The Bridge Pillar at Schenley Park Climbing

The bridge pillars used to support a bridge connecting Schenley Park and South Oakland.  The bridge platform was long taken down and all that has been left are the remnants of the pillars.  Currently there are a total of eight bolted routes rating between about 5.7 to 5.11b/c on the tallest pillar.  There is also a short 5.8 route on the shorter pillar and thanks to the climbing good fairies of 412, also two bolts that have been installed in order to teach people how to rappel.  In the past there was a hodge podge of hardware on the top of the taller pillar in order to rig top ropes.  Recently, six sets of Fixe, 1/2" Stainless Steel, glue-in anchors were installed directly above each of the existing routes so that all routes can easily be rigged for top ropes with just two alpine draws (i.e. shoulder length draws that are 24" long.) The anchors were placed on top of the pillar (as opposed to the vertical faces) in order to not lose even a foot or two of climbing terrain on these already super short routes.  The larger pillar rises approximately 25ft from the base to it's tallest point.  Possibly, some folks will want to forego ropes and boulder everything here which is their prerogative, but there are bolts for those who prefer to be on ropes at this height.  Recently, all of the bolts on 5 of the 7 existing routes have been replaced with 1/2" stainless steel and bolts have been added to all routes to make them as safe as possible.  REMEMBER THAT WHETHER YOU ARE TOP ROPING THESE ROUTES OR LEADING THEM, YOU WILL NEED TWO ALPINE DRAWS SO THAT THE BINERS ON YOUR DRAWS CAN HANG OVER THE EDGE OF THE PILLAR... YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LOWER OFF WITH SHORT QUICK DRAWS!) There has been an impressive amount of trail work done down to the pillar and around the pillar.  All of the belay spots have been levelled and cleaned.  What you will find now is a very comfortable spot in one of the best parks in our city.  As with all of our urban climbing in Pittsburgh, please be great ambassadors for the climbing community while climbing on these structures as SWPACC has been working very hard to secure permission to build out the climbing resources across the entire city.

As with so much of the climbing on the existing structures around the city (Seldom Seen, Frank Curto, The Arena, etc), these walls are comprised of large quarried sandstone blocks with a plethora of holds on each route: jams, pinches, slopers, and of course crimps.  These routes climb surprisingly like real rock... If you live in Pittsburgh they are all worth checking out!