Mountain Project: Climbing Vermont

Many out-of-state climbers ask: "Is there climbing in Vermont?" My first temptation is to say "no", or "yes, but it's all on private property, and can't be climbed anyway, so it's useless to even try."

But realistically, Vermont has a long and storied history of bold first ascents and adventure climbing, that includes such pioneers as Fritz Weissner, John Bouchard, and Russ Clune. The Green Mountain State houses a large variety of climbing and bouldering on state and private land. And much of the outlying access issues that remain have been, or are in the process of, being smoothed out thanks to the tireless work of our local grassroots access group, Crag-VT (www.cragvt.org) Still, rock climbing in our state has its fair share of sensitive issues, so care must always be taken if ever there is doubt.

Be it schist, granite, limestone, or ice--Vermont has it all. Climbing ranges from thuggishly-steep to thin and technical, and from short bolted lines in Bolton Valley, to multi-pitch adventure climbing in the Northeast Kingdom and Smugglers' Notch State Park.
The climate and topography of Vermont offers visiting climbers a chance to sample a bit of everything, so long as you have a broad sense of adventure, don't mind getting be-knighted from time-to-time, and regularly like climbing in the face of adversity (read: Scottish weather.) Once past those minor hurdles (and after you drink the Kool-Aid!), you will, no doubt, find great pleasure in all that Vermont climbing has to offer.

Getting There

Because our climbing is quite spread out, please refer to the area index for the best directions to the location you want to visit.

The Classics

Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Vermont:

Called on account of Rains WI5+ R Trad, Ice, 4 pitches, 400 feet, Grade IV Vermont Ice Climbing : Lake Willoughby

Who's Who in Outer Space WI5 Ice, 3 pitches, 550 feet, Grade IV Vermont Ice Climbing : Lake Willoughby

Crazy Diamond WI4+ Trad, Ice, 2 pitches, Grade II Vermont Ice Climbing : Lake Willoughby

Last Gentleman WI5 Trad, Ice, 4 pitches, 500 feet, Grade IV Vermont Ice Climbing : Lake Willoughby

Mindbender WI5+ Ice, 1 pitch, 225 feet, Grade II Vermont Ice Climbing : Lake Willoughby

Glass Menagerie WI5 Ice, 2 pitches Vermont Ice Climbing : Lake Willoughby

Blue Room WI3-4 Ice, 1 pitch, 160 feet Vermont Ice Climbing : Ice climbing in Smugglers N...

Ragnarock WI4+ Trad, Ice, 3 pitches, 400 feet, Grade II Vermont Ice Climbing : Ice climbing in Smugglers N...

Nemesis Traverse V5 Boulder Smugglers Notch : Boulders Behind the Main Pa...

The Impossible Problem V7 Boulder Smugglers Notch : Top of the Notch Boulders

Center Crack 5.7 Trad, 1 pitch, 70 feet Deer Leap

Captain's Crack 5.7 PG13 Trad, 1 pitch, 100 feet Bolton Area : Upper West Bolton

Hush, Mama Thrush 5.8 Trad, 1 pitch, 90 feet Bolton Area : Lower West Bolton

The Monkey 5.8+ Trad, 1 pitch, 70 feet Deer Leap

Crimp Chimp 5.9+ PG13 Trad, 1 pitch, 160 feet Bolton Area : 82 Crag

The Rose 5.10a Trad, 1 pitch, 100 feet Bolton Area : Upper West Bolton

Proud and Free 5.11b Trad, 1 pitch, 60 feet Marshfield Ledge

The Doggfather 5.12b Sport, 1 pitch, 65 feet Bolton Area : 82 Crag

Who's Your Daddy 5.12c Sport, 50 feet Bolton Area : Carcass Crag

Groton High Grade 5.13 Sport, 1 pitch, 60 feet Marshfield Ledge

Featured Route For Vermont

The Promenade attacks the line on the right side of the picture

The Promenade WI5+ VT : Vermont Ice Climbing : Lake Willoughby

Located to the right of the Last Gentleman and to the left of Reign of Terror, The Promenade is one amazing route! The crux (5+) comes on pitch 2/3 (depending on how you break it up) and consists of a hanging curtain of hollow, chandaliered ice. Belay from the cave behind the curtain then grip it and rip it! Continue up past the curtain on a little more mellow ground. Find a good stance then one more hard pitch (5) to the top. We encountered a couple rock moves before reaching the trees so holst...[more] Browse More Classics in VT

Comments on Vermont

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By Nick Goldsmith
Aug 28, 2011

The Deer leap webguide is back up. www.deerleapclimbing.com/ It is still badly out of date and needs corrections that neither Isa or I have time to do right now.. There are a bunch of new shorter spurt climbs down low and to the right as well as a few left of the lower tier mostly put up by Bob Gilito. Looks like Nick Hall freed Bag o tricks @ 10+ the Parking lot slab 5.5 is a good mixed beginner lead and just left of the approach trail right near the parking lot.

By Christian Prellwitz
Oct 26, 2011

anybody ever checked out these boulders? looks interesting...

www.windmillhillpinnacle.org/

scroll down to the bottom- 'Creature Rock'

By Matt Wilson
From: Bethel, Vermont, USA
May 31, 2012

Looks like the coordinates for the Ethan Alan boulders are reversed, causing the map for Vermont to look terrible. Can that be fixed?

By Derek Doucet
Jul 26, 2012

Vermont's first rockclimbing guidebook is ready to ship in about a week. You can get them here: www.vermontrock.com/!

By TravisNE
Aug 4, 2012

Just got back from Creature Rock (www.windmillhillpinnacle.org) There are a lot of potential lines to be sent, let me know if anyone is up for cleaning some rock and putting up lines.

By balzano
Sep 18, 2012

Does anybody know if there are any lines up the chin at Camel's Hump. I hiked the Alpine trail up and there appeared to be an easy gully line and then some challenging possibilities on the steeper areas.

By balzano
Sep 18, 2012

I answered my Camel's Hump question already... sort of. I read the specific rules on the hand out sheet you get at the trailhead, also available online, and it says rock climbing is forbidden. My assumption is that they want the alpine zone undisturbed outside of the trail itself. My rebuttal is, the area with potential climbing is 100% exposed rock, and once topping out one can probably rock hop back over to the trail with minimal difficulty---if no rope is used, and one scrambles up the easy gully, is that the "rock climbing" they have in mind? I suppose my question is now this: "Are you required to stay on the trails at all times above the tree line at Camel's Hump?" I don't want to disturb anything I am not supposed to, but I don't want to miss out on an awesome little line either.

By Derek Doucet
Sep 19, 2012

Hey Balzano,

The summit area of Camel's Hump is one of only three areas of arctic / alpine tundra in the entire state. Please, please respect the guidelines the GMC and state naturalists have outlined and stay on the trail in these areas. Just because there is little obvious to you that might be impacted by scrambling doesn't mean it isn't there.

Cheers,

Derek

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Vermont

Description

Getting There

The Classics