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Biopsy

5.8, Trad, 500 ft (152 m), 5 pitches, Grade II,  Avg: 2.9 from 15 votes
FA: Ron Funderburke, Danny McCracken, Barry Meyers
N Carolina > 1. Southern Mou… > Laurel Knob
Warning Access Issue: Falcon Closure 2024 DetailsDrop down

Description

A slab and groove climb with a mixture of permanent and removable protection. The crux on the fourth pitch is a great primer for Laurel Knob climb: a teetering rock up on tenuous smears, but with reasonable protection.

P1. Pad up onto the slabs about 50 feet left of Mike Fischesser’s Girdle Traverse. There is an obvious left facing feature in the bulge overhead. Clip a bolt, an continue up the base of the bulge. There is a nice #3 Camalot to protect the moves as you stand up and a high bolt will keep you from plopping back onto the slab. Bust the 5.8+ crux on crystals, clip another bolt and trend slightly right to a two bolt anchor. (5.8+, 100 feet)
P2. Take a direct line to a two bolt anchor that is up an right, crossing over Fischesser’s Girdle traverse at a bolt. After the bolt, a clever gear nest can be constructed in an eyebrow and an oddly compelling #3 Camalot will stab into a huge pod to help protect the pitch.
P3. Cruise up the easier slab towards the Three Way Ledge with two bolts and some marginal TCUs along the way. (5.4, 100 feet)
P4. Off the Three Way Ledge, get gear under a huge flake/bulge, find more gear in horizontals, and stage up beneath the obvious bulging section just right of the central water groove (Socket Rocket). Teeter on up through this 5.7 with mixed trad and two bolts to an accommodating ledge with a double bolt anchor. (100’ 5.7)
P5. Veer off right, place some sneaky tricams before another final bulge, and clip two more bolts as you mosey to the top. (5.6 100 feet)

Descent: Rap the route with a pair of 60m ropes or one 70m.

Location

Scramble down the pine-straw carpeting from Mike Fischesser's Girdle Traverse. Start beneath an obvious bulge that looms above 40 feet of easy slabbing.

Protection

Every pitch on Biopsy protects with a traditional North Carolina rack. There are bolts to protect sections which lack adequate gear. Every Pitch has a bolted anchor. The climb can be descended with a pair of 60M ropes or a single 70M.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Looking up from the base at P1. Bolts are marked.
[Hide Photo] Looking up from the base at P1. Bolts are marked.
Pitch 4
[Hide Photo] Pitch 4
Wasp nest on Pitch 2 #3 C4 placement. Be careful climbing through here, or just be brave and pull it out. Definitely enhances the spicyness of the climb.
[Hide Photo] Wasp nest on Pitch 2 #3 C4 placement. Be careful climbing through here, or just be brave and pull it out. Definitely enhances the spicyness of the climb.
Looking up P3
[Hide Photo] Looking up P3
MF following P2.
[Hide Photo] MF following P2.
Looking up from the P5 belay at P6. I crossed this groove to the right and clipped two bolts on the face above. The best climbing is in the groove but it's unprotected.
[Hide Photo] Looking up from the P5 belay at P6. I crossed this groove to the right and clipped two bolts on the face above. The best climbing is in the groove but it's unprotected.
first pitch on the FA
[Hide Photo] first pitch on the FA
hand drawn topos of the sector (circa Nov 2011)
[Hide Photo] hand drawn topos of the sector (circa Nov 2011)

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Bob M
Alpharetta, GA
 
[Hide Comment] I've been told this route is a nice, easy intro to Laurel Knob, and I'd have to agree. The pro is better than other routes I've done there, it's shorter than most things at LK, and it would be easy to bail if you had to. I see we're calling it 5.8+ rather than the 5.7 shown on the topo, which is probably right since that move through the bulge on P1 got my attention. On P2, I ended up a little right of that eyebrow where you could build the gear nest and it seemed like more trouble to get over to it than it was worth, so I just kept going up. Made for a long runout, but the climbing was fairly easy. Pulling the bulge on P4 was also interesting, because there's a there's a nice shiny bolt meant to protect that move, but I'm too short to reach it. Most people won't have that problem, but the move isn't really that hard, so just go for it.

A terrific route! Jan 13, 2013
Brian V
Athens, GA
[Hide Comment] I took the easier Laurel's Girdle start, and everything was pretty easy. There seemed to be a lot of bolts up there - more than the routes I knew about, so I wasn't totally sure what I was on. The access trail was pretty seriously overgrown (late July). Continue straight at one of the switchbacks rather than switching back and follow the blue blazes. Also, ONE OF THE ANCHOR BOLTS WAS VERY LOOSE (I could pull it in and out of the hole), so be careful up there. Aug 30, 2013
Leigha Dickens
Asheville, NC
[Hide Comment] After the CCC Adopt-A-Crag day this September there's a new trail to the base of this and Girdle Traverse, right off of the main base trail. No scrambling needed.

Did the first two pitches of this and it was fun. Can't wait to come back and do the rest. Thanks for the note about the high bolt for shorties on pitch 4. Oct 14, 2013
JoeLovenshimer
[Hide Comment] Mike Fischesser and I replaced that anchor bolt yesterday. Also, there has been a lot of route development in that area in the last few years. Not much has been posted though. Mike and I are currently working on a topo of everything to the right of Manatee. The new trail turned out great too. Dec 8, 2013
Scott Phil
NC
[Hide Comment] Climbed this fun route two years ago. Don't be tempted to head left an up from the first belay ledge. The bolt you see is on Laurel's Girdle. If you clip it and head up there is no protection until you reach the Three Way Ledge making a runout of around 100 feet on 5.easy terrain. May 24, 2015
Jeremy Yatvin
[Hide Comment] Very fun, very safe. This could be done with a single rack of tips to fists and a few tricams along with a a quick draws and alpine draws.

Honestly if you're comfortable at NC slab 5.9, just using the draws would be totally fine. Most of the gear I placed just because it was there, not because I felt tenuous. The couple bits of crux trickiness have bolts right at your nose. Jul 4, 2020
Steve Climber
Salt Lake City
[Hide Comment] Wasp's nest on P2 is gone. May 26, 2021
Phillip J
 
[Hide Comment] Really fun route. Not too serious but still engaging. Rack: Singles 00-#3, yellow/blue offset mastercam, tricams

p1. Crux bulge move was balancy. Runout to the belay after the second bolt was a good warmup for the rest of the day.
p2. The gear nest was pretty decent. I used a yellow totem and a yellow/blue offset mastercam.
p3. I did not find any natural gear in between the bolts that would hold a fall. The climbing is fun and easy.
p4. Really fun moves! This section wasn't as hard as the first bulge but flowed better.
p5. Crossed the groove right at the detached block above the belay and placed a solid #0.75 in the horizontal. My partner followed the pitch in the groove and said it was great climbing. There doesn't appear to be any natural pro in the groove. Feb 13, 2022
Jeremy Yatvin
[Hide Comment] Thinking back... I'm not totally sure a single 70m gets you down from this unless there is some way to use another route. Just a caution until someone confirms it will work. Sep 26, 2023