This fall, I'm planning a "man's weekend" with my 10yo son to either the NRG or RRG--we live in Central Ohio, and they are roughly equidistant--and I'm looking for suggestions on trails & climbing areas.

Ideally, we'd park somewhere, pack up, hike 3-6 miles to a campsite, and there would be some moderate sport climbing either along the way or at the campsite. (Moderate meaning 5.7-5.10a.) We spend the night & hike back the next day. Before anyone interjects--yes, he's fully capable of the hiking & climbing; last year we hiked multiple 6mi+ hikes in RMNP, and he top-ropes 5.11b & leads 5.10b. I know that we could always just drive down, park, hike a bit, get in the car, climb some, then drive to a campground, blah, blah, blah. But I'd love it if we could have a somewhat more 'alpine' experience.

Any suggestions on trails/campgrounds/climbing areas?

Many thanks,
matt.

There aren't really any back country campsites at the NRG, especially around the crags. Camping in the woods isn't permitted (I think, verify this). If this is the type of trip you are looking for, the NRG may not be the place.

I'm not as familiar with camping at the RRG. Hopefully someone can chime in on that one.

Your logic breaks down at the point where you want sport climbing 3-6 miles from a road. Sport climbers don't walk that far because they're afraid their legs will get too big if they do.

The Red has backpacking options that would suit most of your plan, but you won't find much established climbing that far from a trailhead.

It's true the sport climbing won't be that far from the road at the Red, but you could always do a backpacking loop and hit a crag before the road. MIlitary and Left Flank seem like the best option for this. You won't know you're close to the road, aside from the masses being around.

Otherwise, you could hike way the heck out there for some trad climbing.

Left Flank and Military Wall seem like they would be best because you could climb and then keep walking into the woods, but the 10s at both those crags are atrocious.

At the New, Summersville and Kaymoor will offer you the highest quality climbing at the 10-11 level, by far, but these have fairly trivial approaches and everybody knows how awesome they are, so they will be pretty crowded.

If you want more seclusion and hiking, you could climb at Endless Wall, but enter at the "wrong" end compared to where your climbing is. Descend at the Cirque ladders, and then walk the cliffline, grabbing a few of the higher quality 10s and 11s. Legacy (11a), Fool Effect (9, 70m rope required) and Strike a Scowl (10b) immediately come to mind. However, easier routes at Endless (below hard 11) might get busy.

Climbing at Upper Meadow offers a lot of extremely high quality lines as well as about a 40 minute hike, which discourages many climbers. For the 10s at First Buttress, make sure to bring some cams or be prepared for 35' runouts off the deck, which further discourages the moderates crowds. The 11s at Third Buttress, Mr Cute (11a) and Meathead (11c) are also great, as is Starry (12b). None of these have cruxes above V2.

As others have said, there is not much, if anything, in the way of backcountry camping at the New. I would suggest Chestnut Creek for a camping trip with that "in the woods" feeling. These sites are a lot more secluded than other options at the New.

Oh, I forgot. There are a few backcountry campsites along the Meadow River on the way to Upper Meadow. These are beautiful spots and would put you about 10 minutes away from the First-Third Buttress area, although the grades here might be steeper than you want. There are basically zero concentrations of climbs at the New under 10 except for Summersville, Bubba, and Whipporwill.

Matt - I did a trip like this with some buddies in the Red, so much fun! I can think of a ton of different areas you could go. There is a crag called Purple Valley with some 5.10 sport climbing and a somewhat long approach, though not 6 miles, and it is a more remote section of the gorge. There are several other crags in the vicinity as well that you could hike around to. A really fun one is a tower of sorts called Minas Tirith, but it's a gear route.

There is a great overnight backpack trail in the red and you can make it shorter if you would like by taking a smaller loop. I think the big loop is around 15 miles or so. I have done it a couple times while taking a day off from climbing. Both times I started the trail at koomer ridge campground and hiked over to grays arch and back. There are alot of nice little spots to camp along the trail especially when you get down in the valley along the creek. Last time i did this trail, we climbed a few routes in the morning then took off right after lunch on the backpack. However, a storm started to roll in so we ended up hiking the entire 15 miles and getting back to our car around 8pm that night. In a weekend, you could get this hike in and some roadside cragging in as well. Here is a link to the hiking trails. If you have the red guide book, you can figure out where the climbing areas are in relation to these trails.

www.redrivergorge.com/maps.html

RRG is gorgeous in the fall, and I wouldn't want to go before then (it gets MUGGY in the summer, although I'm sure the New is similar. There are some awesome backpacking trails in the Red, and I would double check on the current regs, but when I was there you could camp anywhere if you were on nat'l forest land (like around the Grey's Arch/Chimney Top Rock area.)

FWIW a lot of the sport climbing at the New is 5.11 and up and many of the routes have high first bolts, reachy technical climbing, and stopper moves for the grade.

I think I have an idea of what your looking for. Check out courthouse rock. It's about 6 miles of beautyfull hiking (day or night) to heystack rock. you get thier and its overlooking the hole valley, follow the trail to courthouse and you will come to an opening with cliffs on both sides to one side you can see raven rock to the other i think is princess arch i cant remember witch arch for shore. continue on to a nice face its about a 5.8 or less some one correct me if they know, no bolts, mind you but you can always go to the back side and shimmy up the crack, maybe 15 feet continue right to the back side of courthouse to a 5.4+ wide crack trace a rope go under the boulder blocking the path for me please it's 30 feet to climb it but it could be a 100 foot drop (right side drops off very close to the climb)still thier is no bolted routes us the rope to bring up all the gear set up and look down. I know its not sport climbing but itis the closes to what i think your looking for. It sounds like all you'll need is some webbing. I was about 10 when i whent with my dad it was a great weekend. not much climbing but i felt like i was on top of the world. next day hike out on the rest of the trail if you think you can, its quiacker than you think. then just hit up a crag for your fix.
You can also hike the trail and sleep over looking heystack if your not Ok with the crack at courthouse the morning is worth it eather way. then hite up some sport routes.

Sounds like you and your son just need to start doing alpine rock routes. They all have what you are looking for except the sport part.

Well again, not all your requirements. I don't see why you couldn't drive to any of the trail heads in RMNP or the Sierras in a Porsche Cayenne. Maybe the Adirondacks? No clue how far that would be for you....

Wait, Life and Illness delayed your trip 15 months? Sorry to hear that.

Lee,
I was just being snarky about alpine. We would love that, it's just too far from Ohio for a weekend trip..the Dacks are 12 hrs and the Porsche costs nearly as much as my house. :-)

As far as the delay, there's been lots of family climbing since, but w 4 kids, it's hard to carve out a weekend for a single kid.

Matt

If you plug gear, your options for 5.10 and under increase. If you want a good hike, some altitude, and a more "alpine" experience, why not do some multipitch at Seneca?