OT- Advice from local MGoClimbers?
Figure I better get this in while the off season OT rules are still in effect.
I'm moving back to Ann Arbor this fall to attend grad school (read: I wanted student tickets again), which is very exciting except for one thing... I'm an avid climber and currently live in San Diego, where climbers are spoiled with options. Some quick research on climbing in Michigan has returned bupkis.
So my question for any Michigan-based (or nearby) climbers is this: where does one go to climb if you live in Ann Arbor? I know the Red is ~6 hrs away, so that's the obvious option for a long weekend, but is there anything closer for a short weekend or day trip? Or am I pretty much stuck pulling plastic for the next few years? Any advice is much appreciated.
For a midwestern town with nary a precipice, aa has a pretty active climbing scene. While it is true you'll have to drive a lot, there's a pretty enthusastic group of driving climbers that congregates at Planet Rock. Pretty much every weekend you'll find somebody heading to the Red or to the New River Gorge. Outside of that...wait for winter and take up ice climbing. That's a drive too (Ontario or UP), but nearyby, in Fenton, there's a nice artificial tower winterlong.
I would love to learn ice. As you can imagine, it's not real big here in SD...
I met an avid climber from Kzoo on the JMT who recommended Grand Ledge. He said it was the best option nearby without going to Red. Might be worth checking out from Ann Arbor.
Good luck in grad school!
For indoor climbing: The IM Building (one of the gyms on campus) has a climbing wall that you can climb at for 5 dollars a day. It's not a great wall, but not that bad for the price. If you want something nicer, there is Ann Arbor Planet Rock, which was mentioned above.
As for outdoor climbing...uh...not much. There's some stuff in the UP, but very little in the lower peninsula
That's kinda what I was afraid to hear
Grand Ledge is the only exposed rock in the lower peninsula and is only an hour from Ann Arbor but if you are willing to drive 4 or so hours and have a passport there are a couple climbing options near Toronto (Lions Head and Rattlesnake Point) which are mostly trad routes. Other than that it is either indoor climbing or the 6 hour trip to Kentucky.
EDIT: Grand Ledge is all top roping so keep that in mind if you decide to head there for a day.
I'm all for trad and have family in Toronto, so that sounds like a great option. Appreciate it.
Any idea why Grand Ledge is TR only??
It is located in a city owned park, so I think they are trying to prevent injuries while also keeping the rock clean.
Bummer, there's some routes that look like they'd take gear just fine if the rock is decent quality.
The city park thing as mentioned above, they tolerate the climbing, but only just. There's apparently a somewhat ornery park ranger who goes around ticketing people for not padding rope drag, etc.
The rock is also very soft (you can see the spots where ropes have eaten deep grooves), and the same square footage gets a lot of traffic. Bolts wouldn't last long before they started spinning or blowing completely.
Well, this just reinforces how much I'm going to miss SD. A large section of one of the city parks is functionally dedicated to climbing here. I've only seen a ranger there once and she politely informed me that both the glass bottle I was holding and the beer within it were not allowed, then kept on walking.
That's a pretty good reason not to allow bolts, still looks like there's a couple nice lines that could be led on gear. Probably a big no-no from a liability standpoint, I guess.
Another vote for Grand Ledge. It's mostly sandstone, but you can get a 5.2 (easy-peezy) to a 5.12 (crazy) climb in there. You can tie in very easily and get a bunch of different climbs in, although the cliffs are not very tall (maybe 40 feet).
Grand ledge is the only place within day trip distance unfortunately. The climbing is surprisingly quality, there just isn't much of it. Dougs roof (5.10a?) and Potato Chips (5.7) would be highly rated, even down in The Red. (The ratings are somewhat sand bagged, btw).
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/grand-ledge/105934381
http://www.grandledgeclimbing.com/
It's top rop only, you set up your own anchors on natural anchor points (i.e. trees). There are a few bolted anchors, but not much. Bring a lot of webbing as some of the setups require pretty long lengths to clear the edge. Also, bring carpet to pad any rope drag across the soft sandstone. It's standard operating procedure to climb on other people's setups here, so don't be shy about asking. Otherwise you'd be climbing back and forth setting up anchors all day (No rapping either). On a weekend day, all the popular routes will already have a rope hung.
Other options within 8ish hours is Devil's Lake in Baraboo WI and Munising up in the UP. There's some climbing in Ontario apparently too, but I've never been (actually haven't gone to Devil's Lake or Munising but know lots of people who have). I assume you've found Planet Rock in Ann Arbor? Ask around there or check the bulletin board, lots of people are interested in car pooling for climbing trips.
EDIT: There's also New River Gorge in WV. Some misc stuff in southern Ohio, but at that point you might as well go to the Red.
I did hear a little about Grand Ledge, but the TR only thing is kind of a bummer.
Looks like I'll be driving down to the Red and New whenever possible.
Moved to KY 2 years ago and just getting into climbing after realizing what is in our backyard. So far we've went on 1 guided trip and have another one planned.
Shameless plug; if your a noob (like me) reading this thread and thinking damn I would like to do this then check out Kentucky Rock and Adventure Guides (KRAG). Great group of guys, safe and knowledgable and let you spend your day climbing rather than waiting around waiting for a route to clear.
Guided trips are a great intro to climbing. Find some friends that have their own gear though and you can have more fun as often as you want without spending nearly as much money. That is until you decide to buy your own gear...
The Red has enough climbing to keep you occupied for a long time, but continue on down I-75 for a few more hours in the winter and hit Chattanooga, especially for winter climbing.
The Tennessee Wall (T-Wall) has tons of great trad and some sport, but is sometimes subject to hunting closures (check out the Southeastern Climbers Coalition ("SCC") board (seclimbers.org) for dates. Foster Falls has a large variety of easy/hard/trad/sport routes and a cool waterfall to boot; the camping at Fosters has facilities (i.e. showers) that make it easier. In summer, check out Sunset at the point of Lookout Mountain. One of my employees moved to Chattanooga as the climbing is better.
North Carolina has more multi-pitch at places like Looking Glass.
Alabama has a variety of crags. If you are a hardman, the Little River Canyon near Ft Payne has about 9 separate climbing areas that are almost completely sport routes that range from 5.9 (very few) to 5.14's. There are a healthy number of mid-11's and 12's there. Sand Rock is where I started climbing after moving to Alabama in 1990. I have been to Sand Rock probably about 500 times since then including this past Sunday. The SCC owns a primarily trad crag named Jamestown next to the Little River Canyon and Yellow Bluff which happens to be about 15 miles from my house (which is why I can't see myself moving back home to Michigan; I normally climb outdoors twice a week).
MGoMessage me if you decide to make a trip south to climb; I will show you around. Don't come during football season though; I don't climb on Saturdays in the fall.
Wow. While I appreciate the obvious passion for climbing, particularly in the south, I'm looking for stuff that's closer, not further away. If I ever do make it south of the Red though, I'll make sure to take you up on your generous offer.
Also, no worries on intruding on football season; that's sacred ground that climbing cannot touch for me as well.
When I use to climb (close to 30 yrs ago)...Grand Ledge was the convenient place to go. At the time I belonged to a club in Southfield that had an active climbing group and we would go to Rattlesnake (this side of Toronto) for the weekend and camp (once a month June to Sept). I did not see the Gunks in New Palz, NY mentioned in any of the responses. I have not been but other members did go there and to WI.
I'd love to check out the Gunks sometime, especially since trad is my jam.
I'd like to see you make it to the top of this bad boy
