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esander4
May 21, 2011, 3:18 AM
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Registered: Nov 8, 2010
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So i marked up my first FA of a multipitch route today. I actually wasn't even planning on climbing, it was warm (to me anyway) and my fiancee and I went out for a day of kayaking on the Tennessee River. We put in at a dock near her apartment in Knoxville. The "river" was really calm at this section. After kayaking for about half a mile, deciding to explore some different splits in the river, we looked off to our left and there stood the biggest piece of stone I'd ever seen in Knoxville. It was (about) 230 feet, with the bottom touching the river. We decided after looking it over that it was climbable, and decided to kayak back and get our stuff. She only had a 50 m rope and my apartment was an hour away, which wasn't worth it to get the 60 m rope. I had my rack in my car as I was planning on climbing the next day, so we lucked out there..
Anyway, we kayaked back out on a two person sit-on-top with our harnesses already put on and decided to attempt the climb. We decided that she would lead the first pitch because she didn't fee comfortable belaying out of the kayak. As it turns out, the crux of the climb is getting out of the kayak onto the rock. It was almost game over when she had close calls of falling into the water twice. But she manged to get on.
P1. To get onto the rock, you first have to somehow manage to stand up carefuly and grab onto a jug above you. This first pitch is mostly vertical, and is the 5.8 section of the climb. You grab a jug at your head (well my head, but I'm tall, so maybe slightly above the climber's head). You get a heel up and it's basically like trying to top out onto a big ledge, which had it not been for mother nature would have been a way more convenient starting point. First pitch had a few thin hand cracks for pro, but we actually didn't use any cams as nuts and slinging a couple thin (5-6 inch) trees worked pretty well.
P2 was pretty easy, maybe 5.6. It starts off on slab, then goes vertical for the last 40 feet. The crux of this pitch is trying to avoid the bushes. Slightly large pro for this, ate up all my hand size and up cams.
There were a couple large trees going down the opposite side, and after one rappel and a short scramble down the rest of the way we were back at our kayak and back home to talk about the first FA for my fiancee, and my first multipitch FA. All in all, not the greatest multipitch i've done by far, and definitely not impressive by most people's standards, but for sure good for Knoxville since there isn't really any other climbing in the city. It was a pretty great moment in my climbing career.
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viciado
May 21, 2011, 12:29 PM
Post #2 of 7
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Registered: May 9, 2003
Posts: 429
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Congratulations! Sounds like fun. Any access issues? 
How much has this year's flooding affected the water level there? Might the route "grow" a bit over the summer?
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losbill
May 22, 2011, 12:11 AM
Post #4 of 7
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Registered: Sep 14, 2004
Posts: 416
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Enjoyed your write up. Sounds like a fun outing. I have had water approaches before but never had to actually make the first moves off the deck, of the boat! Your girlfriend sounds like a "keeper"!!!
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darkgift06
May 24, 2011, 4:47 PM
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Registered: Mar 16, 2009
Posts: 492
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true adventure! Love it!
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iidesu
Sep 2, 2011, 7:38 AM
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Registered: Sep 2, 2011
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darkgift06 wrote: true adventure! Love it!
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j_ung
Sep 2, 2011, 10:43 AM
Post #7 of 7
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Registered: Nov 21, 2003
Posts: 18690
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iidesu wrote: darkgift06 wrote: true adventure! Love it! yep, I concur.
+1 here. Good show, sir!
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