Moving to Philly

Long time climber moving up to philly for a residency position. What's the low down on local gyms, crags etc....I know the gunks well at 3.5 hrs but am unfamiliar with say the delaware water gap or stuff even more local. Mostly plug gear

I will be working in Chester PA, and looking for some good areas around 20-30 minutes towards the city from there. Suggestions on housing location also appreciated.

Cheers
T

T,

Philly isn't a particularly good spot to be located for climbing. If you want to climb real rock, you'll need to be willing to drive. I manage about 100 days a year, but this requires travel. The closest areas to Philly that are open to climbing are Safe Harbor and Birdsboro. Both areas offer well (closely) bolted sport climbing. Unfortunately access to both crags from the city requires driving on 76, the schuylkill expressway. This road is very congested and can significantly impact drive times at any time of day (particularly rush hr.)

Safe Harbor (about 2hrs) near Lancaster has north and south sections that offer primarily off vert technical fingery climbing. Both areas have some great climbing. The southern crag gets significantly more visitors. Most hardware has been updated in the past few years.

Birdsboro (about 1 hr) is primarily overhanging. There are a ton of chossy, shitty routes. However, there are also some really good climbs that get you nice and pumped which I find great for fitness. Some bolts still need replacement, but most are alright.

There are some worthwhile areas in northeastern PA which are a bit over 2hrs.

You already mentioned the Gunks. Doable in a day, but somewhat painful. Weekends can be a bit zoo-ish.
The Delaware Water Gap isn't very good. There are a handful of okay routes. Some people I'm sure will disagree.
Keene Valley is about 5hrs 45 minutes. The Adirondacks are awesome.
Seneca is 5 hrs 30 min
NRG is 7 plus
North Conway is 8 hrs or so.

There are a couple of gyms in the city, Go Vertical and PRG (Philly Rock Gym). PRG has three locations I believe. I can't say which are good as I don't frequent any of them. The PRG East Falls location is primarily a bouldering gym and is decent as far as gym climbing goes.

Welcome to Philly! There's a couple of climbing gyms. Are you going to live in the city or the suburbs? Go Vertical is on the east side of the city, easily accessible from the Market-Frankford subway line. The lead wall there is awesome and they have good toprope routes too. There's also a climbing Meetup there and you can meet a lot of climbers that way.

If you're more interested in indoor bouldering you might like Philadelphia Rock Gym (PRG) in East Falls more. But if you're going to live in the suburbs, you might want to check out PRG Valley or PRG Oaks.

If you only want to drive an hour or so, there are a few outdoor climbing options:
Birdsboro - a converted quarry that hosts a lot of sport climbing, but also a lot of chossy rock
Safe Harbor - another non-natural outcropping of rock that has sport climbing. Less chossy than Birdsboro
Chickie's Rock - it has few trad-leadable lines, but it's mostly toprope
Ralph Stover State Park - Pretty much all toprope

Gunks is a 2.5-3 hour drive and, in my opinion, the drive is worth it. I do it as a day trip often and it's not too bad.

I recently moved away from Philly for work...

I love the city, despite all of its flaws, I miss it every day but as others have said, it's not a particularly great place to live for trad climbing. Weekdays in the gym and weekends in the Gunks may be your solution.

Seneca Rocks is doable as a weekend trip as well.

You said you'll be working in Chester PA. The only neighborhoods between there and the city that are really desirable are the various Main Line towns. I'm personally not a fan of the Main Line (yuppie monied suburbs) but it is a highly desirable area. If you are looking for city living with the least painful car commute to Chester, University City (the area around Penn) may be something to look at. Your commute could get rough though if you have to drive during normal commuting hours.

If you can get to your office from the Chester transportation center without a car, you could also live downtown or in University City and take SEPTA to work. No transfers from suburban station or 30th St station, and the ride is only 30min or so I think.

If you end up in the suburbs, check out Media and Wayne as well.

A bit off topic:

There's good to excellent road and mountain biking if you're into that at all. The local race scene is strong. Lots of people/teams to connect with.

Don't miss the Wissahickon Valley park (The Wiss). Incredible for a park inside city limits. Great mountain biking and trail running.

I hope you're an Eagles fan!

so i guess a little more about me. SE climber who has spent early times extensively in NH, NY, MA areas climbing. Mostly plug gear and prefer adventure climbing. I'll be an Emergency medicine resident so won't have much time and will have off hours most likely.

