Tennessee Wall Trip Report
With 2020 winding down, we headed to Chattanooga to do some trad climbing, bouldering, mountain biking, and ring in the new year!
We previously climbed in Tennessee at the sport climbing destination of Foster Falls and had a pretty rainy trip. However, one day we ventured up to the Tennessee Wall (aka T-wall) and found a southern sandstone paradise. On that trip it was too hot and humid to thoroughly enjoy it, but we knew we needed to get back there some day and decided to come back in December.
T-wall is a prime winter destination with a mile long south facing wall of beautiful orange and brown sandstone. On this trip, we had great conditions with temps in the low fifties that felt like t-shirt weather when the sun was out. A few days clouds rolled in and the wind picked up, but nothing a few mid-weight layers or down jacket didn’t fix right up.
Bob heading up Puppy Ride (5.9).
We found T-wall stacked with high quality cracks, corners, aretes, and roofs. However, I kept being drawn into the dihedral cracks that appeared around every corner, exemplified by Puppy Ride in the photo above. Cracks like this were hand jam heaven and had plenty of varied features to keep them interesting.
Garrett on Cakewalk (5.10-).
Since I haven’t been climbing as much as I’d like recently it took a while to get my confidence and lead head back. On our second day of climbing, I warmed up on the delightful dual crack system of Exposed Aggregate (5.7) and regained some confidence. The classic 5.10- route Cakewalk was calling me, with its continuous and very protectable crack system. I felt inspired and gave it a try, thanks to some good gear beta to place nuts in the undulating crack low and save the 0.4 cam for the crux I was able to flash the route with confidence, my first trad 5.10! Even though its 5.10- and considered soft for the grade, I’ll take it.
Kate leading Crash Position (5.9).
In addition to all the amazing cracks, T-wall also offered some very cool exposed aretes. Kate eyed up the slightly runout route Crash Position (5.9). After reading contradictory reports about abundance and quality of gear placements on Mountain Project, Kate tackled the route. Following the initial face climbing and moderate runout she reached a decent gear placement and easier climbing that lead to the crux of the route in the final 15 ft. Kate found a great gear placement for a blue totem to protect the final crux, climbed up once to suss it out, downclimbed to a nice rest stance, then fired up it with ease. The reward was a beautiful view of the valley and the Tennessee River.
Sunset over the Tennessee River.
We were so blown away that this amazing cliff was only a 30 min drive from downtown Chattanooga. In addition to trad climbing at T-wall, we also took a few trips up to Stone Fort for bouldering. This is one of the three major bouldering destinations in the south along with Horse Pen 40 and Rocktown. Stone Fort was densely packed with moderate boulder problems that really helped us dip our toes into outdoor bouldering and inspired me to continue to learn and grow in this area of my climbing. I especially learned that slopey top outs are a weakness I can work to improve. Finally, we also got in a bit of mountain biking at Bauxite Ridge, which had awesome flowy trails perfect for our novice skill level and relative lack of fitness. A local suggested many more nearby mountain biking locations and we look forward to exploring more when we come back.
Bob on Precious Orr (5.10-)
Overall, we love Chattanooga, T-wall and all the other amazing outdoor recreation opportunities available. We look forward to returning and have plenty of routes on the list to climb next time!
-Garrett