Massachusetts sport climbing?

I'm going home to MA for a week. Does anyone know of some good sport climbing crags. I see a lot of top rope areas but very little sport. Any recommendations would be helpful.

Check out Farley Ledges near Erving. Some excellent sport climbing there. There's no guidebook but everyone is super friendly and will show you around. More info here:

climbgneiss.org/index.php/f…

Mormon Hollow is close to Farley and on the same gneiss. The routes are great, it is not usually crowded, and is usually shadier and cooler this time of year. Climbgneiss.org has info and there is a page here on MP.

Thanks for the help IL be sure to take a look at these areas.

Those 2 areas should keep you busy for a week at least..not much else.

Tons of bouldering though

Depending on where in Mass you are, I would say just drive up to Rumney, NH. It will be well worth your time if you are looking specifically for sport climbing. Farley and the other Gneiss crags are great, not trying to hate on those. Where I am originally from in Mass I am almost closer to Rumney than the Gneiss crags.

Farley is great with a large concentration of routes from 5.9 to 5.13. If you go without trad gear just remember that routes with a gold hanger on the 1st bolt also require trad gear. The locals are great about showing you around. There are some good, long pitches on perfect stone there. Mormon is great but smaller. Stellar rock and good sport routes from 5.10 to 5.13.

There would be more sport climbing closer to Worcester if it was not for a bolting war currently going on. Great crag with routes up to 5.12 that have all been chopped multiple times.

unless you are setting trad gear its all top rope in MA besides Farley/ Mormon Hollow. There are a few Bolts placed in the Quincy quarries that look pretty new but Im a little sketched out to try them. Who knows what drunk highschool kid drilled those. Lots of shitty spray paint but I just think of it is adding a half a grade to the difficulty... or a great excuse why I cant get my ass off the ground.
Rumneys not much further than Farley if you are in the boston area.

Farley is great and easily has well over a week worth of climbing. If you want to walk a few minutes you will have climbs to yourself even on the busiest days. Definitely worth a visit.

Farley is a great spot, don't get me wrong but in the dead of summer I'd opt for Rumney. Most of the stuff at Farley gets blasted by the sun all day whereas there are plenty of shady options at Rumney. It's been a couple months since I've been out to Farley but I know that back in May it was pretty packed on the weekends with the main parking lot filling up by 10 am.

We have a few sport routes here in Gloucester MA, but most are short and sweet. If you had even a small rack there are a lot of trad routes that are mostly bolts, maybe a few cam placements. But there are TONS of boulders around to supplement. What part of mass will you be visiting?

JD1984 wrote:There would be more sport climbing closer to Worcester if it was not for a bolting war currently going on. Great crag with routes up to 5.12 that have all been chopped multiple times.

Haven't heard about this, can you give more info?

Troy S wrote: Most of the stuff at Farley gets blasted by the sun all day

Only at the WEML. Venture out to the other crags and you're fine.

The main sport wall at Fraley does blast in the sun, but goes into the shade around 1 or so. As others have said, plenty in the shade if you look around. Rumney has lots more climbing, but Farley has plenty to keep you happy if you are set on a Massachusets locale (I am biased as I live 10 minutes away).

zswan wrote: Haven't heard about this, can you give more info?

High Rocks in E. Brookfield has been seeing some re-development with attempts to restore the fixed protection however Nichols has been hiding out there for years and thwarting efforts to restore the sport routes.

I prefer Farley to Rumney any day. Better rock, tons of variety and some amazing cracks.

Shouldn't be too hard to rig some web cams up to record and catch him if you wanted to press charges.

Hell you might even discourage him just by putting up some signs noting that monitoring is in place due to chopping.

Rumney is not too much farther than Farley for a lot of Eastern Mass. Highly recommend it, especially if you can get out mid week. As for guidebooks, for rumney mountain project is good enough, and for Farley go there on a weekend first and get chatty. Point at bots and grunt: *what's that?"

Christopher Woodall wrote:Rumney is not too much farther than Farley for a lot of Eastern Mass. Highly recommend it, especially if you can get out mid week. As for guidebooks, for rumney mountain project is good enough, and for Farley go there on a weekend first and get chatty. Point at bots and grunt: *what's that?"

just make sure that if you're only at Farley for sport you don't get on routes that start with a GOLD bolt cuz they are mixed routes and youll crap your pants when you get 30 feet up and see your next pro 30 more feet away.