Climbing has already been relegated to back burner throughout med school compared to my days guiding but i try to maintain a level of fitness that lets me still send. Other stuff includes mountain biking, kayaking, woodworking etc. Will be moving with gf and her cat. Given that i have to be in at weird hours i would prefer to live no more than a half hour commute from the hospital and have a yard which puts the actual city low down on that list. Been looking at Ridley park, Swarthmore, out to point breeze areas.

gym wise i'll see which is closer but i prefer routes to bouldering. Just a mean to keep up endurance

as for sports im what some would describe as apathetic

appreciate the info. going to be hard to adjust back to the yankee way of life after seven years down south. at least y'all drive better than massholes - and yes i said y'all

T

Like others said pretty much everything is a drive from the Philly area. I live in Newark, DE and I drive a few hours every weekend to climb outside. One area that is often overlooked is Shenendoah Nat. Park. There are some awesome granite trad lines in a remote setting. Also Harpers ferry has decent trad/sport cragging and bouldering and a few multi pitch trad lines. HF would be 2.5 hours from you and Shenendoah is 4.5 hrs. For trad climbing there are many small areas in MD and PA that are under 3 hours but not a huge concentration anywhere.

An observation about driving: Having lived in MA, MN, Germany and DE I would say that shitty driving radiates outward from its epicenter somewhere between Baltimore and Washington DC. I'd take massholes any day over MD drivers.

Torren wrote:An observation about driving: Having lived in MA, MN, Germany and DE I would say that shitty driving radiates outward from its epicenter somewhere between Baltimore and Washington DC. I'd take massholes any day over MD drivers.

This is fantastic, and highly accurate.

I live near Birdsboro and went to school in Chester, driving there 2-3 times a week for 5 years. So, easy trip for a day on the rock. I think Birdsboro will be the closest one to you, other than maybe Alapocas in Delaware which is not worth the drive. if you want to live in the suburbs but want access to the city, Media and Swarthmore is good because of the train line that runs downtown.

so i gotta admit philly drivers aren't the best....stopped by PRG-East and was a bit disappointed about the height of the walls though setting wasnt bad. Are any of the gyms equipped with some longer walls. I will also be living in the swarthmore area starting mid july if anyone around there is interested in meeting up.

rock_fencer wrote:so i gotta admit philly drivers aren't the best....stopped by PRG-East and was a bit disappointed about the height of the walls though setting wasnt bad. Are any of the gyms equipped with some longer walls. I will also be living in the swarthmore area starting mid july if anyone around there is interested in meeting up.

Yeah, PRG East Falls is pretty much a bouldering gym. Check out the lead wall at Go Vertical. It's pretty nice! But that might be a hike for you to get to from Swarthmore on weekdays...

Will do. I'm hoping my off hour schedule in the ED gives me some more flexibility with traffic

Go vertical has much longer walls than PRG east falls. At least twice as high. Although you mostly plug gear, the bouldering around philly is much better, mt Gretna and haycock have good concentrations of decent bouldering. High rocks has routes that can be led on gear although not a ton and the placements can be tricky, almost all the cracks are outward flares. I find myself making day trips to the gunks more than climbing at any other place. 3 hours from where I live with traffic rarely being an issue. If you're coming from west of the city it might take you longer.

Go Vertical as stated is great for training endurance on over hanging walls. Bouldering is not the greatest. Birdsboro is the closest sport then gunks as everyone has said.

If you need a partner when you get here let me know! Just moved back to philly after spending some time out west in OR.

No one has mentioned the Wyoming valley yet, this is where scranton and wilke-barre are. Not much to offer in the cities themselves. The climbing on the other hand is pretty darn good. You are looking at a lil less than 2hrs plus tolls to get there though.
There are so many bouldering areas in the valley its not even funny almost none of them are listed on MP. almost all is quartzite conglomerate(same as the gunks) most are located in the state parks that line either side of the valley

overview of what MP has on the valley
mocanaqua/rear wall/library - best bang for your buck mix of trad and bolted lines probably 100 or so routes in these areas, library is good for hot days. I believe these areas were all just re-bolted by Forte and Stredny with bolts purchased by the Top of the slope ski and climbing shop(big thanks to them for putting up the coin) main wall is the largest and my favorite of the bunch(listed as mocanaqua) several excellent trad routes here.

the rim- not worth the time to get there from philly and access is very touchy

milkstone boulders, nay aug park - not worth it(pretty sure you will get busted at nay aug)

Francis walter dam - good mix of boulders in the area nice summer spot to swim and climb.

a few real nice single pitch stuffs in 7 tubs and bouldering but will require some hiking on quad trails and nothing is documented, follow the main north to south ridge and it yields many features.

PS after stalking your MP profile, I feel like we have met briefly in real life? my brain cant figure out how to connect the dots but I swear I just met someone from colombia SC who was moving to philly..

Kyle Cobbler wrote: feel like we have met briefly in real life? my brain cant figure out how to connect the dots but I swear I just met someone from colombia SC who was moving to philly..

well i cant say i remember offhand either but entirely possible

I do my gym climbing primarily at PRG East Falls. It's really close to Center City, and i76. Their top rope walls leave height to be desired, but their bouldering problems are fantastic, and the layout of the building has the feeling of wandering through a boulder field instead of a hallway with problems on the walls.

