Porcupine Islands (DWS) Climbing

Disclaimer: I'm setting up this area solely to provide awareness to the opportunities that are available as I did preparatory research into the legality of climbing on the Islands this summer and wanted to share my findings. I was not able to make it out to the islands and actually climb although I have been by some of the faces and observed conditions.

Legality: Currently all of the Porcupine Islands except Burnt are owned by and part of Acadia National Park (Burnt is, at the time of writing, a proposed acquisition, so this may change or may have already changed in the future). Check this ( nps.gov/acad/learn/manageme… ) map to assure yourself. The rules surrounding climbing in Acadia National Park were established in the Climbing Management Plan ( nps.gov/acad/planyourvisit/… ) finalized in July of 1997. Taken from that plan is the quote, "New routes without fixed protection and route cleaning may be established freely anywhere in the park." The management plan aims to reduce the impact on the wildlife by restricting climbers from cleaning vegetation or wildlife from the routes they plan to climb. Seeing as these are sea cliffs, they are relatively clean. Find lines that do not require removal of living features, and you should be golden. My intention with this area is for it to be a resource for people interested in Deep Water Soloing as this form of climbing will eliminate the chance for impact on the ecosystems of the Islands.

As for actual climbing, I would warn that the tidal swings can be quite large in Frenchman's Bay and the waves can truly become an issue as well. As with any coastal DWS area, keep these facts in mind as you scout locations and choose to climb. The faces look beautiful (upwards of ~50-60 ft at times) and the limited DWS I've done over on Schoodic was lots of fun.