![]() The park has been a focal point in Georgia’s political tensions. What are you going to do? Make-believe the Civil War didn’t happen?” Aronoski, who was visiting from Fall River, Mass. Joe Aronoski, 82, had just taken a tram to the carving and the top of Stone Mountain for the first time. Some visitors to the park on Monday expressed concerns about scrubbing away history. “It’s just marred by the ugliness of the Confederacy.” “The natural surroundings are amazing,” said Bona Allen, who can trace his heritage back to the Confederacy and has become a leader in the effort to minimize that history in the park. Stone Mountain Park, with 3,200 acres of walking trails, lakes and amusement rides, officially opened to the public on Apthe hundredth anniversary of the night President Abraham Lincoln was shot. But activists contend that the board had ample room to move more aggressively. ![]() He said that legal protections limited the actions of park officials. “The carvings memorialize the people who served the Confederacy,” Mr. O’Toole, a spokesman for the Georgia division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, comparing it to colonial tourist sites. “We’re in favor of ‘heritage tourism,’” said Martin K. In Mississippi, the threat of canceled sporting events and souring business investment ignited the final effort to bring down the state flag featuring the Confederate battle emblem, which had flown for 126 years and weathered many previous attempts.īut supporters of the monument contend that its history can be a force for reinvestment. For a good meal - and a motel if you don't feel like camping - head back down US 21 to Elkin.ĥ.The movement by the park’s governing board has underscored the crucial role that economic factors have had in motivating change. In terms of protection, a light rack should be more than enough for most routes other than the two well-known crack lines, and bolted anchors protect all belays.Ĭamping is available both in the park and at private campgrounds nearby. You can also use the walk-off trail from the summit. Many rappels (including some from the Tree Ledge, where most of the face climbs begin) are best managed on double ropes. Granite has the peculiar feature of having maximum friction in chilly weather and a somewhat greasy feel in heat combine this with the blast-furnace atmosphere of summer, and you can see why Stone Mountain is most popular in the winter months.Ī 60-meter rope is a must at Stone Mountain better yet, two of them. Hundreds of old bolts were replaced with stout new ones, making the long runouts a little easier to bear.īecause of its southern exposure, the South Face is in full sun all day. More recently, Stone Mountain received a facelift of sorts when the Carolina Climbers Coalition sponsored a major rebolting of the dome's routes and belay stations. Some of the early pioneers included George DeWolfe, Tim McMillan, Jim McEver and Bob Rotert. In spite of the difficulties, many of the classics, including the 5.10 Rainy Day Women, were established by 1975, using the strong North Carolina tradition of ground-up ascents and bolting on lead. The first ascents were made without sticky rubber shoes, cams and other tools we take for granted these days. As Rich Gottlieb has observed from first-hand experience, climbing this 600-foot dome in the mid-60s was a whole other world. Stone Mountain climbing goes back more than 40 years, when intrepid pioneers began making the first attempts at routes like the Arch and 105887729. Climbing here is as much mental as physical - you've got to trust the friction. ![]() Stone Mountain is notorious for long and scary runouts: 30 feet or more between placements or bolts is commonplace. Unlike the Arch, most multi-pitch routes here have sparse opportunities for protection. The most obvious route here, 105887520, is visible for miles, but it's actually the least typical of Stone Mountain climbing. Though there's climbing on the north face of the mountain, most people go for the better-known South Face. But instead of carved Confederate generals galloping across its face, this Stone Mountain swarms with climbers on the some of the finest and most exposed friction climbing anywhere. Like its more famous namesake near Atlanta, Stone Mountain is a huge granite dome, rising from the North Carolina foothills.
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