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:
Perhaps the best steep climb at Carderock, the glorious overhanging arete on the back side of the X-face beckons the passing climber with its siren song of incut crimps on the right and heel-hooks on the left. An optional sit-start increases the difficulty and makes the top moves quite strenuous. ...[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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