But if you are willing to drive about 30 minutes, Oaks is doubling the size of their location, and are supposed to be great for both bouldering and rope climbing (I haven't been there since I was a kid).

And Go Vertical is probably still the tallest gym on the east coast.

Kyle Cobbler wrote:almost all is quartzite conglomerate(same as the gunks)

Well ... for the record ...
lots of East PA rock is "plain" non-conglomerate quartzite.
Like I'd say Mocanaqua / Shickshinny is non-conglomerate.

And other interesting rock types.

Some of us think better than the Gunks.
Better in the sense of higher "density" of thoughtful interesting moves (rather than lots of lunging or high-stepping for yet another obvious horizontal).
Though not as tall as much of the Gunks.

. . (Delaware Water Gap is conglomerate quartzite.
. . . Less good. More like the Gunks).

If looking for "adventure" climbing, unfortunately the Gunks doesn't deliver much of that. Although Trad, really you're never more than single rope length from the ground in the Gunks. And with good mobile cell phone service to call for a rescue.
. . (Most routes in the Gunks could theoretically with well-placed directionals, be Top-Roped).

So either make long-ish drives for your "adventures" (and time the Dacks carefully to avoid black-fly season) -- or get well-acquainted with which Western U.S. (and Euro?) climbing regions get non-stop flights from Phila Intl airport.

Ken

Some great routes up in the Gap, but be aware they're infrequently traveled and the little fixed hardware that exists is isn't in great shape. I've found the rock quality to improve with an increase in grades. In the summer expect heavy vegetation and for the entire PA side to be closed for falcon nesting (one of only a handful of pairs in the state with a natural nesting site). Pa side goes into the shade early, and Jersey side gets all day sun.

Surprised no one mentioned bouldering in the Lehigh Valley, Haycock Mountain has great bouldering on diabase blocks an hour and a half from Philly.

Jon Clark wrote:Philly isn't a particularly good spot to be located for climbing.

Perhaps lots of (younger?) people who think bouldering is an important kind of climbing do not share this opinion?

There's lots of new bouldering within two hours drive from Phila in different directions.

Perhaps more accurate to say ...
"Philly isn't a particularly good spot" ... for people who:

• can't lead harder than 5.9; and
• don't want to or don't know how to set up Top-Ropes on interesting short lines 5.10-5.12; and
• don't like Bouldering.

Conor Mark wrote:Some great routes up in the Gap

Delaware Water Gap is the obvious place near Phila with something resembling the "adventure" which the OP said he might be looking for.

but ...
There's a kind of "vicious cycle" about the Gap, because if it got climbed more (and loved more), the loose rock and vegetation could be cleaned and the old hardware replaced, and the access paths cleared better.

The Gunks actually had lots of loose rock when first discovered (and nowadays you can still find it if you head off route). And every so often big rockfall events on or over established routes still happen in the Gunks.
Vegetation? To see serious lichen encrustation, just climb above the most obvious popular steepest of the Uberfall descent routes. Or try some infrequently climbed routes in the Nears just south of Yum Yum Yab Yum.

Closures - (again the "vicious cycle") - With a more involved / loving climbing community, the way nesting-bird closures are handled in the Gunks is rather different from the PA side of the Gap.

I can't say I know how to break that "bad cycle". Especially since nowadays the more energetic east PA climbers are more interested in Bouldering and well-bolted single-pitch Sport lines.

Ken

P.S. Ambience?
New Jersey side of the Gap is never going to compete with the Gunks (or lots of less-known places in east PA) for pleasant atmosphere.

Resurrecting this thread from two years ago (apologies):

I'm a HS teacher and long time rock climber. We're strongly considering a move from Brooklyn to Philly.

Crags: I'm at the Gunks a lot these days and will probably try to get up there for weekends from Philly (not psyched about doing day trips at that distance). It'll be nice to be closer to the NRG. How is Safe Harbor/Birdsboro for day trips? Is Safe Harbor all crimps and dime edges?

Gyms: It looks like the gym situation has expanded somewhat, with new locations of the PRG and a Gravity Vault in Radnor. Also sounds like the Cliffs is opening at some point (Center City?) and that Gravity Vault is opening a second location. Anyone have any info or opinions about the gym situation? Looking for somewhere I can train all dimensions: good bouldering, long steep lead climbs, and a decent training area with maybe treadwall or systems boards or something like that. How do the gyms stack up?

My partner will be at Swarthmore so we'll be either in West Philly or one of the suburbs (Ardmore, Radnor, Media, Swarthmore). Any thoughts or opinions on those?

Thanks, everyone!