Hammond pond

How busy is Hammond pond on a Saturday afternoon?? Worth the trip from Worcester I'm looking to do some of the 5.7 ish crack climbs in Boston rocks

IMO, those climbs at Hammond are not worth the drive from Worcester to climb on, if that is your sole purpose of coming into Newton. HP is better for bouldering than roped climbing.
Have you done the moderates at Crow Hill (Princeton State Park)? I imagine CH will be pretty busy today, however.

Yup...not worth the drive. It is rock climbing in a shopping mall. The routes are polished slick. Crow Hill is much better. Or go west to western MA crags.

College Rock may be more your thing, too, if you can't get to Crow Hill or that place that shall not be named in the western part of the state even though everyone freaking knows about it.

Thanks a lot. Yes I've been to crow hill many many times I usually rope solo there week day afternoons when I don't have a partner

College Rock is not bad but there are not many quality lines below 5.9.
Farley is great (there, I said it :)) but I have yet to find quality lines below 5.9 or so in difficulty. But, then again, I hardly know the place so I could very well be wrong.

Rose ledge.. or maybe some of the southern NH areas... Marlowe has some good routes including some nice moderates.

S. Neoh wrote:College Rock is not bad but there are not many quality lines below 5.9. Farley is great (there, I said it :)) but I have yet to find quality lines below 5.9 or so in difficulty. But, then again, I hardly know the place so I could very well be wrong.

Rose Ledge, of course! Good suggestion, John. I should have come up with that. :)

ive never heard of marlowe yuo wouldnt happen to have gps for the crag would you. rose ledge and farley are on the list of crags to get to. i ended up in the newton area today and stopped by hammond pond not too crowded but all were right deffinatly a better bouldering area.

Twain's southern NH book seems a bit stalled out. Idon't know the gps, sorry. It's just outside the town of Marlowe though.

If you want bouldering, Milford is 10 minutes from College Rock and is pretty good.

I'm going to differ with the majority here, and say that if you're coming from Worcester, at only 30 miles to Newton, it's worth the trip if you specifically want a quick afternoon trip to get on easy slab crack climbs that you can either TR or traditionally protect on lead. Particularly if you want something new, and don't want to go to Crow Hill again.

The climbs are around 35 feet, IIRC. About the same as a wall in a gym.

And yes, it will be somewhat busy on a Saturday afternoon, but not so much that you would be unable to work in with others.

GO