Proving Grounds Bouldering

From downtown Ohiopyle, take Sugarloaf road East to Fire Tower Road. (Refer to map, which has parking area and trail approach indicated.) Just past the McCune trailhead road, turn left on Fire Tower (no sign), up the short slightly rough road which has recently been regraded and should pose no trouble for low clearance vehicles. Follow road into more wooded terrain, passing a gate on your left until you reach a second gate at approximately 39.82988734842801, -79.431815269424. Park here alongside the road, without blocking gate or road. There is perhaps room for 7 or 8 cars, and you can also drive a bit further to find more parking. Walk past the gate on the road heading North until this road Ts on another dirt road. Turn right and walk about 10 minutes. Use the GPS coordinates for the rocks (approximately 39.84061849717494, -79.42189662518194), and when they're off to your right, almost immediately before the road bends downhill and to the left, on the righthand side you'll see two trees forming a kind of gate for the trail (one of which has a small cut stump), which will follow the top of a slight ridge (ridge will become more severe as you near the rocks). Continue along this trail, staying along the top of the ridge, using GPS for the rocks (which will be off to your left, below the ridge). Stay on top of the ridge until you're even with the pin (about the middle of the boulderfield), and after passing by a thicket of mountain laurel, head left through the opening in the laurel. (Note that if you drop before this, you'll still be able to access the boulders from below, but it's rougher going.) From the ridge, there is a trail that cuts down through the rhodos and then hangs a left back into the rocks. Follow this short trail until it snakes around right and drops you in the main cluster. Note that there are some rarely climbed moderate lines on your right and left along this trail as you're entering the Proving Grounds. When you come around the bend to the main cluster, the warmup boulder will be on your left, the Pridelands roof and the Founding Fathers arete (and a tricky downclimb) will be on your right, and the king lines are on that same boulder on the downhill side, below Founding Fathers. Continue past Finders Keepers to find the sport routes. If you're standing in the middle of the sport routes, turn around and walk away from the wall, down the hill to find the Pit. (Refer to rough topo map.) Walk down below the warmup boulder to find Dangerous Waters on your right. Heading down into the woods from here, go right to access the Pit, or left to access some rarely climbed average quality stuff left.