Tucked away in the Laddin's Rock Sanctuary in a residential neighborhood in Old Greenwich, lies a 60 foot crystaly granite wall, with several routes on it. The wall is hidden by the canopy of the forest from the sun. The rock has a tendency to be wet in areas due to run-off from above. The only real crowd one might expect to see are people walking their dogs. Interesting enough, there are several rusty pitons scattered in different parts of the wall. There are also a bunch of boulders in this area as well. There are several trad climbs, and everything is top ropeable. Might want to extend anchors to minimize rope drag.
Getting There
Park in front of the entrance to Laddin's Rock Sanctuary in Old Greenwich, CT. Walk in across the bridge and bear left. Follow a path that leads you in the direction moving away from where you parked. Laddin's Rock Comes out of no where. However, you can end up on top of it which is not a bad thing. Just keep walking away from the cars and you'll find the walk off. The approach should not take more than 10 minutes.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Old Greenwich/ Laddin's Rock:
There are two decent problems on the two aretes on the boulder mentioned behind zee crack. Either arete is fun (the overhanging side) and the close one (cliff side) prolly comes in around v2-4ish from the sitstart. A buddy from Go-V said it was called cigarette but have no idea the name. If ever back in town I'll try to get some pics of sw CT areas. (this and the very little on mt laurell is all that anyone has up here)
Went back over weekend to boulder. Here are some updates.
There are a couple of route climbs here in addition to zee crack. left of zee crack is a small crack seam that climbs past a piton. Up the hill from Zee Crack is some hi ball bouldering or short TR climbs, as well as some fun traverses. (Has big vertical split that is a great no hands rest) There is a fun V2ish boulder problem starting on the low horizontal that goes up and left through little crimps and a 2 finger dish.
On the boulder behind zee crack there are 4 definite problems. Cigarette, as mentioned before seemed much easier than remembered and I would peg at V2ish and starts on the very low right hand side pull and the left hand sloper right under the under cling. Stay right on the arête as you climb, don't go left to better holds as you want to top out at the point of the arête.
The next boulder problem is under the overhung side of the boulder and you sit start by the right arête. (farthest from cliff) there is a bulge in front of you slap with left hand as your right goes up the corner until you can gain a high foot and fire to the only "hold" in the middle of the blank overhang about 8 feet off the ground. Then top out in the middle of the over hang. This one probably goes at V3-4ish and can shred the hands a little.
The last two climbs are on the far side of the boulder on the slab. One starts on the far left of the slab, near the overhanging arête start. You can actually start the overhung climb and move right around the arête to finish on the slab climb to make the problem a little tougher. There are many variations on the numerous sharp crimps and I put together like 8 different ways to top out, but the left and right side are clear routes that just go up. Trying to start a traverse from the right to left but it is tough if you don't use the top edge.
Usually not much chalk on this boulder and I have never ran into someone here so have fun route finding!
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