Linville Crusher - 10/18/ 25 Trip Report

eyancey63
Oct 20, 2025
8 min read

By Ely Yancey

Marcus and I met a few months ago after I moved into a house a few doors down from

him. After discovering my new neighbor was into all the same hobbies as me, we

immediately started getting after it, going on mountain bike rides during the week and

climbing on the weekends. We had both been wanting to do the Crusher for years, but

neither of us had a partner willing to commit to preparing for it properly. We knew if we

wanted to go for it, we needed to start now, as the fall window isn’t that long when you only have the weekends.

For context, I’ve been climbing since 2022, and my first trad lead was in late 2023.

Marcus has been climbing on and off for the better part of two decades. He hadn’t been

climbing much at all for the last year until we started climbing together.

We’d heard horror stories about people trying to onsite some of the climbs (or the

approaches, rather) on the day of the Crusher, so we decided to spend every weekend

for a month leading up to it ticking off routes. In this time frame, we ticked off Sitting

Bear Original Route twice, Star Trekin, Lost in Space, North Ridge, Bumblebee

Buttress, Little Corner, and Maginot Line. Between the two of us, we had climbed every

formation on the Crusher except the North Carolina Wall, so a lot of these were just

refresher laps. The only approach we needed to figure out ahead of time was

Bumblebee Buttress’s, and boy am I glad we didn’t wait until the day of for that one.

Me leading up the Bombay Roof on pitch 2 of Bumblebee Buttress on a prep day. I had to dial back the amount of gear placed in this roof significantly on the day of the crusher.

After climbing Star Trekin, we ended up deciding to do Lost in Space for the Crusher

instead. While the roof move is harder than anything on Star Trekin, the protection is

much better than what you get when pulling on crimps with a big ledge beneath you on

P2 of Star Trekin. We did both Maginot Line and Little Corner beforehand so that we’d

know our options and get a sense of how much faster Little Corner was.

Marcus onsighting "Lost In Space" on a prep day.

We debated going self-supported on this mission, but with people who were psyched to

help, it was great to have folks haul some water and snacks up for us. We figured we’d

go self-supported another time, but this first go was just for fun. So, my fiancée Simone

planned to drive us up in the morning, hike the first two peaks with us, and carry some

extra water. Another friend, Daniel Lieberman, planned to meet us at the Table Rock

parking lot with more water and snacks. We would filter the rest throughout the day.

We started up from the Sitting Bear trailhead at 4:42 a.m. We kicked off the day with

Danny Bell, who would go on to do the Crusher lead rope solo—doubling the pitch

count for the day! We dropped our packs at the intersection with Devil’s Hole Trail and

pulled out only what we needed—harnesses, helmets, belay device, four draws, a size

6 stopper, and a #1 cam. We got to Sitting Bear at 5:02 a.m, Marcus flew up the route

on lead in 5 minutes, and I top-roped it in 3. Danny was hot on my tail, leading the route

as I was topping out. We left Sitting Bear at 5:23 a.m.

4:40 am. Left to right: Danny Bell, Ely Yancey, Marcus Stephanides

Marcus making quick work of the "Original Route" on Sitting Bear

We hustled to the base of Hawksbill, stashed packs at the cave campsite, and I started

up the unprotectable slab of Lost in Space at 6:01 a.m. I made quick work of the pitch

and had Marcus on belay by 6:15. He quickly made his way up to me, and we got him

set up to pull the roof and lead to the top. We were psyched on our pace, an hour and a

half in, and if all went to plan we’d be summiting Hawksbill only two hours into the

Crusher. But Hawksbill doesn’t give up its summit that easy.

6:01 am, ready to blast off at the base of "Lost in Space".

Marcus had breezed the roof pull two weeks ago on his onsite, but that was on a casual

Sunday. This time, he took a couple whips in the roof. Watching him fall into the

darkness each time was terrifying. I’m sure he felt the same. He ended up core-shotting

the rope, retying above the damage while hanging off a .75 placed above the roof, and

finished the lead. I sincerely appreciated him getting up that pitch and keeping his cool

in a scary situation.

We summited Hawksbill at 7:15 a.m., took a break to pack up, and watched the sunrise.

Then we ran down the trail and road to Spence Ridge and started making our way up

the Table Rock Gap Trail. With the recent rework, this trail is much easier than it once

was.

Marcus and I on Table Rock Road, happy that the hardest climbing of the day is behind us.

