Cape Cod climbing/bouldering

Peter Botsford wrote: thanks for sharing ben. any other boulders that you know of?

there are some glacial erratics spread through out the cape. there are a few fun boulders in west brewster/east dennis. one at drummer boy park in brewster, one out wing island in brewster, and a beautiful one right on the bay west of crows pasture beach in dennis (can also walk to it from cold storage beach, travel east) also hokum rock in dennis is a pretty well known one that has several fun problems. orleans has got a couple erratics, the one on the beach at the end of tonset road can be fun to play around on at low tide. 

Cool, ill check them out.  The other great place is just of cape between the bridges in an old quarry. There is a monster block there uncovered by the sand mining.

Currently the landing got messed up by a new road, but I'm going to approach the owners to see if they can fix it again.

Didn't read through to see if people mentioned Purgatory Chasm, but that will give you some top-ropes in SE New England at least; but still not super short from Sandwich. Since it's so shaded and you are climbing from lower than the surrounding area rather than an elevated rock, expect generally damp rock. Not sure whether anybody has rated climbs there, but I've set ropes there once and with a static line or long webbing you can anchor off of big trees at the top, toss a rope and then walk around in to the bottom. Don't expect Yosemite or even North Conway level routes, but you should be able to find some natural top-ropes of comparable height to climbing walls at any rate.  

Purgatory is a State Park and has a number of rules, including, I believe limitations on when climbing is permitted there. The very old Climbing in Eastern Massachusetts guidebook had routes listed and graded there, not sure about the current Boston Rocks. Not really the best climbing area. While bouldering not routes, Lincoln Woods in Rhode Island is very close and better climbing IMHO.

benofromaus wrote: Cool, ill check them out. The other great place is just of cape between the bridges in an old quarry. There is a monster block there uncovered by the sand mining.

Currently the landing got messed up by a new road, but I'm going to approach the owners to see if they can fix it again.

This boulder looks sick! Does someone have any more info on this?

Jonathan Gregg wrote:

This boulder looks sick! Does someone have any more info on this?

Following up - I believe this boulder was gobbled up by a solar farm unfortunately based on satellite image interrogation. If anyone has other info let us know

Michael Diiorio wrote:

Following up - I believe this boulder was gobbled up by a solar farm unfortunately based on satellite image interrogation. If anyone has other info let us know

I second you Michael. Sadly :(

desert-marie wrote: i'm moving from tucson, az to the Cape in the fall and am a bit (hugely) concerned about the lack of climbing. i'll be in the Sandwich area.

Hey, while Cape Cod won't have the quick access you're accustomed to in Tucson, it probably won't be as bad as you're expecting.  I grew up in MA, and then moved to CO in '03. I didn't do much climbing in New England before moving to CO. I spent a couple years back in MA for work, and was actually surprised at how good the climbing was.  In Sandwich, you're 1.5hrs from bouldering in Lincoln Woods, RI; 2.5hrs from good sport, trad, and bouldering at Farley Ledges, MA (not a lot of info online due to access issues, but make a friend and get the tour.  It's worth it.); 2.5 hrs from bouldering at Pawtuckaway State Park, NH; and you're 3.5hrs from great sport climbing at Rumney, NH; 3.5 hrs from great trad climbing at Cathedral Ledge, NH.  Every one of these places is worth the drive time, and there are many more places worth visiting in New England.  Also, the Gunks is an easy weekend trip!! 

You'll be arriving in the Fall! Everyone's favorite time of year in New England!

The climbing community in New England is super welcoming, so you won't have a hard time finding partners.

Also, I don't know if you've ever been to Boston or Cape Cod, but Boston's a great city, and Cape Cod is beautiful May-October.

My advice is, reach out to people on the New England partner finder before you leave AZ, so you can hit the ground running when you get there in the Fall, buy a Sox hat, start drinking Guinness, start loving Dunkin Donuts, start saying things like "wicked good", brush up on your offensive driving skills, embrace this Celtics team while they're together, and just enjoy being a New Englander. You just might love it :-)

Not Gonna lie though... that January-March stretch on Cape Cod is going to feel like a long three months.  So if you're going to plan an out of town trip, that's the time ;-)