Rumney Trad climbing

i just finished getting a trad rack together.i just picked up a few cams and was wondering if rumney has any good trad routes for a beginner to learn how to set gear.i would like something easy(low 5's).i have looked on the rumney listing but being such a large area i thought this would be easier.any info would help a fellow trad newbie out great.thanks

honestly rumney is not a trad area. The rock is generally not good for gear and can be fiddly so not very great for a beginner.

Can always place gear in cracks along the base and practice and have an experienced friend inspect them.

I did bring my rack to Rumney once (I had just bought my first cams and I couldn't wait to use them), but I only used it on two routes and clipped bolts the rest of the day. ( mountainproject.com/v/new_h… and mountainproject.com/v/new_h… but I wouldn't recommend them to a new leader)

if you are going to Rumney anyway and want to bring the rack, you could practice placing gear on the ground and then climb this: mountainproject.com/v/new_h…

edited to add: have you used the "best routes for you in this area" feature to search: mountainproject.com/scripts…

I would suggest going to the gunks for your first trad leads. If you are living in VT, it teally isn't too much further to get to the Gunks, and it is the perfect place to learn trad (many of the easier routes have excellent and solid gear placement). Have fun and be safe! (ygd)

Patrick Feeney wrote:i just finished getting a trad rack together.i just picked up a few cams and was wondering if rumney has any good trad routes for a beginner to learn how to set gear.i would like something easy(low 5's).i have looked on the rumney listing but being such a large area i thought this would be easier.any info would help a fellow trad newbie out great.thanks

Get the Dartmouth Outing Guide book, you have at least two perfect areas for a first lead less than a half an hour north from you.

amazon.com/DARTMOUTH-OUTING…

jackkelly00 wrote:I would suggest going to the gunks for your first trad leads. If you are living in VT, it teally isn't too much further to get to the Gunks, and it is the perfect place to learn trad (many of the easier routes have excellent and solid gear placement). Have fun and be safe! (ygd)

From Hartland, VT, Rumney is only an hour and some change, while the Gunks are over 3 hours away. I do agree with Jack, though, about cutting your teeth as a beginner trad leader at the Gunks. Lots of easy routes with somewhat straightforward gear to practice on. Good luck!

Why not just go to Conway?

chris deulen wrote:Why not just go to Conway?

+1. I would be worth the extra drive for the better crack climbing. Rumney is not a trad area, and the "trad routes" at Rumney tend to be kind of sketch due to the relatively soft, flaky rock.

I can only think of two good beginner trad routes at Rumney. Both have good rock that would take solid pro:

Fear of Abraham, 5.6. This is a short little route at the base of Main Cliff, and it takes gear well.

5.8 Crack by the Road, 5.7. Definitely a step up from Fear of Abraham, this is one of the few major crack systems of Rumney (the others being Black Jack Crack and Journey to a Mushroom Planet, both at a much harder grade).

I'm sure there are other OK beginner trad routes, but these are the ones that come to mind.

You could do something like Son of Sammy which is a retro bolted trad route and both place gear AND clip bolts.

Why not Pinacle in Québec? It's multipitch in a wonderful setting on bomber granite. It's right on the border (Baldwin mills.) It will definitely be less crowded than N. Conway...and about the same distance for you. Lots of moderates!

At the Pound, Pine Tree Crack, on the Barn Door Boulder, is a nice beginner lead. Also, up at the Crow's Nest is Peewee's Big Adventure, an easy trad route that has great gear. Fear of Abraham is good, but pretty short. Once you have done those you could try Holderness Corner, then Black Jack Crack (tougher than it looks, but even aiding it would teach you a lot.

Pee Wee's Big Adventure (5.4) is an easy lead if you don't mind the hike to Crow's Nest. You can hit up Alcove Crack (5.5) and Pine Tree Crack (5.4, multiple pitches) at Jimmy Cliff on the way up.

You can head up towards Pulse and stop at Kennel to head up Bad Dog Crack (5.7) before getting on Cliff Notes (5.7). You can probably have a fun adventure on the right side of Main Cliff on White Toad (5.7, multiple pitches (Dead Toad is bolted I think).

