Survival Of The Fittest

This is the King Line of Moores Wall and Moores has so many good ones. It is the most exposed and intimidating piece of real estate in central NC, possibly the state and on the short list of the southeast. If this route does not challenge your sense of well being then you are indeed invincible.

Not many cliff lines harbor such an anomaly. The radical climbing and outrageous positioning would make this a poster child route for any area. Climbing 5.13 and placing gear under a dead horizontal roof with the crux 25' out the lip and 200' of air beneath you is mind bending. Mother Nature just doesn't produce it often.

Porter Jarrard initially looked at this line in the 80's, ultimately concluding,"the hardest part about this line is going to be finding somebody to climb it."

I started working on it in the mid 90's but never got back for an attempt at the monster line, which first ascends the knee knocking Windigo before entering deep enemy territory.

Recently, I revisited the route and completed Survival Of The Fittest.

The hardest thing about this route is not the power or the individual moves but rather the stamina to hold on and pull the lip after placing gear on lead for 100' of steep climbing. If you were willing to skip the roof gear and run it out, the difficulty could be scaled back a notch.

There are a couple options for cleaning this route. The easiest is belaying from the top but it's scary with considerable rope drag and tough anchor points for the necessary safety; not advised. The other option is to build a small anchor above the lip to lower from and have your second clean Windigo. Then hike around and clean from above. This is also somewhat challenging. Welcome to 'old school' 101.... Or is that 102 or 103 maybe?? Either way, this line is an undertaking and puts up resistance from start to finish.

Climb Windigo to the good stance section on the left side of the tower, just below roof level. Start working out right to the base of the roof placing multiple smaller cams along the way. Dive into the business and power the first crux half way out the roof. Pass two old bolts to the base of a splitter crack in the roof's underbelly. Climb the crack, placing a 1.5 - 2.5" cam and then a medium size nut before pulling the lip to salvation.

Climbs out the left side of the overhang, then directly through the central underbelly of the enormous Indian Head roof.

Cams from micros - 2.5 inches. Bring some additional smaller cams and nuts. Also bring plenty of 24's and a couple 48" runners.