Ragged Mountain (Main Cliff) 

This place could use some anchors, ALL of the anchor trees are dying slowly from over use. It seems like a strange strange management policy for a place owned by climbers. Bring about 1000 ft of anchor webbing and sling away before all of the trees are dead.

Come on now, things aren't that bad. The parking over on Sheldon is legal and gives you good access to the cliff. There's plenty to climb there even without fixed anchors. It's definitely the best place for a lead climber in the state.

Placing anchors at the top of the cliff is allowed under the conservation agreement. The real issue is the continued vandalism at the cliff - the few bolts that are there getting repeatedly chopped. I can't speak for the current situation, but the foremost problem was being able to maintain the status quo in the face of people that wanted to enforce their ethical views by attacking the fixed gear that was permitted with in the conservation agreement or by threatening the RMF for bogus violations of the agreement.

Copied from the RMF message board.

Author: Dave Boiano
Date: 6/1/2009 8:18 am EDT

I've spoken with three local home owners over the last two months, and they have all expressed a growing concern with the parking on Sheldon and Moore Hill Dr.

The most significant issue they raised was access for fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. Basically, park on one side of the road only. Litter and parking in front of mail boxes were the other things they mentioned. This may sound trivial and nit picky, but they live there and it's important to them, so lets make it important to us.

It is up to us, as a responsible, self policing community, to make sure that the local homeowners don't get up in arms and make enough noise that we lose the only workable parking available.

Although these are public roads, I think we are all aware that the locals could make it difficult, if not impossible, for us to park within walking distance to the crag. Please, if you see a homeowner, thank them for letting us park in their neighborhood, spread the word at the crag and at the gym, pick up trash on the roads, and don't be afraid to take responsibility and tell your peers when they are doing something wrong.

Thanks John- I placed it on the CT front page news section.

Kinda ugly cliff but better climbing than it looks.

We parked at the Timberlin Trail head which you get to by driving through a golf course parking lot. After driving through the lot there is a sharp curve left and a small parking area. The trail is directly across the road from this parking.

I almost got lost here so I hope this helps the next people. Follow the trail up, over and down ridge. Take the trail to the left and over a green bridge. Follow this trail staying right at the intersections. You will go up a rocky drainage and then down in a ravine with a stream going through it. Eventually you will see a wood bridge on your right. Take the bridge and follow light blue paint dots on trees until you reach some houses in a cul da sac. Take their drive way to the main road (Carey St) make a left on the road for a few hundred feet and there is a gravel road on the right. Follow this road until you see a trail on the right that parralls the road marked with light blue paint marks. Following this up the hill and then left will take you to "Main Wall". Enjoy!

Found gear left at ragged mtn on Sunday 9/5. contact me if it belongs to you! mjzarif@gmail.com

You can't place rap anchors on the top of popular routes to preserve the veg up top at this point as the RMF is under a legal binding not to improve the property in any way even if it means saving the ecology of the property. It is very sad but the reality is this is an example of a failed management strategy that others should consider in future projects.

Unfortunately, the RMF does little to educate climbers on it's Kiosk about proper anchor building in ecologically sensitive areas and the need to use non-vegitative anchor points to attempt to help preserve the ecology of the area.

EDIT (March 2012): In recent conversations with RMF board members, current and past, there does appear to be the ability to place fixed anchors @ Main Cliff however the 'bolt wars' of the past have hindered any actual actions being taken to save the ecology of the top of the cliff. Pretty sad actual... and unfortunately, even some of the older generation climbers who still frequent the cliff are ardently against ANY fixed gear being placed, period.

Take a look at the top of the cliff - the sat image really shows how much effect we've had on the cliff top:

bing maps photo Submitted By: CaptainMo on Aug 30, 2012

This place suffers greatly from a lack of fixed anchors.

Standard rack for Ragged:

- Single set of nuts
- Single set of cams .5 through 3
- #4 and #5 useful on some routes
- 10 trad draws
- Cordelette
- 60m rope

David - I think you forgot about the 100 ft of static line to build your anchors off the shrubs and trees on top of the cliff.

EDIT: TO those reading this though... gear anchors should be tried for most climbs before resorting to trees.

Be advised, 100 feet of static rope may not be enough for setting T.R. off trees on many routes. Assuming you are rigging the standard redundant double set up. Also good gear on cliff top is sparse to not available. Most of the rock on top is shattered and of very questionable integrity.