Cranberry Hollow Rock Climbing

This set of quiet crags about 30-70 feet tall offers mainly Top-Roping from natural anchors - (no bolts). In Allamuchy Mountain State Park about 4 miles N from I-80, around Andover and Byram Township just north from Cranberry Lake.

- > The cliffs in this area have not yet been specifically approved for technical rock climbing by the management of the State Park.

Rock is granite or granitic gneiss. Facing mainly West, and some South (so good for cool-weather days). Base and lower half of most routes is shaded by mature trees, so not as hot as might expect on hot-weather days.

Not much climbed yet, so come prepared to manage loose + falling rock, with holds obscured by vegetation and dirt, slippery unmarked scrambles to set up top anchors.

We are most grateful to Jared Brewster for recognizing the potential of these crags for roped climbing and showing them to us.

When we started exploring further ourselves, we discovered lots of previous work (cleaning + cutting) to prepare the rock and approaches for climbing. So we could just focus on trying different possible routes for climbing. Whoever did that work, please contact us so we can give proper credit for your First Ascents - (if you were hoping to keep these crags secret, well we're not going along with that).

No bolts are permitted (as of 2018), according to a paper which we were given at the Stephens State Park office.

FAs + style + Naming of routes:
Our philosophy is that the persons who do the work get to name the route. Since much of the rock here does not take good Trad protection, many of the routes are going to be Top-Rope. The persons who do the first Top-Rope of a route have done some work in figuring out how to set up an anchor and often some cleaning of the rock, and the effort of writing a description of the difficulty and quality of the climbing -- so that others in the climbing community can choose to enjoy that route. So those persons get listed in the FA TR entry for the route, and they have the privilege of giving a name to the route. But that does not mean that the correct "style" for that route is Top-Roping.

If another party then Leads the route, and carefully reports the quality and types and size ranges of protection, they have done some more difficult work of benefit to the community, then they have get to be listed as FA Lead for the route, and they have the privilege of giving their (new?) name for that route. Similarly if the Park someday allows bolting, the party that does the work of installing bolts (assuming that the community has not designated that route as Trad), and reports the composition of the hardware also gets to give a name to the route. Let us know what you did, and we'll be glad to make the change to the MountainProject description page for that route.

hazards: Main danger is loose or breaking rocks, so belayer or other members of party should not stand anywhere near underneath the climber or underneath a leader setting up top anchor.

Insect bites and stings can be a problem. Perhaps the worst places are sectors Crefeld + Stannard, since they often have standing water near base, in which bugs like to breed.

Ticks - take precautions and use practices to avoid (or afterward detect).

Snakes like to live near complicated rocks. There are different varieties around this area.

Poison ivy -- learn to recognize and avoid.

waiver of liability
signed form is required. We talked with a NJ State Park employee who said that an original signed printed paper form must be submitted to the Stephens State Park office (with a new original submitted in each future calendar year). If you drive to the office to deliver your waiver, they make a copy for you to keep.

The waiver form gets a bit complicated because (as of 2018) the office that administers Allamuchy State Park is located (not so far away) in Stephens State Park -- GPS lat long approx (N40.8733 W74.8055) or (40.8733,-74.8055) in Hackettstown NJ - (suggest calling ahead to check if someone is in the office before trying to visit).

The blank form can be obtained from that office, or can be downloaded from the Stephens State Park official web page (but not as of 2018 from the Allamuchy Park page). Or could try sending in the completed signed waiver form by mail, instead of driving over there.

sectors
Sequence of the sectors is roughly by distance from parking: east to west for the major clusters, and south to north within each cluster.
.
c. Smiley Slopes
d. Smiley Face
.
g. Walsh
h. Kovalcik
i. McEldowney
.
k. Krauss
l. Prudden
m. Crefeld
.
o. l'Aiguille de NJRG
p. Steele
q. Rosenstein
.
z. . . more . . .
. . . (other smaller crags, or submissions whose location is uncertain, or other info.