Vintage New England Cragging

The Good Old Days

Here are some photos from the early 1970s in New England when I was in high school and learning to climb.

There was no one to teach us climbing, so we learned on our own, with Goldline rope and these new-fangled things called "chocks." We were heavily influenced by British climbing styles at the time. Initially we climbed using pitons and machine nuts, but later we got some jobs and were able to buy some Chouinard chocks.

We didn't have really high cliffs in our area. So in keeping with the British tradition we did long girdle traverses on what cliffs we could find. At our main crag, we could get 20 pitches horizontally and never be more than 50 feet above the ground. We kept at it, even through the winter months.

Images

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