We got to the base of North Ridge at 8:37 a.m., shocked to see no other parties on

it. I geared up and started climbing at 8:51, leading the whole thing in a simul pitch with

Marcus starting up once the rope got tight. We summited Table Rock at 9:16 a.m. and

were stoked to find that Daniel had decided to meet us here rather than at the parking

lot.

At this point, all the approaches were straightforward. The next three climbs all involve

scrambling down chutes, bushwhacking, and some sketchy slip-and-slides to reach the

base. We slithered down the Mossy Monster and got to the base of Bumblebee Buttress

at 10:51 a.m., after a longer break halfway down the gully. We were surprised to see

another party already on the route, but they were also preparing for the Crusher and

were happy to let us pass (thank you Will and your partner!). I led the first two pitches

as one, which led to horrific rope drag. Marcus took the last two pitches to the top, and

we summited at 1:07 p.m. This was my favorite route of the crusher, it is super tall and remote, with roofs, a

dihedral, a fun traverse, and some good slab at the end.

Me leading the first two pitches of Bumblebee Buttress. Rope drag was brutal!

Marcus taking in the views from the top of the NC Wall

We started feeling the Crusher at this point. 8 hours and 25 minutes in, and we still had

a ton of hiking to do. At least we knew the climbing from here on out would be cruiser.

We made our way to the base of the Mummy (in hindsight, way too slowly) where we

encountered another party who graciously allowed us to pass through their ropes. I

started up the Mummy at 2:06 pm and after a long simul pitch, we topped out at 2:49

pm. 5.5 doesn’t get much better than the Mummy – where else do you get to climb

steep jugs for 300 feet at that grade?

Top of the Mummy, trying to prepare for what's to come.

Now is when the real beatdown begins. We’d always heard that the slog from the Amp

to Shortoff is the physical crux of the day. I’d hiked this section of the MST before, but

never this deep into a big day. After several hours of hiking, we started passing familiar

sites again; the campsites along the cliffs, the Shortoff pond, and out of nowhere, a

familiar face reappeared. Daniel decided that his hike with us from Table Rock to the

Mossy Monster wasn’t enough and gave us the best surprise ever: cold Gatorade!

We spent way too much time stashing our packs at the top of the route before finally

making our way down the last gully of the day.

We arrived at the base around 6 p.m. and debated between Maginot Line and Little Corner. Ultimately, we were exhausted, and Little Corner felt like the safer option. Marcus racked up and was heading up at 6:11

p.m. I arrived at the P3 anchor (we combined P1/2 and P3/4) and took the lead to the

top. Little Corner is a great route to end a big day with only a few moves at the 5.6

grade, and the rest is a casual romp to the rim of the gorge.

We topped out at 7:21 p.m., meaning if we wanted to beat our time goal of 15 hours, we

had 21 minutes left. I looked at my watch, then at Marcus, and we pretty much had an

unspoken agreement: “Time to move.” We racked up and coiled the rope in a frenzy. By

the time we got to our pack stash, we had 15 minutes to make it to the base and hit 15

hours. This was the most dangerous part of the day, as we sprinted full speed down the

entire 1,200-foot descent of Shortoff Mountain to Wolfpit. We were in the dark at this

point, flying over giant boulders, running as fast as our tired legs would carry us.

We touched the car at 7:40 p.m.—14 hours and 58 minutes into the Crusher. We were

elated to beat our time goal and make it out safely after roughly 18 miles of hiking,

5,700 ft of elevation gain, 1,590 ft of rock climbing, and a day where we saw the sun

rise and set on the wall.

Main takeaways:

If you want a fast time on the Crusher, you need to spend time learning how to move

quickly between the routes. It would not be difficult to get lost trying to onsite the

approach to each of the six routes, which could easily kill your day. Becoming a strong

hiker and trail runner with the endurance to go all day is crucial if you want to make it to

the end. You are going to be hurting going to Shortoff either way.

We had the time of our lives ticking off a linkup that both of us have been dreaming of

for years. While it is a very hard day in the mountains, you are getting to climb some of the finest rock that North Carolina has to offer, and we were just stoked to be able to climb so much in one day. Huge thank you to Simone and Daniel for supporting us by hiking with us and bringing water and snacks. We’ll be back again to try and shave more time off, and to send Lost in Space

in style.

Splits:

Start: 4:42 am

Base of Sitting Bear: 5:02 am

Leaving Sitting Bear: 5:23 am

Base of Hawksbill: 6:01 am

Hawksbill Summit: 7:15 am

North Ridge Base: 8:37 am

Climbing North Ridge: 8:51 am

North Ridge Summit: 9:16 am

Bumblebee Base: 10:51 am

Bumblebee Summit: 1:07 pm