Viva Chattavegas by Percy Bishton include "header_root.php

By Percy Bishton.

Bouldering in the Bible Belt.
The deep south of the US has long been neglected by travelling climbers, with tales of intolerant 'rednecks' hassling climbers, and a rather worrying concept of local hospitality which films such as 'Deliverance' have done nothing to improve!As we boarded the 'plane to Atlanta, Georgia, I seriously questioned the sanity of taking my rather liberal views, and long dreadlocks to the deep south. Many of those people who knew of our imminent departure took delight in winding us up, for going bouldering to an area of the 'States that nobody knew about, and for which there was no topo or guidebook, and where there was near legendary heat, humidity and rain. However, armed with an email from somebody I'd never met, and a couple of pages torn out of magazines, we headed out into America's Bible Belt.

Chattavegas
The locals refer to Chattanooga and the surrounding climbing areas as Chattavegas. The city of Chattanooga is just in Tennessee, but is on the border with the states of Georgia and Alabama. There are no guidebooks for the bouldering areas, although you could probably fill 10 guides if you documented all the problems that have been done so far. The hilly ridge that runs past Chattanooga into Alabama is about 150 miles long, and it is along this ridge where the boulders are found. There are only a few areas currently developed, but along the ridge's 150 mile length there are tens of world class bouldering venues waiting to be discovered! This area has potential…!