...or, Patrick could just climb the sport routes at Rumney and get wicked strong.

I'd look at Echo Crag up in Franconia notch. Not too much further up the road, lots of moderates. The gear can be a little funky as some of the cracks are a bit rounded, so definitely choose your first routes carefully. I've witnessed a couple of groundfalls from 10-15 ft there even on 5.7. There are a couple of good 5.5s if I recall that take good gear.
You may want to check out deer leap up near Killington- that's close to you, no? You could set up a top rope and practice placing gear there on TR on a stellar 5.7 that swallows gear.

Holderness Corner (5.8ish)

Mike Baetz wrote:I'd look at Echo Crag up in Franconia notch. Not too much further up the road, lots of moderates. The gear can be a little funky as some of the cracks are a bit rounded, so definitely choose your first routes carefully. I've witnessed a couple of groundfalls from 10-15 ft there even on 5.7. There are a couple of good 5.5s if I recall that take good gear.

I taught my son to lead at Echo. After seconding a number of routes over the past couple of years, I handed him a rack and a long sling. He spent a morning at Echo placing gear from the ground, clipping in the sling and weighting the gear; carefully watching what happened as the gear was loaded. He learned quite a bit about seating/removing wired nuts, shifting pieces and over-cammed cams. Perhaps the best feature of learning to lead at Echo (other than the fact that the routes were actually pretty good) was that most of the routes have reasonably well maintained fixed anchors. When he was ready, I could send him up without having to worry about him building and equalizing gear anchors. All he had to do was clip in a couple draws and lower off like a sport route.

I second most of the suggestions but here are a few additional thoughts.

Holderness corner is classic, but not a good route to learn gear on.

I would suggest Beginners Route 5.5 at the Meadows if your comfortable with about a 15 foot run out at the top.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure 5.4 at the crows nest is perfect beginners lead, also the trad routes on the Jimmy Cliff slabs are good places to look.

5.8 Crack by the Road (5.7) is great if your comfortable at the grade because the gear can be tricky, this is the same with Fear of Abraham 5.6 at the Main Cliff.

A way to look up the routes that could interest you is by using the search function at the bottom of the home page, select your area (Rumney), grade range and trad only and it will give you a list to look through. And you can read what your fellow MPer's say about the routes and how the gear is.

I also second the notion of Echo Crag, also Artist Bluff is a great place to learn easy multi-pitch and route finding skills.

Not sure if this will work, because it was my search, but here is a link to all the trad routes in Rumney grade range 5.0 to 5.8: mountainproject.com/scripts…

evil jay knower deleted my long post on this subject as an act of war against trad climbing at rumney and posts that contain too many ellipses... haha... not really, it was a mistake... or at least thats what he told me, hmmmmm....

anyway, i climb trad at rumney very often... a few points:
- learning gear placement on funky schist helped me get good at it...
- N Conways (few) moderates are more commiting than rumney most often...
- Echo crag and artist's bluff are great trad classrooms...
- Pine Tree Crack 5.3 at jimmy cliff is a GREAT, EASY, 2 pitch practice lead...
- Peewee's play house 5.4 is in my opinion the best gear practice route at rumney... it takes cams, nuts and tricams very well...
- i've climbed many rumney sport routes on gear and many take gear well... for practice, clip bolts and place gear... you will get looks and maybe comments from lame people that are too cool to let you have fun your own way but dont listen to them...

lee hansche wrote:many rumney sport routes on gear and many take gear well... for practice, clip bolts and place gear... you will get looks and maybe comments from lame people that are too cool to let you have fun your own way but dont listen to them...

+10. I have gotten those looks before :)

Correction to Lee's post. I think he meant Peewee's Big adventure. Playhouse is a bolted route at Darth Vader. It may be possible to do that with trad, but It would not be nearly as good for a first lead.

I second the suggestion of Beginner's Route. I had forgotten about that one. I haven't climbed it in over 20 years, but I remember it being pretty good for the grade and protecting well (near the road too, in case you ground out, lol)

matthewWallace wrote: +10. I have gotten those looks before :)

I have given those looks before.