Little River Canyon

Hey this is Addison part of The Dirty South Climbers! 


Well Me, the beautiful Tiffany Murphy, the burly Dalan Faulkner, the bug-phobic Elizabeth "Bee" Tamez, and our brilliant friend Owen Graham, are road trippin' here in the south with our final destination being Atlanta. The trip so far has been eventful and quite frankly an ADVENTURE. First of all, Owen and myself believed the trip was only going to last for a week or so. We needed to get back so we could go to work but... we were informed ( about 10 hours in to the drive) that the trip was going to last for an additional 4 or 5 days...So after the slight surprise we submitted to our fate and continued on our way.  After arriving in Fort Payne, Alabama we found a campsite and began to set up camp. I happened to enjoy the comfort of a wonderfully crafted ENO hammock which served me and my sleeping needs well.



Having gotten in late the night previous we slept in the next morning and we were planning to hit up the crag around noon thirtyish. Well, as we were about to leave we hit a little of a snag or rather the car wouldn't start... A call was made to the camp administrators and they said that they would be by in twenty minutes...20 minutes turned in to an hour and a half...So to stay our boredom, wild black berries were found, eaten, and enjoyed while we played an exciting game of Parcheesi .  

The guy with the jumper cables eventually arrived and we were once again on our way! One of the Locals directed us to a placed called "Unshackled" which was a large over hung wall with a lot of good shelves, crimps, and moves. For most of the day Owen, Dalan, and I worked the walls namesake "Unshackled" 5.13c. 

The Climb was about 60 feet of decently consistent climbing. The start has a couple of juggy moves to a 4 move crimp baby crux. It gets real as a bit higher up. The crux sequence is a really long move to a crimp followed by a desperate deadpoint to a slope shelf followed by a huge lock off to a decent crimp rail. Out of the three of us, Dalan looked the best. He fell at the last crux move at the last clip before the draws. He is super psyched  and should send in the morning! Tiff and Elizabeth work a 5.12c with this really cool move that had a large throw to an intermediate to a slopey jug. Sadly today there were no sends but the epic swim hole we went to after climbing made up for the lack of any sends.

 This place had some awesome cliff diving, deep water soloing, and pretty landscape. Dalan had a rather interesting experience trying to do a ganor off of one of the 25 foot cliff jumps. He essentially fell right on his face. I couldn't stop laughing.

 Overall this trip has been surprising and for the most part with little planning. But that is kinda the fun and ADVENTURE of it all. We are kinda just drifting from place to place, stopping to smell the roses and meeting the locals. Its nice not to be limited by schedules, obligations, and time constraints. Also this small towny feel is rubbing off on me and the group a bit. 

Everything here is done a little slower but that is a good break from the generally fast-paced, work-fulled, and sometimes stressful, Dallas, Texas. We are all really psyched and in gripped anticipation for what the next week/week and a half has in store for us!!


Remember, Have Too Much Fun,
Addison Kim