A cliff band on the east side of the Patomac River just northwest of Washington DC. The rock is hard with quartz crystals and about 40 feet high. THe area is top ropped offf trees. Lots of hard foot work challenges. a beautiful area in the hardwood forest, peaceful most of the time but popular.
Getting There
just of I-495 exit on to the Clara Barton Parkway in Carderock Park. Park in the far north parking lot and walk west on a trail to the cliffs.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Carderock:
Taken outside, near the grassy banks of a small river, on a glorious spring day, with plenty of butter and raspberry jam, few things in life are nicer than tea and crumpets. Congruently, there are few boulder problems on the Carderock schist that can compare to the delight that is known as Tea and Scrumpet. Yet, what – you may ask – is a scrumpet? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "an elegantly awkward rock climbing move executed with ...[more]Browse More Classics in MD
Carderock's a busy, busy place. On any given weekend, you can find local gyms and schools using this area for groups and classes, scouts climbing up and down, and dozens of locals out with their buddies or solo. No solitude here.
Top-roping is the recommended technique. There are no bolts worth trusting, and everything is so slick from use it's hard to get gear to stick.
Carderock is a huge sandbag. This is quite evident from the video that Dan posted which shows a 5.15 climber falling multiple times on a climb rated "only" 12d. On TR, no less. (That's a great little video, BTW.)
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