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WorldInferno
Apr 15, 2010, 3:31 PM
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Greetings. My friends and I have recently started leading, yet have been finding it quite difficult to find (relatively) easy sport climbs anywhere near us. Being starving college students, we can't afford to fly out to the real premium climbing spots in the west and midwest, so we're looking for places in the New York/Tri-state/New England area. All three of us can consistently boulder V5/6 and have lead in the local gym up to 5.9-. We're looking for some climbs, single or multipitch, that are easy enough for us to cut our teeth on and get used to real sport climbing, as well as maybe some (slightly) more challenging routes for once we get comfortable. Any recommendations for some rookie climbers?
(This post was edited by WorldInferno on Apr 15, 2010, 4:34 PM)
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mojomonkey
Apr 15, 2010, 4:37 PM
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WorldInferno wrote: Greetings. My friends and I have recently started sport climbing, yet have been finding it quite difficult to find (relatively) easy sport climbs anywhere near us. Being starving college students, we can't afford to fly out to the real premium climbing spots in the west and midwest, so we're looking for places in the New York/Tri-state/New England area. All three of us can consistently boulder V5/6 and have sport climbed in the local gym up to 5.9-. We're looking for some climbs, single or multipitch, that are easy enough for us to cut our teeth on and get used to real sport climbing, as well as maybe some (slightly) more challenging routes for once we get comfortable. Any recommendations for some rookie climbers? First: If you are consistently bouldering V5/6, you should be able to climb harder than 5.9- pretty quickly... What is your location? Your profile says Jerhico, NY? Is that right, or are you away somewhere else for school? Or did you mean NYC? You may also want to consider learning to set up top ropes. I don't know what is right near Jerhico, but there are reasonable day or weekend trips to places that aren't sport, but you can probably set up a toprope with minimal investment. It isn't terribly difficult, but you should probably read up (e.g. John Long's most recent anchor book) and meet up with experienced people. Allamuchy might be an option, though I've never been. Peterskill in the Gunks isn't too far, and shouldn't be too tricky to set up topropes. Have you looked in the route database? Maybe starting with http://www.rockclimbing.com/...rthern_rt_80_and_up/? And if you are willing to drive all the way to New England, there will be lots more options...
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WorldInferno
Apr 15, 2010, 5:08 PM
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Yeah, I should probably consider just switching my location to New York City, as Jericho is close enough and people actually know the city. Anyway, my gym is notorious for sandbagging the lead routes. We top rope around 5.11, but have really been wanting to get more into leading sport. We are willing to head to New England (we've competed in bouldering comps throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut). Generally we'll go anywhere, as long as we can get there and back in one day, even if it means leaving at 4 am and getting back at midnight. We've been to the Gunks to boulder as well as some top roping, with our anchors being set up by hired guides, but the "no bolting" policy means we can't really lead, seeing as how our respective racks reflect how broke we are. I went through the database, but was having trouble finding anything, and I was hoping to get input from the climbers of my area. In any case, thanks for the response. I really appreciate your input!
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cush
Apr 15, 2010, 5:38 PM
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first off, i'm laughing my ass off at your username. I'm from bridgewater originally and i spent the better part of 7 years following that band around going everywhere from brooklyn to belgium and had some of the best drunken nights of my life with those guys and their wild fans. secondly, PM me and i'll take you sport climbing at some local spots.
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mojomonkey
Apr 15, 2010, 5:40 PM
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Good luck, hopefully others with more experience sport climbing around you will chime in. And while I can't personally imagine driving all the way from your location, you might consider Birdsboro. I've met people there who have driven at least that far... See here for a printable map/list of climbs.
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WorldInferno
Apr 15, 2010, 6:46 PM
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mojomonkey wrote: Good luck, hopefully others with more experience sport climbing around you will chime in. And while I can't personally imagine driving all the way from your location, you might consider Birdsboro. I've met people there who have driven at least that far... See here for a printable map/list of climbs. Thanks! If my group left early enough to beat out the traffic, we could pull that off in two hours. Looks like a really good area, too. I really appreciate the tip!
(This post was edited by WorldInferno on Apr 15, 2010, 7:55 PM)
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smallclimber
Apr 16, 2010, 2:04 AM
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Its about a 6 hour drive to Rumney in New Hampshire, one of the few sport climbing areas in the US with a good number of lower grade climbs. OK there are also lots of hard climbs as well, but you can keep busy for several weekends before you run out of sub 5.10 climbs. Bolts are nice and close too. A bit of a trek for a weekend from NYC, but good for holiday weekends.
