Since my buddy Matt is back in NH for the time being, and I wanted to go climbing, I made the trip to pick him up and head off to spend the day on some rock.

First stop: Rock Rimmon in Manchester, NH.

Rock Rimmon

I did some quick research on climbing in southern NH and this looked promising, but when we got there it was a bit of a let down.  We had a bit of trouble finding it, and eventually hiked in on some 4×4 trails to the top of the cliff.  There were a few sets of bolts on a slabby face, but overall the rock looked a little bulbous and weird to me.  There wasn’t really a shear face.  Maybe the locals know something we didn’t, because I’ve heard there is some alright climbing there.

Either way, we decided to push on to what would definitely be good climbing–the Rumney crags.

Rumney

I’d only been to the cliffs once before, last fall, during a climbing trip that turned into a long day hike due to heavy rain the night before.  Still, I knew how to get there and was sure we’d get some decent climbing in.  Rumney is kind of the sport climbing mecca of northern NE, and has a few hundred routes.

We got there and had lunch by early afternoon.  I had forgotten that my guidebook covered Rumney a bit, and so we walked somewhat blindly up to the routes on the Meadows.  I picked something that looked fairly easy and led it.  After I came down, we ran into some climbers, who kindly got out their guidebook and informed us the route was a 5.7,  one of a few on this face.

The first route, a 5.7 face climb.

Like most routes at Rumney, it would've been very hard to use trad pro on this face, hence the bolting.

Given that Matt is still getting his bearings, he had a little trouble with the route, so I climbed it again and cleaned my gear, then rappelled down.

We decided to move on to the 5.8 crag, another wall down the street, in hopes of finding something easier.  I led another route, with minor difficulties, though while I was leading it, I realized Matt wouldn’t have much luck trying it out.  It was an easy scramble up to a tricky crux, with a straightforward finish.  Really the crux was the only tough part.  With this realization though, we decided I’d rappel and pull the gear.

We explored the cliffs a bit more, but then headed out.  Overall it was a good day, though next time we’ll have to get on some routes both of us can climb.  The second pitch I led ended up being a 5.8 just because of the crux.