07 September 2006

Climbing in Rumney, New Hampshire (Na-hamp-sha)


We arrived in early afternoon, headed up to the cliffs and hopped on the rock. It was immediately apparent this was a special area. Well textured and easy to get used to .. for us. We found the grading to be a bit inconsistent but who cares when the routes were so good. The best camp we found was Swain Brook Campground. This was about 15 miles from the cliffs but after a number of lousy camps, we needed a decent one.

The next day, Al Torrissi drove up from Andover, MA. Al and I are old climbing partners. He made the poor decision to move back East about a decade ago. It was great to see him and have him show us around.

We headed up to Bonzai cliff to climb some ridiculously overhanging, mostly juggy routes. The picture of me, to the right, is one of them. What a riot! Here's one of Mia. My favorite was Peer Pressure, 5.10d. This was one wild route, starting with a looong reach at the bottom. Once I climbed past this (yeah, I fell a few times), it was a joy until the top where it overhung in both directions. I pulled it off but barely. Julia had fun on a climb also.

Bye to Al, as he drove back in his new Prius. We headed back to camp and talked about where to go tomorrow. We decided to do a bit more climbing here and then head to Maine.

All of the Rumney climbing pics are here.

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