time I did it I remember thinking "Man, this looks hard" then I'd find the same holds and pull through on 5.8 moves.

If I remember correctly it was only 2 or 3 moves traversing to the right before you started climbing up gain. Sep 7, 2017

[Hide Comment] It irks me that the name "Golden Earring" is being kept alive in this route discripion and discssion for the route properly named "Almost Seven." As far as handling rope drag, treat AS just as you normally would until you get to the pod crux. From there 12"-24" should be used. At the roof, 36"-48" is plenty. After that, it just matters about the new rope line you choose. If you locate it well you can even direct clip most of it. The real drag normally comes from the top-out. No matter how you run the rope it will drag across the lip of the ledge. I personally like to set an anchor at the ledge and tie in near the lip. This eliminates all drag and allows me to watch my partner... though it does add a 4th class exit. Aug 2, 2018

[Hide Comment] I have flagged this route name as discriminatory and recommended to MP admin (via the route name edit feature and email) that the name be shortened to "Step" while consensus is built and the FA contacted.

Many people are unaware of the origins of the term "step and fetch", but if you Google it, the racist, white supremacist history of the expression is immediately clear. It is an expression that was used as an order from masters to enslaved people, and it fell into casual use as a joke meaning, more or less, "you better hurry up!" That may seem bland on its face, until you stop to think that the punchline is if you're too slow you'll be whipped. Not funny anymore.

"StepandFetchit" was also the stage name of Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, who parlayed the character into a successful movie career and was widely credited as the first Black actor to have a film career at all. The character was billed as "the laziest man in the world" and pandered to white supremacist stereotypes of white superiority and negative views of black people. Yes there is academic debate about whether or not he was actually or partly a character of the "trickster" archetype, outwitting his oppressors by pandering to their own sense of superiority, but the fact remains that the punch lines that got the laughs relied on the most base and dehumanizing portrayal of black men, and that is why the character and movies fell out of circulation during the civil rights era.

Route names that employ racist stereotypes make our crags unwelcoming and unsafe for BIPOC. With due respect to the FA who chose the name, this is not a question of the name being "offensive". Swear words, sexual innuendo, political opinions etc, may be offensive, and I may not let my 6 year old read the guidebook, but the world keeps turning. This is a case of racism and oppression, and when we normalize language like this, we chase black people away from outdoor spaces. That needs to change, and climbers need to be on the right side of history.

I am not going to engage in debate here in the comment thread. If you have a strong opinion to the contrary and want to engage in civilized discussion, PM me here and we can exchange phone numbers and talk.

As for the route itself, it's great! The finish is actually probably less scary than the traverse left to the QS anchor that is the normal finish to Almost Seven, and the upper face protects really well. If you sling your piece under the roof on AS long, you should have no problem with rope drag on the upper face, even using shorter runners. This route gets you into a pretty amazing position for 5.8 effort, and is a ton of fun. Jul 23, 2020

[Hide Comment] The FA of this route was 36 years ago. How do you delineate whether the naming of this route was a by-product of discrimination or just a by-product of southern speak? I have never heard the phrase "Step and Fetch" uttered by anyone ever, except in reference to this route. I looked it up, and it is not super clear the origins of this phrase. There was an actor who used "stepin fetchit" as a screen name, and he often portrayed a derogatory version of blacks. However, he claimed that he choose the name for his character after winning money on a race horse with the same name. How can we as white men say that a character played by a black man is racist and therefore even a name that is close to the character he played is racist?

It seems like a stretch to say "step and fetch" is only a phrase uttered to slaves by white masters and is therefore racist. I really do think it is best for the climbing community to re-examine route names, and remove those that are racist, but where we do set the bar? Just because you think a route name is racist, that doesn't make it racist.

An example. I name a route "whipping" after the spankings I received as a child. In my mind nothing racist about that. Just a testament to the corporal mindset of my mother. But, in 36 years someone makes the argument that "whipping" can only be a reference to the disgusting act of whipping slaves. Is "whipping" a solely racist phrase? A statue of a confederate general who fought for slavery should be removed. A phrase that marginalizes people of color should be stricken from our vocabulary. A route name that is obviously racist should be removed, but this route does not seem to fall into this category. Sep 5, 2020