The nut blew and it was like watching something in slow motion as the climber came to stop next to me and then slid down the 5.3 Smorgasborg route to my left. The belay anchor came tight against my harness, a factor 2 fall and we weren’t even multipitch climbing. Well not exactly, Moss Crack a short rotten .10a leaves from ¼ of the way up Smorgasborg an often soloed 5.3 ramp . The random guy I hooked up with for our Gripper group that year thought a short and obscure .10a thin crack would be a great way to get some much coveted points. He was only 10 ft up with one nut below him when he fell and initially the nut held but then the crumbly crystals inside the crack gave way and he tumbled slowly down onto the slab next to me and slid to a stop as I caught his fall.
Most Granite Gripper tales go nothing like this, the friendly and fun event is designed to raise funds for the park through the Friends of Enchanted Rock. As an elected body The Central Texas Climbing Committee is normally tasked with replacing bolts and consulting with Texas Parks & Wildlife about new fixed anchors in the park, they are a bit out of their element running a climbing competition. This year marks the 27th time this annual event has been held and despite torrential rains in Texas this Fall the weather forecast looks amazing! One of the oldest trad competitions in the nations, the Granite Gripper allows competitors to earn extra points by leading trad routes. Scoring is based on your 5 best routes with at least 2 of the routes being bouldering problem and 2 being routes, so you need to be a diverse climber to do well.
Enchanted rock is an exfoliated batholith and part of the mostly underground Llano uplift. It is the 2nd largest formation of its kind with Stone mountain in Georgia slightly beating it out, if offers numerous routes with grades from 5.0 to 5.13 and a combination of cracks, slabs and bolted face climbs. While there are sport routes the majority of the park is traditionally bolted with a lot of the test pieces being put in ground up by the grandfather of Texas climbing James Crump. Crump along with 2 other friends wrote an excellent guide book to the area called “The Dome Drivers Manual” Crump, Scott Harris and Robert Price put together this work of art in the late 80’s and it has been out of print since the 90’s with copies selling on ebay for as much as $200 or more each!
For more information and to register for the 2018 version of this event please visit the Central Texas Climbing Committee site here. The event is Oct 27, you can also learn about and support Gripper sponsors here.