Chattanooga climbing and fire?

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering if Chattanooga crags like foster falls and t-wall have been affected by the fire? We have a trip planned next week. Thanks for any info you can provide.

potentially T-wall, definitely not FF. Anywhere relatively close to signal mountain is gonna be affected.

Saw a posting from a friend and a place called Mowbry mountain was also affected, there is a place called leda there that is a fun place. No bueno.

Fiery Gizzard trail at Fosters is closed from a different fire. Fosters might be pretty smoky, but some friends were climbing there last weekend.

Thanks for the reply. Are there other climbing area with a few hours of Chattanooga that would not be affected and be climbable at this time of year. Trying to decide if we are going to cancel our Thanksgiving trip.

Thanks for any info you can provide.

knoxville area, potentially west NC, Mount yonah in GA

Alabama is probably your best bet. Sandrock, Jamestown, LRC.

Can confirm Yonah was fine last weekend, a bit hazy from the smoke but otherwise people were camping and climbing just fine. They do have a burn ban in place, and will also at places such as Sand Rock, if you are planning on camping make sure you have a stove

Knoxville and surrounding areas are currently in an air quality alert due to the fires. Check the local weather before you head out, that may give you an idea of what it's like.

Leda is closed due to the wildfires.

Twall is still smoke free

Ryanb,

Does that mean that T-wall climbing is open at this point?

Thanks.

Twall is open for climbing, yes. It's getting pretty smoky now though

Thanks Ryanb. We will check again this Thursday to see the status and then make our final call. Appreciate the Info!

Climbed up in Prentice Cooper a few days last week and Saturday. Periods of OK and others of very smokey. If you can handle the smoke smell and effects on breathing...you're fine. All of those areas (Twall and PC crags) are open until the thanksgiving hunt dates next week.

Climbed at Denny yesterday and while it was very smokey in the valley...we drove above the smoke line and it was "relatively" clear up on top. I'm assuming Fosters was similar.

The only "closed" areas right now are Deep Creek, Leda and LRC (technically not "closed" but they advise wearing a mask...to me that's closed).

This can all change though with wind direction. Saying FF is totally fine is misleading. There are fires in Sequatchie too.

Good luck.

We went to sunset on Sunday, and it was very smokey. I didnt realize just how bad until getting home and feeling the burn in my eyes and throat. its a pretty sad situation.

I'm surprised that the fires in sequatchie haven't lit up a few meth labs by now

Any update on the status of Deep Creek?

Lotapowder wrote:Any update on the status of Deep Creek?

Still closed.

Ok...Last request for updates to climbing in the Chattanooga area. Should I make the trip down from Colorado or postpone? I would love to climb at T-wall and Foster Falls, but if it's too smokey and unpleasant, it may not be worth it. Thanks to anyone that can aid in my decision.

weather.com/news/weather/ne…

Amir you need to make this decision yourself. We don't know your tolerance for the degraded air quality. There is no rain in the forecast and new fires are popping up every day. Conditions are not improving. Crags can be closed at any moment. It's a giant tinder box down here as someone else said. Climbers that do get out will all be going to the few places that will be open, so you might anticipate much higher traffic.