Best Offwidth Climbs

After being humbled by Indian Creek offwidth climbs, I'm looking for good wide cracks to practice my technique closer to home (northern New England). Any suggestions regardless of grade would be appreciated. Thanks!

I'm VERY interested in this as well. I know there are some off widths at Pawtuckaway State Park in NH and a few at Rose Ledges in Massachusetts as well. Not sure if any are really worth a drive from Maine, but I do love off widths!

Pawtuckaway seems to have the highest concentration of off widths in the area. The upper cliff has 5 or 6, and there are more scattered around on the other cliffs in the park. Even a couple invert boulder problems. Also cathedral ledge seems to have quite a few though I haven't climbed any of those yet so I can't say if many of them climb like true off widths or not. One problem I'm finding with off widths on the east coast is most of them have face holds to make them easier. If you are interested, I can show you around Pawtuckaway, I have big gear to lead the wide stuff.

I learned more about crack in a week @ the creek than I had in the previous 20 year of climbing.

Pitch 3 of Vertigo, Cannon.

Phase III at Poko.

Cannon: Half Moon crack, Vertigo. 5.9, though some say easier.
Cathedral: Direct start to Standard. 5.8 I think?
Cathedral: Black Crack. mid-5.10 or so.
Cathedral: Diedre Direct and Diedre Piss Easy. mid- and hard-10s respectively, I hear; haven't tried them yet.
Woodchuck: There's an OW just right of Zonkers, fairly short but looks stiff.

Those are the best that I know of in the 5.8 to 5.10 range, but I'm interested to hear of more.

I think a second pitch one was done at Shell pond that looked really good from the ground. I am not sure how hard it ended up being, but I don't think it was super hard. It would be worth looking into.

Thor's Hammer, 5.9 - East Peak, Meriden, Connecticut.

pawtuckaway is probably your best bet especially if you want a few options and/or want lower grades to practice on. The variety there is hard to beat for sizes even if they are short. Also most of pway wides are clean or clean enough which is rare here which you may already know. If you're ever headed down that way and looking for someone to suffer with let me know I love it and always need partners.

It's a hike from Maine, but Farley in MA has a 13a invert and a 12+ with a section that can be done as either an invert or a weird layback thing (I like the invert).

The Half-Moon on Vertigo (Cannon, NH) is way fun. Not the best place to learn to lead off-widths, but a blast once you're comfortable. It's also not nearly as hard, long, or scary as local folklore suggests.

Not an off-width per se.... But Reppy's Crack is a great test piece for your crack climbing skills. It's funky as hell man, and no face holds whatsoever.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm looking forward to climbing some wide crack in the near future

Commenting to save this thread, and also to find some grueling offwidths to cause myself harm (be it physical or mental).

reppys is the closest to a real desert crack I have encountered in the east except it is not the proper angle. most wide cracks in the east have face holds and or smaller gear in their depths. Reppys has the smoothness and uniformity part nailed. It's just not steep enough. Half moon is short by desert standards. i found a very cool 100ft overhanging wide crack that looks like it will be real desert style right down to the super sandy crumbly part but with all this rain we have not climbed it yet so have no clue how hard or how it climbs. I do know it's been done though..

Nick Goldsmith wrote:reppys is the closest to a real desert crack I have encountered in the east except it is not the proper angle. most wide cracks in the east have face holds and or smaller gear in their depths. Reppys has the smoothness and uniformity part nailed. It's just not steep enough. Half moon is short by desert standards. i found a very cool 100ft overhanging wide crack that looks like it will be real desert style right down to the super sandy crumbly part but with all this rain we have not climbed it yet so have no clue how hard or how it climbs. I do know it's been done though..

Eli, I'm down to try and grovel up some off widths, hit me up

Hey all,

I'll be up in North Conway with a boat load of wide gear the next couple of weeks. Hit me up if you want to grovel up some off widths, I need some practice too. Also happy to have a partner for any other widths as well.

Cheers,
Dan

As far as real OW and wide in NH;

Raptor Roof at Sundown is a bit bigger than fist and far enough away from the road that no one hears you crying

Black Crack at Cathedral is pretty good and kinda moderate,,may ned a quick clean.

Peanut gallery Flake is sweet, but only has a short section of wide..easy to TR

reppy's is a "swim" crack, not wide and vertigo is slithering, not climbing !

I agree with the Strandman. Don't do Reppy's if you're looking to do an offwidth. (a) It's mostly hand and fist (b) you can face climb/layback/gaston the thing if you want to, and (c) it's too easy.

Also, why do you WANT to do offwidths? Nasty stuff if you ask me.