During the 3-day Patriots' weekend, Marta and I traveled to South Carolina to attend an awards ceremony in Southern Wesleyan University for one of Marta's friend. After enjoying a relaxing day around Clemson, South Carolina, on Saturday, and visiting Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, on Sunday, we went to Stone Mountain State Park on Monday for a wonderful day of rock climbing (it is worth mentioning that this is not to be confused with the more touristy Stone Mountain in Atlanta, Georgia).

Stone Mountain is a magnificent 600-foot granite dome that offers some of the finest slab multipitch routes in the East coast, similar to White Horse Ledge in North Conway, New Hampshire. We opted for The Great Arch, the best-known route at Stone Mountain. It is an impressive dihedral that splits the wall vertically for almost the entire lentgh of the face. The route starts at a tree ledge, which we reached through a one-pitch route called the U Slot, 5.7. Spring and Autumn are the best seasons to climb here, as in the summer it gets unberably warm and humid. We had the perfect day for climbing, sunny but not warm at all.