In the fall of 1972, I visited Table Rock State Park, South Carolina, with friends. As we left the park on our way home, we got a good view of the north side of Table Rock; it was a sheer wall of granite, with a big dihedral running all the way up. That's the photo above. I couldn't get it out of my mind, and over spring break I headed back down with a friend to try and climb it.
Table Rock is a granite dome in northwest South Carolina. It is located in Table Rock State Park.
We knew nothing about the rock, only that it existed. I had a few slides I'd taken of it as we drove away, but they were from far away. All we knew was that it looked like it had a weakness and could be climbed. We didn't even know how tall the wall was.
Chris couldn't go with me, but my other climbing partner, Steve Piccolo (Pic), could. We crammed all our climbing gear in the car. along with two rucksacks and trail food. Our gear included two single point hammocks and belay seats, as we expected to be up on the rock for more than a day. My hammock was home made, as was my belay seat; I had a swami belt consisting of a length of 2" nylon webbing and some home-made leg-loops. We didn't have a haul bag, but planned to use our packs, since we would need them anyway to get to the climb. We took the only two ropes I had -- a 30m one and a 40m one. We planned to climb on the 30m one and use the 40m one as a haul line; that would allow us to do 30m rappels if we had to abandon the route.
We drove nonstop on the way down. From my diary:
What a trip. We had to help this man who was having a bad lung problem. His daughters were screaming like he was going to die and I thought he might. He was coughing a lot of blood and having violent muscle spasms. Anyway, we got him off to a hospital. Finally got to S. Carolina at midnight and camped by highway.
It was pitch black when we we pulled off and camped on a small knoll just above the highway. We figured it was probably illegal to camp by the side of a road in South Carolina, but I figured I was from Washington where you could camp anywhere in a National Forest and that lame excuse would at least keep us out of jail. We were pretty nervous; the film Easy Rider had just come out a few years before, and Deliverance was even more recent and fresh in our minds. The South was a scary enough place for a couple of college kids from up North, but we suspected people would be even less accommodating if we told them we wanted to climb that wall of rock. We'd be sure to kill ourselves, and I'm sure they didn't want that on their hands. So we wanted to be unobtrusive — but didn't have a clue how.
The next morning before the sun was up, we heard the noise of a vehicle on the gravel pull-off where we had left the highway. I peeked out of the tent and saw a State Trooper's vehicle. I quickly slid back into my sleeping bag and mumbled to Pic to pretend we were asleep. We heard the door slam as the trooper got out, but he didn't come up to interrogate us. Maybe he just checked out my Washington State license plate and decided we were harmless, but in any case we had squeaked by. After he was gone, we quickly dressed, packed up, and bleary-eyed drove slowly down the road.
We came to a small diner and decided to get some breakfast. While talking to a guy who was about our age behind the counter we casually inquired about the rock. He asked if we were the guys camped along the highway. We kind of looked at each other in surprise, but said yeah, we were... We got a sobering earful.
"Charlie stopped in a while ago and mentioned he had stopped and checked you guys out. There's a $100 fine for doing that. You lucked out. That's Table Rock, and it's illegal to go up there. There's a big reservoir but it's the water supply for Greenville, and no-one is allowed in there. There's a $25 fine if you're caught in the watershed."
According to Pic,
"One thing that still remains embedded in my gray matter was the somewhat offhand comment by the guy you pumped for info after our initial roadside camping episode. It simultaneously appalled and relieved me when he mentioned that the authorities no longer shot trespassers they found in the watershed. That gave us the resolve to continue upward if we were at least a couple of pitches into the climb.
I asked if there were any fish in the lake.
"Lots of big fish. But it's illegal; the city council considers it their private fishing lake. I've snuck in there a few times and there are nice big fish. I always bring a cheap rod because I've had to ditch it a few times and run like hell. They have a boat up there. Once they caught me out in their boat. They took my rod and made me hike all the way out. I've lost a couple of rods up there, but boy, the fishing sure is good."
