Steelworkers Park Climbing

Outdoor Climbing Park located in the former Steelworker's Site. Former building concrete walls have been outfitted with holds, bolts, and autobelays.

Autobelays:

Update: Autobelays are locked and only used by the chicago parks programs.

April 2024 A lot more routes and anchors were set to the left and right of the original routes. The wall is about 30 feet tall with each route having 3 bolts. All the routes are bolted. There are a few cracks that can be climbed and cams placed in the cracks, but the cracks have bolts in them so they can be climbed trad or sport. All the routes have lobster clips at the anchors. On most of the routes its relatively easy to climb over the anchors on to the top of the wall where there is a steel cable running the length of the top that you clip a PAS into, however it is about 6ft wide on top and unless your hanging over the edge to set up a top road anchor, your probably fine without anchoring into the steel cable.

The difficulty of these climbs range from a 5.5ish-5.11ish. There are about 10 total routes on the wall. I spoke to the person that works for Chicago Parks district who is in charge of this crag and he told me that there are no "official" rating for the routes. 

There also ground level anchors off to the left, with lobster clips, to practice anchor building

There is also a red bouldering line although I wouldn't consider this a bouldering area.

Overall I would say this is an amazing crag for what and where it is. I live in Southern Utah and was visiting my dad in chicago and we climbed here for the afternoon and it was a blast. To have a crag in the city of Chicago is a very unique and interesting experience. And there are routes here for people of most skill levels. It was easy to get my 61 year old dad on the wall on some easier climbs and I was also able to do some challenging 5.10 and 5.11 climbs. This is a very unique climbing spot and I encourage you to check it out.

July, 2024