easy trad climbs

Any suggestions on some easy trad climbs (5.6 to 5.8) that could be top roped? What I am wanting to do is set up a top rope and be able to practice placing pro.

This place looks good:

Real helpful thanks

where?

I'm in Georgia but any where that the Southeast Forum covers

Sandrock AL

Greg Berry wrote:Sandrock AL

I'm pretty familiar with Sandrock but I stick to the sport routes. Any particular trad routes that you can set up a top rope?

And just for the record I am not a beginner climber. I am just new to trad and trying to learn things the safe way rather than getting myself or someone else hurt. Lots of guys like Todd W that like to give people a hard time on mountain project rather than help out a fellow climber. Some people forget that they didn't know everything at one point in their life. For the rest of you thanks.

Why not start by practicing placing pro on some of the sport routes your familiar with? I'm sure some take decent pro.

I've never been to Linville Gorge (hope to at some point), but it looks like they have lots of nice looking easy and moderate trad climbs. Not sure about the feasibility of setting up on TR.

you could practice pro at Pilot Mountain in NC. The whole cliff-line is equipped with top rope anchors. I imagine you could do the same at Crowders Mountain though I dont have experience there. There is also TR anchors at the Chimneys at Linville gorge.

There are quite a few areas in Ga that offer what you are looking for. Check out Currahee in Toccoa. Everything there is TR'able. The slab wall and Buzzard wall both have some moderates that are protectable by gear and bolts, but also have anchors at the top.

Mt. Yonah near Helen also has a lot of options to TR'ing trad climbs. The 2-man climbs, even though they are bolted, gear can be placed. The Balance climb area has the cable that runs to the top and over every trad route there. Also, you can hike to the top of the main wall and drop ropes where ever you like.

Check out the Dixie Craggers Alabama and Georgia for a guide book.

Alabama: Steele, Palisades, Sandrock are all ideal for this....especially Palisades.

You can drop TRs on most all of the trad routes at Sandrock given some hiking and scrambling. That said, I don't think I have ever seen a bolted line at Sandrock that wouldn't go on gear.... You could engage in some mixed climbing on easier bolted routes.....any of the 5.8s and 9s would be fine for this.

Georgia: Currahee, Yonah, Lost Wall.
NC: Pilot, the Chimneys.
TN: Leda.

Palisades and Sandrock are good choices.

At sandrock, Knob Wall was my first lead. Also, find some sport climbs there that have been retro bolted and place gear on them.

Palisades has tons of 5.6 routes good for first leads

So I recently have gotten into the trad climbing scene as well,

For Top Roping to place gear, hard to beat Palisades. Top Access with abundant strong trees to sling and anchor, with some pretty good lines.

Sand rock has some pretty awesome easy leads, (rare to include awesome and sand rock in the same sentence, but if you can deal with some hooligans, it's pretty rad) especially around the pinacle. Pin chimney being one of my favorite 5.8s, and loosey goosey is pretty fun/easy also. But to set the top rope for these, you would have to lead up (the standard route barely goes at 5.6.

Steele would be harder to set a top rope, everything I know of is bottom access, so you'd have to lead it first.

Hey Jon, give me a heads up if you want to meet in the middle at Currahee or Yonah sometime.

Brian Hudson wrote:Hey Jon, give me a heads up if you want to meet in the middle at Currahee or Yonah sometime.

Anytime man. Like I said in my earlier post I'm no beginner. Strong sport leader on most 5.9 and a few 5.10. I am pretty flexible this time of year because of the type of work I do so let me know if your free and we will make it happen

I got ya. Maybe we can hit up that sweet crag Todd suggested!

Go to lost wall. There is nobody there and you can get to the top of most routes via some scrambling. Not a ton of 5.7s but plenty of 5.8s and .9s that can be toproped.

And after you get scared you can throw on your beanie and go bouldering up the hill at rocktown.

Jon Powell wrote:And just for the record I am not a beginner climber. I am just new to trad and trying to learn things the safe way rather than getting myself or someone else hurt. Lots of guys like Todd W that like to give people a hard time on mountain project rather than help out a fellow climber. Some people forget that they didn't know everything at one point in their life. For the rest of you thanks.

Not that I condone being a douche bag, but you must realize that there are ALSO a lot of people on Mountain Project that would say that you ARE a beginner climber. It seems to me that if you can't place gear well enough to lead, then you can't place gear well enough to set up a top rope.

At the very least you could have given us a bit more information about your current skill set, where you'd like to climb, and how you plan to climb given that you don't know how to place gear well enough to trust your life to it. If you had done that, I don't think todd w would have joked you with the road cut picture.

I recommmend John Long's "Climbing Anchors", it has a huge section devoted to good & bad placements. It gave me a lot of confidence and insight.

Jon Powell wrote:Like I said in my earlier post I'm no beginner. Strong sport leader on most 5.9 and a few 5.10.

Trad has a way of humbling those that get in over their heads. Just a few years ago someone died in Tallulah on a 5.8 when they were capable of 5.12 sport. By trad standards, you are a beginner. It takes many years of frequent practice to become ~75% proficient at trad. This isn't an insult on your skill level, but a suggestion that you use caution and get a mentor. Practicing gear placements will have limited gains without someone experienced to evaluate the placement. Not all placements are as simple as shoving a cam into a crack, especially not on granite and quartzite, which is common in the SE. There are many books out there that you should check out while starting. One of my favorites was trad climbing: surviving the learning years, and later check out self rescue. Both happened to be available at the library.