Moving to a blue state from a red state, will it be paradise?

shawn bradley wrote: by the way, mobley, im gonna be out there in oct, in danbury. im gonna tick thors hammer. let me know how to get ahold of you. you can play guide, make you feel at home. sorry to hear your moving to ct.

our second choice was Tucson. I was already picturing myself on some sweet granite dome at Cochise during January then heading to El Potrero Chico for Febuary.

I hear they are building a new plastic palace in NHaven...

Hello, I am in the same boat as Mobley. My wife and I are moving to New Haven at the end of August. It is a bummer to leave Wyoming but we are excited for the new experience.

My wife and I are younger and only started climbing last summer. So being a younger climber we stick to sport and bouldering. I take it from this website and others that there isn't much sport climbing in the immediate area around New Haven. I am curious if anyone has any good information about Mountain Laurel? It looks like fun and to be honest I love bouldering more than anything. I am just curious how to get to the place from East Rock? Thanks for the help.

the climbing in CT is mostly toproping so you should be fine Will. Rhode Island has the bouldering - Lincoln woods. The gunks has some too.

haven't read every post so i don't know if N. COnway,NH was added. I love Cathedral & Whitehorse Ledge & Mt. Washington is not too far from there. Fun winter alpine climbing in the in Huntington Ravine. Try a winter traverse of the PResidentials. Skiing in Tuckerman's Ravine. Camping along the kancamangus.
Haven't been there in about 6 yrs as i live in Colorado now. Love the gunks, but it's crowded and as far as i know, now you can't get in the place before 8 am. I used to leave my house in Queens, NY around 0400 and be climbing by 0630, there were very few people climbing @ that time. Otherwise i love the people & the climbing back there. Have fun with the mosquitos & the humidity!!LOL!

• ***I believe Connecticut has a place called Ragged Mtn., i think it's all sport climbing.

You'll want to prep your hooks with 30-80 feet of line to tie them off to the ground, pretty much everyone does this, they say they're bomber but no one is stupid enough to actually fall on those, right?

Yeah, bring at least 40 quickdraws with you to ragged. Ct doesn't really get that humid and there are no mosquitos, deer ticks, horseflies so leave the Ben's at home. Poison Ivy also does not exist in ct. No one drives Saabs there, the pizza (especially on wooster street) sucks. All in all it is a pretty poor state too, a virtual hooverville if you will.

There is high quality sport climbing in the Farley area of north central Mass., so you don't have to make the trip all the way to Rumney for that, also much good bouldering. Check out newenglandbouldering.com if you haven't already.

By the way, I would suggest boycotting K. Nichols guidebook. He is a complete asshole in many peoples opinion and is the cause of much misery in Connecticut climbing and throughout New England.

I know that I haven't been around the climbing community for that long but I know a couple things about CT climbing...

Mountain laurel is small and some what undeveloped, and I like it that way. I don't know if I would make the drive from New Haven to get there. Of course I'm not really into bouldering, its something I can do to stay fit and occupy myself while my daughter is in pre-school.

Ragged is NOT a sport climbing area. (Period)As for it being busy, yes it can be on the weekends with static lines cris crossing the top of the cliff like some kind of military obstacle course. I went on the weekend once and I've never been back. I only climb on the weekdays.(a lot of people top rope there and they feel more comfortable using 100' of static line to set up their anchors) The metacomet trail runs along the top of the cliff which attracts a lot of hikers. In turn, I try avoiding the trees to prevent someone from tripping over the line or fumbling with it.

There are some really good leads at Ragged. (Broadway, Wish Bone, Wet Wall, Knights Move) Like I stated earlier, I'm still pretty green, but I enjoy the climbing here.

The only other places that I've climb are:
Dry Creek Canyon, AZ
Church Spires, AZ
Ragged mtn, CT
Pinnacle, CT

I can't believe I did that...

I just erased every thing that I had typed. Well, here we go again, shortened version.

