Vermont  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Lat, Long:  43.5963, -71.543 Map Page Views:  159,105. Good page?    Administrator:  Chris Duca Submitted By:  Andy Laakmann on Nov 27, 2006 Make this area a Favorite What's New  Printer View Add Area  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event

Myself leading third pitch. Vintage photo 1987, ph...

Description 

Many out-of-state climbers ask: "Is there climbing in Vermont?" My first temptation is to say "no", or "yes, but it's all on private property, and can't be climbed anyway, so it's useless to even try."

But realistically, Vermont has a long and storied history of bold first ascents and adventure climbing, that includes such pioneers as Fritz Weissner, John Bouchard, and Russ Clune. The Green Mountain State houses a large variety of climbing and bouldering on state and private land. And much of the outlying access issues that remain have been, or are in the process of, being smoothed out thanks to the tireless work of our local grassroots access group, Crag-VT (www.cragvt.org) Still, rock climbing in our state has its fair share of sensitive issues, so care must always be taken if ever there is doubt.

Be it schist, granite, limestone, or ice--Vermont has it all. Climbing ranges from thuggishly-steep to thin and technical, and from short bolted lines in Bolton Valley, to multi-pitch adventure climbing in the Northeast Kingdom and Smugglers' Notch State Park.
The climate and topography of Vermont offers visiting climbers a chance to sample a bit of everything, so long as you have a broad sense of adventure, don't mind getting be-knighted from time-to-time, and regularly like climbing in the face of adversity (read: Scottish weather.) Once past those minor hurdles (and after you drink the Kool-Aid!), you will, no doubt, find great pleasure in all that Vermont climbing has to offer.

Getting There 

Because our climbing is quite spread out, please refer to the area index for the best directions to the location you want to visit.

The Classics

Featured Route For Vermont

Blue Room WI3-4  VT : Vermont Ice Climbing : Ice climbing in Smugglers N...

THE classic route in Smuggs. (I'm surprised it hasn't made it in there before this.) It can be deceptively steep depending on how it forms. Usually has a cave in the middle. The left of the cave is usually steeper than the right. There is another pitch above but it isn't always in and most people do the first pitch only....[more]   Browse More Classics in VT