Center Hill Lake Climbing

Center Hill Lake is my favorite lake in middle Tennessee. Aside from being cleaner and more scenic than many other lakes, it also has a decent number of walls for a fun day of deep water soloing. Although it's probably been scrambled around on by many half-inebriated climbers enjoying a day out on the lake, a small group of us started exploring the climbing here a few summers back and everyone had so much fun we ended up revisiting the walls again that summer, and have come back every year since. It's not the best quality climbing around, but lots of summer day fun and plenty of options with a wide range of difficulty for everyone to find something to get on. There are easy vertical jug hauls or techy, strong overhangs and a lot in between. Most of what we’ve done has been probably v0-v6 or so, but the possibilities are endless. 

The heights and routes are also dependent on water levels, but you can find walls upwards of 40 feet high at some places. We've found the best climbing is when the water level is below 640 feet MSL. You can find that information on their website at centerhill.uslakes.info/Level/

Be very careful watching out for others underneath you, and be very mindful of your fall zone, some of the walls have bases that jut out past the upper parts of the wall with a high risk hitting them on your way down. This is not a clean, established area so things are often chossy and loose and easy to pull off, and some of them are very big. For the most part, the climbing is best in the first 15 or so feet (there’s often a ledge around that height) and the higher stuff is usually easier and loose and not all that great except to just get high enough for a good jump.