Maryland Climbing Advice

Hello I'm new to the forums and climbing in Maryland. Does anyone know of some well maintained sport routes around the area? I've attempted to use the route finder and even on the so called sport routes people are advising to bring trad gear with you. Ideally it would be nice to get some easy to moderately difficult routes that are well maintained so I can teach my son how to climb. I would have posted this in the regional forum however there doesn't seem to be one for the mid Atlantic. Thanks guys and hope everyone is having a great day.
Zack

Safe Harbor in southern PA brother. Check it out. Real close to MD border and in lancaster county.

Good stuff mike.

Hey Zack,
Do you mean, "Teach my son how to lead/climb sport" or do you mean, "Teach my son how to move on rock." There is certainly a ton of top roping available in Maryland. Okay maybe not a "ton" but certainly a large amount. Also it would help if you told us where in Maryland you are. Out at Harper's Ferry is gonna be a different story than down in PG county.

--Wannabe

Awesome Information Guys and thanks for the quick response. Mike I live out in Salisbury right now for school I would love to get out and see the area while picking up some local knowledge on the climbing here. I don't get to see my son that often but I believe we are going to head up to safe harbor and do some camping around the area in late march.

Depending on how it goes I would like to get him to lead climb but I'm going to start him out top roped and see how he does.

There is true bolted sport climbing with double anchors at the top at Harper's Ferry, Elizabeth Furnace, Rock State Park, and some smaller, less developed crags as well. The problem is that it's not well marked/described and you have to do some occasional exploration.

Hey folks. I, too, am interested in outdoor sport leading near Maryland. As I have only climbed indoors until now, with the exception of some bouldering in my local state parks, I am most interested in bolted climbs. I understand that MD doesn't have many good options in this regard but Safe Harbor sounds like it is plenty close enough, as I live near the MD/PA border. I'll be taking classes over the summer with Earth Treks, my climbing gym, to learn some basic skills. I just don't want to have to blow several hundred extra bucks on protection just to be able to try outdoor leading. I would be interested in taking a trip in spring with anyone who is familiar with MD, PA, or WV to check out some of the options available to me.

Thanks for all your advice guys. I spend allot of time reading some of these forums.

Jon - The Grynnlyn

Hi Johnathon,
Hey man I'm planing on taking a ride out to safe harbor Sunday depending on weather and how the evening before goes. With it being my girl friend's birthday I can't be to sure. So I will let you know what I see out there. What earth treks do you go to? I'm thinking about dropping into the one in Timonium to maybe do some gym climbing if nothing else. I'm a student at Salisbury so I live out on the shore. We have a rock wall here but due to liability insurance or something I need to see if Earth Treks will sign off on a belay certification or something along those lines. I have taken a rather long break from climbing but am looking forward to getting back into it. Maybe we can trade belays sometime.
Zack

Hey Zack,
Hope you had a chance to make it up to SH. I am really looking forward to heading out when the weather turns warm. As far as gym climbing, I stick to the Rockville ET. I have been to Columbia once but, since I live in Frederick, Rockville is the closest. I try to get out once a week, usually Fridays, but I can do a Sat/Sun if I plan ahead. I would certainly be willing to check out the Timonium location sometime. Also, the Rockville gym has a 1 hour class on Sport Leading outdoors coming up on March 20th. I am gonna try to leave work early that night so I can attend and start thinking about getting a rack together.

Take care, climb safe!