This past Tuesday I went to try out another place that we’re considering for high school camp. It’s an indoor rock climbing wall facility located in Mooresvile called Cliff Hangers. It’s not too far from us, about 50 minutes, and its relatively cheap, especially if you have your own harnesses. For adults, it’s only 19 per person and it’s a full day pass, so you can climb as much as you want.

. Some of the pictures are a little blurry on the bottom, but I didn’t notice until I had already left.

The walls in the main room go up 50 feet, and there’s obviously lots of different routes to choose from. They have both regular and auto belay systems in place, so if you’re climbing alone or with other people you have some options. Auto belays take some time to get used to, since you have to essentially just let go and jump back. After a foot or two the belay will catch you and slow your descent, but the first few times you use it can be a little tense.

They also have lots of walls set up for bouldering.  Bouldering is essentially free climbing on lower rocks/ walls. The floor for the bouldering area is made of large mat like cushions that are about 2- 2 1/2 feet thick to absorb falls, since descents are almost always falls. The walls go up about 15 ft in the bouldering area.

As much fun as I had here though, I don’t think we’re going to be going here with our high school camp this year. We’re already doing a trip to the Asheville Adventure center, which is largely climbing already, and so it feels like just doing two climbing trips back to back wouldn’t be as fun. They also only have 10 auto belays systems, and so we’d need to go through an hour long class, that they provide, with the campers on belaying and safety so that they could use the rest of the walls. Overall, that’s not that big of a problem though, since the pass is for the whole day. It’s possible that we may go next year.

They also have a cafe area where you can sit and relax and buy some snacks, which might be nice after climbing for an hour or two. Also, though we probably wouldn’t use it, they have a gym on the top floor with work out equipment.

I enjoyed my time there, and if I lived in the area I would probably go back.

These trips are to decide on where we’re taking our high-schoolers, during our highschool camp. If you know someone that would be interested in going during that camp, or are interested yourself, consider registering on our website, hickorycove.org.