FA Setter Ryan Smith recounts his Thanksgiving trip to two sandstone bouldering meccas: Rocktown near La Fayette, Georgia and Stone Fort (aka Little Rock City) in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, both easy to get to from Chattanooga Tennessee. Read on for some highlights and beta!
FA members and staff enjoy taking their holidays on the road. This time around a large crew went to Tennessee and Georgia during the Thanksgiving holiday to grapple with some sandstone boulders and work off some of the turkey weight. Bellies full of Thanksgiving food, the FAm packed up at headed southeast.
FA setters Mike, Warren, Liz and myself spent our first day of climbing in Rocktown, located in La Fayette, GA, about an hour outside of Chattanooga.
The best time to climb at Rocktown is Fall through early Spring. Climbing at Rocktown requires a specific permit to climb there, and it can be a bit tricky to find, so here’s the beta: go to Georgia’s Outdoors License webpage, fill out some personal information, and select the Non-Resident (if you’re not from Georgia) Angler License. The license cost $10 with a $2.50 service fee, this will gain you access to climbing and camping for one day. You are able to buy multiple days for around $3 per day. If you’re planning to multiple times per year, it may be worth it to buy an annual pass instead.
Rocktown is home to some phenomenal climbs. If you like awesome sandstone features and beautiful dense forests this is the place for you. There is a high density of 5 star climbs from V3-V7, but there are plenty of climbs for climbers of all ability levels to get on. If you’re worried about crowds, don’t – Rocktown features boulders that are spread out from each other, so even on busy weekends you can find some seclusion.
One big highlight from the trip to Rocktown was an awesome FA meetup at “The Comet” and “The Scoop” boulders. It was such a great experience have to have FA setters, Customer Service staff, and members all climbing with and supporting each other to the tops of many of the climbs there.
One of my personal highlights had to be climbing with FA setter emeritus Chris Feghali, who has now moved to Memphis Tennessee but joined the crew to climb for a few days. Since moving on from Chicago, Chris has become an assistant manager at Outdoors, Inc. He has also put together a climbing shoe review website (climbingshoebeta.com), and he’s been doing plenty of mountain biking. Though he may not be in a climbing gym all the time, he was still able to make quick work of “Tractor Traylor”.
At the end of the day we had a great group session at “The Orb” area, with crews of FA climbers on “The Orb”, “Double Trouble”, and “Soap on a Rope”. Some of us stayed even later to have a night session on “The Orb”.
Day two of climbing, we ventured to “Stone Fort” (aka Little Rock City) which is located in Soddy Daisy, TN just outside of Chattanooga. Climbing at Stone Fort is a bit simpler than going to Rocktown – all that is required of climbers is to drive to the Montlake golf course (yes, golf course), head into the clubhouse, and pay for a day pass ($8.75). From there, you have less than a five minute walk to the boulders next to the golf course. One thing to be wary of: there are boulders near the golf course and those are off limits while golfers are playing.
Stone Fort is another beautiful field of sandstone boulders that is much more densely packed than Rocktown but still offers great variety. One of my favorite V1’s is located here called “Firecracker Flake” as well as some other greats like “Shotgun”, a techy V6 accessible to climbers of all shapes and sizes with a variety of betas.
Liz figured out some very inspiring beta on this climb and I have no doubt she is going to send it the next time she heads to Stone Fort. One of our final climbs of the day was “Deception” a thin, technical climb I had attempted before and was unable to send. Myself and a few others put in some valiant efforts but continued to be thwarted at the very end of the climb.
While it is disappointing in the moment not to send, this open project gives me a great reason to plan for a return trip and will be that much more sweet when the climb finally gets completed. See you again soon Stone Fort!
P.S. if you are looking for great BBQ I hear “Sugar’s Ribs” is the place to go.
Go on a trip recently and want to share with the FA community? Email us at blog@firstascentclimbing.com to pitch your Trip Report. FA members get a huge FA Bonus award for contributing!