Carderock Recreation Area is a 100-acre park in

Carderock, Maryland Carderock is a neighborhood located in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, along the Potomac River. It is located in the southern part of the Potomac census-designated place and western part of the Bethesda postal area. Carderock is we ...

, part of the

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park is located in the District of Columbia and the state of Maryland. The park was established in 1961 as a National Monument by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to preserve the neglected remains o ...

. The area is well known as a destination for its outdoor activities of rock climbing,

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

and biking. It is bounded by the

Potomac River The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augu ...

on the south and the

Chesapeake and Ohio Canal The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, abbreviated as the C&O Canal and occasionally called the "Grand Old Ditch," operated from 1831 until 1924 along the Potomac River between Washington, D.C. and Cumberland, Maryland. It replaced the Potomac Canal, ...

on the north, and it is accessed from

Clara Barton Parkway Clara Barton Parkway is an automobile parkway in the U.S. state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The highway runs from MacArthur Boulevard in Carderock, Maryland, east to Canal Road at the Chain Bridge in Washington. Clara Barton Pa ...

from the same exit as

Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center The Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center is one of eight Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Surface Warfare Centers. The headquarters is located in Carderock, Maryland with the historic David Taylor Model Basin. The division ...

. The Recreation Area includes a picnic shelter, section C of the

Billy Goat Trail The Billy Goat Trail is a hiking trail that follows a path between the C&O Canal and the Potomac River within the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park near the Great Falls in Montgomery County, Maryland. The trail has three sect ...

, convenient access to the

, and popular rock cliffs. The area has a long history of climbing and is notable for being the closest significant climbing area to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

As such, it is one of the most climbed cliffs in the eastern United States. There is no fee to enter the park.

Origins

left, 200px, Pavilion at Carderock for picnics Carderock's name is first recorded as a 1,705-acre tract registered in 1802 with state of Maryland by Robert Peter of Georgetown. The

was built between 1828 and 1850 and closed in 1924. The canal was purchased in 1938 by US Government and eventually made into the park.

Rock climbing

The rock cliffs are made of Wissahikon Mica-

schist Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes ...

and range from , with the majority of the climbs about . They pack over 100 established climbs within approximately of the cliff. The rock has form of friction slabs, overhangs, and cracks. Most of the routes are easy and moderate top-rope routes, with a few harder climbs as well as numerous eliminate routes and boulder problems.

Traditional climbing Traditional climbing (or Trad climbing) is a style of rock climbing in which the climber places all the necessary protection gear required to arrest any falls as they are climbing, and then removes it when the pitch is complete (often done ...

is not recommended since protection is often difficult to place and the

has a reputation for being friable and breakable if a piece of gear is subjected to a leader fall. The area known for its esoteric

bouldering Bouldering is a form of free climbing that is performed on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers use climbing shoes to help se ...

, often very different in character from other bouldering areas and relying heavily on delicate footwork between

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

crystal knobs and nubbins imbedded in polished

wall.

History

Carderock is one of the oldest established climbing areas in the eastern United States, with roots reaching back to 1920s when Gustave Gambs,

Don Hubbard Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name *Don, Benin, a town in Benin *Don, Dang, a vill ...

, and Paul Bradt began practicing here. The area's first climbing guide, ''Rock Climbs Near Washington'', was written by

and published in the

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club The Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) is a volunteer organization that works to maintain hiking trails in the Washington, D.C. area of the United States. PATC was founded in 1927 to protect and develop the local section of the then new Appal ...

(PATC) Bulletin in July 1943. In 1942,

Herb and Jan Conn Jan Conn (born 1924 ) and Herb Conn (April 16, 1920 – February 1, 2012www.findagrave.com
...

began climbing at Carderock. They climbed and named many of the routes at Carderock, including ''Herbie’s Horror'', ''Jan’s Face'' and ''Ronnie’s Leap'', which was named after their dog. ''Herbie’s Horror'', first climbed by Herb Conn, was one of the first 5.9 routes in the eastern United States.

References

External links

Rock Climbing at Carderock, Maryland (www.rockclimbing.com)

Rock Climbing at Carderock, Maryland (www.mountainproject.com)

YouTube video
of

Chris Sharma Chris Omprakash Sharma (born 23 April, 1981) is an American rock climber who is considered one of the greatest and most influential climbers in the history of the sport. He dominated sport climbing for the decade after his 2001 ascent of '' Real ...

at Carderock * {{cite web, last=Prothro, first=Hunt, title=Climbing Friend Accused of Killing Geoff Farrar at Carderock, url=http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/carderock-geoff-farrar-killed-by-climbing-friend, accessdate=16 January 2014, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116192721/http://www.rockandice.com/lates-news/carderock-geoff-farrar-killed-by-climbing-friend, archive-date=16 January 2014, url-status=dead Climbing areas of the United States Parks in Montgomery County, Maryland