From Table Rock you can see the cliffs of Shortoff way off in the distance at the tail end of Linville Gorge. I've looked that way and wondered about the climbing there for age. Yesterday, Tom and I went there and climbed Maginot Line a nice easy 5.7 that is a very nice welcome to the climbing at Shortoff.
This is remote adventure climbing, not a trip to the crag with all the climber dudes. They wouldn't make it halfway to the cliff. The hike in from the end of the road to the top of the mountain is about an hour of steady uphill slogging. From there you face another hour of wet slippery descent down a gully between the 300 foot cliff faces. The gully is pretty treacherous. Once you get to the base of the cliff, you have to bushwack across to find the start of your climb. In all, it is quite a barrier to overcome just to get to the rock.
The rock is clean, with lots of nice horizontal incut cracks and steep lines. I'll definitely be heading back there. Tom snapped the pictures of me as I started up the easy third pitch. The other pictures are of the end of the gorge and Lake James from the top of the climb.
GroupWBench 
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