So now we knew things were going to be really sketchy. Apparently it is still illegal to climb on the North side... Some lame excuse about not contaminating the watershed. What a crock of B.S.. I wondered then, and marvel now, how they manage to convince themselves that all the bear, deer, raccoons, beavers, and other animals that have and spread things like giardia somehow know the rules and take a hike over the ridge to poop.
We didn't say anything about climbing, thanked the man at the diner, and headed out. Today, as I understand it, there is legal climbing at Table Rock / Table Rock State Park, but it is confined to the south-east wall. The normal view you see of the climbing possibilities is the one below left, where it is now legal. I call the part we climbed "Trespass Nose" but it has been climbed by others (we found some bolt anchors) and may have an official name of "Reflections"; but I'm not sure if the route of that name is the same one, as one reference to "Reflections" sounded like it is legal.
More from my diary:
Since it was raining, Pic & I drove up into N.C. & saw some beautiful country. Steep canyons with big waterfalls, Dry Falls in particular — goes over big overhang, you can walk behind it. Went through corner of Georgia, saw the Chatuga (Chattooga) River where Deliverance was filmed. On the way back we had a bad storm. Just before, we came upon another accident. 2 car head-on. Young girl lost half her scalp. It wasn't pretty to look at but not too serious. The kid driving the other car wasn't hurt much, just stunned. Figures. It was completely his fault & he had had other accidents. His big concern was his Jackson 5 tape. He ought to be kept from driving, but you probably can't do that short of jailing him, which isn't such a bad idea. The poor girl won't be too good looking after that mess. Both Pic and I remarked that shoulder harnesses & seat belts would have let them both off without a scratch.
On the way back when it was dark we hit a bad storm. Thunder, lightning & driving rain. We later found out it was the side effects of a tornado 50 miles south.
Camped on back road, woke up with flat rear tire. What a trip! Anyway, it looked like the weather was breaking up so we decided to go for the climb.
I don't know exactly where we parked but it was in the state park. We were a little worried about people getting suspicious when the car was left empty, apparently abandoned, overnight. We packed our gear and started bushwacking, trying to be quiet while thrashing through the woods. I'm not sure how we figured out where to go; I have a vague memory of a USGS map and compass. We probably followed our noses up one of the creeks which flows down from the mountain, then worked our way around. In any case, we got to the bottom of the big dihedral without any mishaps.
When we got in to the base of it at noon it was a gorgeous day. We were both really worried about getting caught. Ever tried to be quiet when aid climbing? What a laugh. It's a good thing there weren't any wardens around.
We were eager to be off the ground. We geared up as fast as we could. We figured once we were off the ground we'd be ok unless they started shooting at us. They could meet us on top if they really wanted us.
The rock was awesome; we felt like we were in Yosemite at the base of El Capitan about to start up the Nose.
I lead off free climbing, but soon resorted to aid. We were somewhat handicapped because we were climbing in alpine boots; there were also places where seeps made stretches of rock slick. Pic says he doesn't remember much except
"It was really slick from water and slime growth. The upper pitches were relatively low angle, but the rock was so slippery that there was no way I could see free climbing it in the condition we found it."We were hauling all our gear; we didn't want to have to hike back into the forbidden area once we went over the top.
I ran the rope out, set up a belay, and hauled our packs up. Pic cleaned the pitch and we swapped leads. We were off the ground!
Towards evening something went crashing through the forest below us. We froze, thinking it was people coming after us. After an hour or so I decided it was probably a bear or some other large mammal. We tried to climb quietly, but since we were using both nuts and pitons, that's pretty much impossible. The first time I hammered on a pin the sound rolling across the reservoir was terrifying, but there was nothing we could do about it. I would put a hand on the pins while I was hammering them to deaden the noise, and I'd try tapping instead of hammering hard, but sometimes you have to slam the beggars home if you want them to hold. Once we were two pitches up we forgot about it and I calmed down, convincing myself no-one was at the reservoir. At least we didn't see any boats.
