Hello all There's a possibility that I may move to Columbus, Ohio. Anyone have some info on the climbing scene there? Mrs Google indicates that Red River Gorge and New River Gorge are both 4 hours drive away. Anything else closer? Any good gyms for the winter? Thanks in advance Vanessa
Columbus climber here - yes the Red and the New are the closest decent climbing, along with Cooper's Rock (bouldering). There are some small crags in Ohio but even they are not very close, and I don't know anyone who went to them more than once. There is a little bit of bouldering in Athens (1.5 hours away) but it's poorly documented - some people in Columbus have beta, though.
As far as gyms, Vertical Adventures is where I go. They just relocated to a much bigger and taller facility - 45 foot lead walls and lots of bouldering. There is also Kinetic, a bouldering only gym but I haven't ever been there. Hope this helps.
In addition to what cocoa said, there's a free public outdoor climbing wall near downtown, it has a handful of lead routes and a couple of auto belays in addition to quite a few top rope anchors that you can set your rope up on.
What's bad about Columbus and Ohio in general is there isn't much big climbs in the state itself. The good is that it's in a decent location for weekend drives to a bunch of great places.