Bouldering at Denrock Park; Lawrence, MA
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Directions:
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Denrock Park is located on Route 114, across from the North Andover Shopping Mall. It offers good urban bouldering and top ropes. From both the north and south, take route 495 to exit 42A, (114 Middleton). Bear right off of the exit and travel about 3/10 of a mile passing an Exxon and Gulf stations. A 1/10 of a mile after the Gulf station, there will be a sandy pullout on the right, (roughly across from TJ Maxx.)
Park here and walk in straight, for about a minute until you reach a small island with a clump of 7 trees. Bear left at the island, and walk down hill, taking the 2nd minor trail on your right.
Follow this up hill to A-face. Use the site map from here.
Approach time from your car is 2 minutes.
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Problems:
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The bouldering is mostly difficult on coarse steep rock. Boulderers should bring crash pads. Pretty much all boulder problems start sitting. Don't be surprised to find little or no chalk on problems. Many see little or no regular traffic, but have beeen done by a small group of local boulderers; including Bernie Savord, Matt Wilder, Pete Otis and Dean Fueller.
All boulder problems and top ropes have been given a V-scale rating.
Below is a basic translation of V-scale:
V0- 5.8 or easier
V0+ 5.10-
V1 5.10+
V2 5.11-
V3 5.11+
V4 5.12-
V5 5.12
V6 5.12+
V7 5.13-
V8 5.13
Use common sense with regards to setting up a rope for your safety. If in doubt- use a rope. Denrock has a dozen or so short (20-30' top ropes.) Bring a 1/2 rope and plenty of webbing to set them up, as there are few trees for anchors.
There are 2 bolts on top of K-face. They appeared mysteriously and if used, should be backed up with several nuts.
Denrock is a cold crag. It's great in the summer shaded and cool in the afternoon with no black flies to speak of. Even horrendously hot humid days are bearable in the cave systems. Please feel free to send me any feed back concerning these problems, their ratings, etc.
If you plan to visit, contact me beforehand, and we'll crank together.
Pete Otis
http://www.fortunecity.com/
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