Marne Road Climbing

This little roadside crag has a bit of everything!   There are sport and trad lines, as well as a nice collection of boulder problems (including some highballs). There is vertical techy climbing, low angle slab, steep and thuggy jug hauling, hard pocket pulling, and some fun crack climbing, from thin fingers to off-widths.  It's got everything from 5.5 to 5.13 and V1 to V8.  Roped climbs range from about 25 to 65 or so feet in length.  Rock is sandstone (similar to the Red in many ways), although its quality does vary from bullet-hard to crumbly choss.

Please do not go "exploring" above the cliff-line or above the bouldering area in search of new problems or routes.  The land is private property!  Please stay on the main established trails.

Unfortunately in a number of places the rock, and the cracks in particular, tend to stay wet until early summer due to runoff and seepage, and so winter and spring climbing can be hit or miss.  The rock is surprisingly good (for Ohio!), but there are bands of obviously chossy rock.  Holds may break in unpredictable ways.  Avoid climbing when rock is wet, and please climb with care to avoid breaking holds unnecessarily.

Climbing is dangerous!  Climb at your own risk, and you always assume complete responsibility for your own safety. For trad, think carefully about the integrity of the rock for all placements! If bouldering be aware there are several problems with high cruxes where you wouldn't want to fall without spotters and a quiver of pads. For sport routes, the bolting is definitely done assuming a stick-clip will be used (that is, very high 1st bolt), but otherwise bolts are always well spaced to keep things safe. Without a stick clip some starts will be very sketchy. Trust me:  bring a stick-clip. Better yet, a long one.

On the anchors of every route there are a pair of fixed anchor hooks. Very important:  only use the hooks to lower the LAST climber in your party.  Please do NOT climb on top rope through the hooks. If more than one person is climbing the route, always clip your rope through your own quickdraws to the anchors.  Then, once everybody in your party has climbed the route, the last climber simply needs to clip the rope through the hooks, remove your draws, and be lowered.  (Anchor cleaning and rappelling is not best practice and is much more likely to lead to an accident.)

General Info:

*No bathrooms - Nearest restrooms are a couple miles away in town.

*No water - No water sources of any kind except the creek down the road.

*Be careful of pets - The ground at the base of the crag narrows in a few places. Even really well behaved pets will need to be watched carefully.

The right (east) side, mostly roped climbing, is owned by Village of Hanover, which seems ambivalent to climbing.  Left side, bouldering, is private property, but the owner has been OK with climbing so far.  Continued access is far from guaranteed!  Rapidly growing crag traffic has become a potential issue.  Please be upstanders and take good care of the crag to help preserve access.  LEAVE NO Trace! Please stay on designated trails. Don't leave your trash, and even pack out any trash somebody else might have left behind.  Finally, some people have been exploring or hanging around on top of the cliff. Please do not climb above the anchors on roped climbs or hang out above the boulder problems. Being on the edge of the cliff without ropes is dangerous and the last thing we want is to have an ambulance/injury/fatality there. Being up top could also cause problems with the property owner.  Please don't endanger crag access through short-sighted behavior! 

Note that bats have been observed in a number of hand-sized cracks at the crag. Please be respectful and let them be. Bats face a number of threats and are important species to protect (They eat mosquitoes!  'Nough said!). If you'd like to help out, you can also report your sighting to Climbers for Bat Conservation. Click here for more information on climbers and bats.