"We were climbing on my 100' rope, using 150' for haul line. We couldn't get another 150' from the outing club & I didn't want to ask Chris to borrow his. We went up 300' to big roof & spent the night there in our hammocks. We did the 300' in 4 pitches, as we couldn't make the bolts at the belay points in 1 pitch. I had to do last pitch by headlamp. Pic's slow leading aid, but fast cleaning & good company. We brought 3½ qts H2O each, and only needed 3 qts for our 2½ days on the wall. Also took too much food. Didn't get hungry, just ate because we thought we ought to."
We found a dry spot to suspend our hammocks, underneath a small roof. We grabbed something to eat and tried to sleep. According to Pic,
"another thing I vividly remember is that I was so afraid of dropping my boots that I wouldn't remove them for the duration of the climb."So I guess he slept in them.
By morning it was cold, and we were even colder. Fortunately the weather was nice and eventually we found some sun.
"...we traversed right, then did a pendulum over to a small ledge below the pine tree. Then I got off route & led about 50' free straight up when we should have worked right. Got caught in a bind after skyhooking up this rotten flake, had to place a bolt and then drilled 3 small holes to place sky hooks to go on up. That wasn't too good for my conscience. Put in 1 bad & 1 good bolt for anchors. Spent night there."
The morning's first pitch involved traversing beneath an overhang; looking at it now it looks like a nice lieback / undercling, but I nailed it. Maybe it was beyond my ability at the time; maybe it was slick; maybe I was too cold to try; and maybe I just lacked the courage.
I led off 100' up into the dihedral that finished the climb. A1 most of the way, some A2. Went pretty fast. Pic led second pitch but was having pins pull & was getting psyched out, so 50' up he decided to belay. He was also running out of pins & 'biners. Tried to place a bolt & broke the drill, twice. That worried me because I didn't know how much farther we had to go. I led the last pitch and it went quickly, although it was really muddy grungy.
I have been told this route is called "Reflections," although it's not clear to me it's the same route. It's a classic, and it's absurd for access to it to be off-limits. Today, I'm pretty sure it would go free at some grade I can't climb; I'd be curious to know what it's graded now. We left a note in a film can half way up, but it's probably long since worked its way loose and washed away.
I found this reference, which indicates it has still not gone free, although there is no date on the article. The rating given is 5.8 A3. My recollection is the aid wasn't that hard, but I'm a geezer now and my memory can't be trusted. I recently got a phone call from a British climber who also indicated it hadn't gone free yet.
More from my diary:
We had a real ball.
Super bivuoacs, lots of hawks, gorgeous views of waterfalls & valley & reservoir.
Trees just starting to get leaves.
Gear needed:
150' rope
1 ea 4", 3", 2½" bong
6 short med, short thin, 3 blades
4 short thick, 1 long med, long thin
3 - ½", 5⁄8", 1", 1¼" 2 - ½"
1 - 2", 6 - ¾"
1 cliff hanger for move across under overhang
2 sky hooks
bolts in case belay anchors pulled or need replacing
Nuts: all stoppers, hexes (1 set) used only occasionally but needed for anchors & aid.
Should be 1½ day climb with bivuoac at roof or tree.
We hiked out in the dark. I hiked for 50 minutes from lake in park to car, & couldn't drive to pick up Pic because they had locked the gates to the park! So pic & I hiked out to where I'd driven the car to (the gate near the campsites), and walked to the campsite & took a free shower. That sure felt good, especially since we didn't have to pay $3.00 for a camping spot & use of the shower."What delight a neon light to those who've laughed and loved beneath a canopy of stars?" Leslie Gezon
My diary doesn't say anything about where we spent the night or how we got the car out. Maybe we just camped and waited for them to unlock the gate and drove out. I also have a note that says the climb is called "Psychotic Reaction, IV 5.8 A3. Not sure where that information came from; it's dated July 1973.
Then, I found this thread in which it's stated (2014) that Reflections is now treated as a terrorist threat. As if it would be difficult to actually sneak in there and one would need to disguise themselves as a climber. Sheesh. Note: (2022-02-02) Looks like Mountain Project has taken down that post, I assume because it's off limits. Unfortunately, it's not archived on the Wayback Machine either.
Note: Pic just sent me a note (2022-02-02) saying he'd found some drone footage which gives some good views of the face. Nice.