This is the view of Linville Gorge one of the most beautiful places in North Carolina, and is also a great place to climb.

(Photographer: j_ung) Derek Gentry (rockinice) in the grand finaly of The Open Book.

(Photographer: j_ung) Phil Hoffman absorbed in a good read on The Open Book. Once through the nightmare crux, it's a sustained low-5.10 corner with difficult stemming and bomber gear.

This pano was taken from Wise Mans View on the west side of the gorge. The formations from left to right are Halks Bill, Table Rock, Carolina Wall, and way down there is Shortoff Mtn.

This might possibly be my most favorite climb to date. This is the top-out of The Daddy (5.7, 5/6 pitches) in the Linville Gorge Wilderness. Brian here is pictured trying to climb up through the final 20 feet and through the resulting top-out. The top-out is quite tricky after climbing 5/6 pitches for almost 4 hours. It's a slopey ledge with nothing pronounced on it. You just have to get your hands up there and work your feet up high enough so you might mantle a little bit more every step. A great route with an even better view...

This might possibly be my most favorite climb to date. This is the third pitch of The Daddy (5.7, 5/6 pitches) in the Linville Gorge Wilderness. My friend and belayer Brian is pictured here climbing up after me and cleaning up my gear. We started early in the morning with a minimal, non-fried breakfast so he's rather pissed at me on this route. This route also proved to be his first multi-pitch all gear route, so he was a bit skiddish. Afterwards, many months in this case, he told me how grateful he was that we did this climb and it inspired him to learn how to place gear on lead. It's a beautiful route, I highly recommend it.

This is a shot of the northern part of Linville Gorge. Little Table Rock is the small outcrop on the right. Our campsite was at the top of that.

This me me on top of the Prow. The Mummy Buttress is behind me. We had just done the Daddy, and exited on the Prow. Thanks Bumblie for taking this shot!

This is the view from the trail to the nc wall. This pic was taken near the chimneys.

This is an easy (5.6/5.7) climb that is usually loaded with camp groups but we were just passing through and decided to solo it. My friend Carl took this shot and i wish he could've gotten my hands and feet in the pic but oh well.

Chris was just at the top of the daddy, when this jet flew just over ours heads. wow that was close , don't know why he was so low. photo by tpazol

I have to just step across this gap with a lot of air under my rump? Aaah I play this same game with my 1 year-old. No problem...

I was rope-soloing the Prow and took this shot of 3 climbers toppping out the Mummy December 01.

Cool shot of the Linville Gorge at the end of a five pitch climb. On top of the main area, can't remember the name..

This is the second pitch of three, by far the hardest of the three. You don't have to move out over the roof....but if you want a good picture you grab it and hang. :)

We got a little off route on the Daddy at Linville Gorge (Detour Dave strikes again) and wound up going straight up through a large lichen covered section to the top on the last pitch. This was fine for me at the lichen was really grippy when dry but once I got to the top it started raining. My partner Lisa Lorenzin started up on second after it stopped and the lichen has turned into greases goose sh*t. She took her first wild swinging outdoor fall on a remote trad climb while traversing to clean a piece of pro I had set way off to the side. I couldn't see her from the top and just heard screams (unsettling!). Anyway, this line is somewhere between The Mummy and the Daddy so we called it The Baby (probably illegitimate). The small photo in the corner shows where Lisa is belaying from.

Me on the 2nd (or third if you split it into 3 pitches) pitch of The Mummy (5.5). You can see The Prow (5 pitches of 5.4) in the background. Great route, but the hike to the Amphitheater is horrendous, I recommend camping.

Looking at Shortoff from the top of the Chimney's.

Sweet photo of the prow part of the prow.

Looking up from the first belay station on The Daddy.

Another beautiful day in the gorge without a partner

Took the photo just prior to climbing (clean aid) the route in September 1974

My first multipitch!