Mountain laurel is a small undeveloped area, which is exactly how I like it. I'm not sure I would actually drive down from New Haven just to go there, but I'm also not that big into bouldering. I just do it while my daughter is in pre-school.

Ragged is NOT, I repeat, NOT a sport climbing area. It has the occasional piton which may or may not be useful. (ie. first clip on YMC) Yes, Ken has done some bolt chopping here, some bolts are/were considered very useful on certain routes. (Kor Crack, right as you step onto the face. The next possible spot for pro is 12-15 ft. up and to the left.)
I know that a lot of people top rope at ragged and on the weekends it can look like some sort of military obstacle course with all the static lines running from the edge of the cliff back to the trees. (I climbed on the weekend once and have never gone back. Weekdays only for me) Ragged does have some really good leads, in my opinion. (Broadway, Wish Bone, Wet Wall)

I haven't been climbing for long so you may disregard everything that I've written, and that's O.K. I just wanted to let you know that Connecticut may not have the awesome 10-15 pitch climbs you may have now or even 3-4 pitches of the Gunks, but it does have some quality routes and remember your no more than 4-5 hours away from just about anything. Sport climbing in Rumney, snowboarding/skiing in VT, PA,NY, Kayaking in the Farmington river, saugatuct river, well you get the idea.

Mobley, sorry that I didn't contact you about C.O.L but it's really hard to say. My offer still stands when you get settled in.

Later,

Sean
P.S. there is one semi secret bolted route in CT. I was sure shocked to come across it.

O.K I guess I didn't erase it.
What is going on?

Sean- I'll be in touch. we got a place in east Haven.

I'll be looking at getting out starting the week of Sept 10th if anyone needs a partner. PM me. I'm ready to be schooled on a Gunks 5.6 or anything else closer by.

Anyone going to be joining the new New Haven climbing gym?

mobley, Welcome to 'staven (local annuciation)! I live in Branford, and there are a few climbers in the immediate area, a bunch scattered around. The fast track for meeting the locals is with the CCM (CT Climbers and Mountaineers ctclimbers.com ) who meet at various craigs on wed afternoons. Tomorrow- 9/12/07 we'll be at Pinnacle. These evenings can get to be a circus in great weather but you can meet some of the nicest people who climb ALL OF THE TIME! When the weather turns, say around December, we head inside to PC but there is a new alternative in NH, you'll hear about that one I'm sure.
As far as style, everything here is leadable, if you got the balls. I personally do not. Most of my leading is not in CT but at the Gunks, where a 5.6 will make you pucker. A side note, most of the climbs here were graded by pioneers with a evil sense of humor, be ready. Lots of great climbing and a great climbing community, what could be better?

If you want to get into bouldering in the Norhteast at all get NE Bouldering by Tim Kemple

also check out ctclimbers.com . There is a pretty good new haven contingent there (or at least there was). They climb every Wed at one traprock crag or another. In the winter they head to Prime Climb. Tell them "precious" sent you.

cheers.
-chris

John Peterson wrote: 
New Haven is about 2 hrs from the Gunks - that's probably your main climbing destination. I still have some of my old beta up: mcis.western.edu/~jpeterson….

 Sleeping Giant is the closest real crag to Yale -
not a bad place at all. Only real hazard is the poison ivy along the base.

The local ethic is very much toproping but there a lot of good lead climbing.

Traprock is great stuff and many of the routes at Ragged go on lead even though you see lots of top ropers around.

There's a mailing list for climbers at Yale: mailman.cs.yale.edu/mailman… -

 you'll meet some good folks there. Not much traffic on the list but the climbers are around if you look for them.

You don't need to be a student to use the list. The whites / daks are great but it's a long drive (4 - 5 hours).

Hey. Molbly . . . I see what you did there . . .  You Changed The Threads Title?
 .

So a dozen years later still full of tricks !

  Come do a climb with your name on it?!