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fitzontherocks
Apr 16, 2010, 2:42 AM
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Remarkably civil responses to the new guy. Well done, RC.
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sp00ki
Jun 24, 2010, 10:36 PM
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smallclimber wrote: Its about a 6 hour drive to Rumney in New Hampshire, one of the few sport climbing areas in the US with a good number of lower grade climbs. OK there are also lots of hard climbs as well, but you can keep busy for several weekends before you run out of sub 5.10 climbs. Bolts are nice and close too. A bit of a trek for a weekend from NYC, but good for holiday weekends. Truth. There's a cool little organic farm you can camp or stay with, and they have showers and breakfast and a kitchen and stuff to make it nice and cushy. Aside from that, there's a good amount of bouldering near you (Gunks, South Eastern PA, lots of other places), but i'm a tad bit confused about the V5/6 to 5.9- disparity. Do you boulder exclusively in the gym? The only reason i say that is, "east coast" bouldering grades would put a V5/V6 climber comfortably into the onsighting 5.11 zone, even after adjusting for stamina. A lot of gyms grade "fluffy" though, with some going as far as putting their V5 roughly on par with actual V2 (or worse). If that's not the case and you know "outdoors bouldering grades" and just have serious lead head issues, there's probably more fun bouldering opportunity within three hours drive than there is sport climbing. But then you probably already know that...
(This post was edited by sp00ki on Jun 24, 2010, 10:39 PM)
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brokesomeribs
Jul 13, 2010, 2:01 AM
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned West Point! 20 miles closer to LI than New Paltz and pretty much entirely bolted. Couple words of caution: -Don't go when it's hot and humid, the rock is greasy and slick -If you're a n00b, I would strongly recommend bringing binoculars with you to inspect the route/bolts from the ground. I remember hopping on an .11 last year and arriving at the second bolt, only to find it was literally home made and completely rusted out. There was no way I was going to clip that piece of shit so I had to traverse over to a 5.12 to be safe. Go figure. I hangdogged my way up that thing for 90 minutes - ugliest climb of my life. Send me a message with your e-mail address and I'll send you a .doc guidebook with good directions and approach beta, routes, grades, etc. Also, I'll happily take you and your buddies out for a day of climbing in the Gunks if you're buying beer at the end of the day :)
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onarunning
Jul 13, 2010, 2:29 AM
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WorldInferno wrote: Being starving college students, we can't afford to fly out to the real premium climbing spots in the west and midwest, so we're looking for places in the New York/Tri-state/New England area. You should let me know where those real premium sport climbing areas in the midwest are.
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rangerrob
Jul 21, 2010, 5:33 PM
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Umm..maybe I am mistaken, but West Point climbin gis off limits to thegeneral climbing community. It's not public land.
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brokesomeribs
Jul 21, 2010, 5:49 PM
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rangerrob wrote: Umm..maybe I am mistaken, but West Point climbin gis off limits to thegeneral climbing community. It's not public land. Very mistaken. It is open to the general public. The cadet climbing club has it posted prominently on their website. Additionally, I have friends who have been there climbing with the cadets on more than one occasion with no issues to speak of. EDIT: Typos
(This post was edited by brokesomeribs on Jul 21, 2010, 5:50 PM)
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rangerrob
Jul 21, 2010, 9:24 PM
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I could be mistaken, but climbing with the cadets is entirely different than going there uninvited. I had heard that they pretty much locked it down after 9/11. I'll have to ask Sue next time I see her
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matterunomama
Jul 23, 2010, 6:31 PM
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rangerrob wrote: I could be mistaken, but climbing with the cadets is entirely different than going there uninvited. I had heard that they pretty much locked it down after 9/11. I'll have to ask Sue next time I see her You are mistaken. I've been there twice in the past two years. The CAMPUS is closed to outsiders, but not the crags. We were there, as were 3-4 other small groups who were clearly not cadets.
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cush
Jul 23, 2010, 10:50 PM
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the crag is open to the public. it's just illegal to use the easier approach from the academy. hiking in from the mcdonalds is ok.
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rangerrob
Jul 24, 2010, 12:00 AM
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Well I stand corrected then. My apologies
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