The Guides’ Beta: North Carolina’s Best Trad Adventures

May 2, 2025 forreststavishUncategorized

Part of our mission at Fox Mountain Guides is to educate climbers of all skill levels. We do that in our day to day guiding, courses, and cover special topics in our blog posts. You've seen gear reviews and tech tips, but it can be hard to find good route beta. In this new blog series, our goal is to provide key beta for North Carolina's best trad adventures. These routes are either of classic status or more obscure, but still worthy of becoming the next NC Classic.

What will The Guides' Beta cover?

We will cover routes from Whiteside Mountain in Highlands North Carolina to Moores Wall in Hanging Rock State Park and everything in between. Some routes are well known while others deserve more attention. The intent of these blogs is to provide detailed beta for a successful ascent of the route. If you’re going for an onsight attempt of any of these routes, then these blogs may not be for you. However, if you're wanting to gather as much data as possible to set yourself up for success, you have come to the right place.

This Guides' Beta Series will provide details about the route including a brief history if available. We want these b

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The Guides’ Beta: The Nose of Looking Glass Rock

May 1, 2025 forreststavishRoute Beta

The Nose, Looking Glass Rock, 5.8 Grade II, 400'

Introduction:

Since 1966 The Nose of Looking Glass Rock has been climbed by thousands of climbers. Both newer climbers and experienced climbers have found themselves on mini epics of The Nose. While the route is mostly straight forward, there are some nuanced approaches to how it is climbed and descended. The rich history combined with the unique climbing style and beautiful backdrop of the blue ridge mountains are what make The Nose of Looking Glass a true classic climb.

The History:

The first ascent of The Nose was on December 19, 1966 by Steve Longenecker, Robert Gillespie, and Bob Watts. This was the first time the mountain was climbed via 5th class rock climbing, and thus was an historic moment for rock climbing in North Carolina and the southeast. The three men climbed the route ground up wearing stiff-soled, leather boots. They had a rack of pitons for protection, only needing to pull on one for aid during the first ascent. Check out this article at the Carolina Climbing Museum to learn more about this historic first ascent.  

The Season:

Though the first ascent was i

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