A Crag Tour is a casual event led by a psyched local climber or group of climbers. The volunteer leader will provide directions for where to park/meet them. At the event, they’ll give everyone some brief information about the area, climbing, and any access concerns. They’ll lead the group on a walking tour to some of the main climbing areas and point out notable climbs.
You can keep tabs on the upcoming crag tours on our Facebook page, Events page, or Google Group email list.
You can check out the page for a past crag tour at Lynn Woods here.
If you want to volunteer to lead a crag tour? Check out the details below!
Crag Tour volunteer leaders
Thank you for your interest in preserving climbing access in your local area through a Crag Tour! Running a crag tour should be a straightforward undertaking of you sharing your local area with climbers who want to get out to climb. SNECC expects that Crag Tour leaders should have a thorough knowledge of the local area, climbs, access and responsible outdoor climbers. If this describes you then please reach out to SNECC and keep reading!
Although it is a simple process, there are certain criteria for making a crag tour a success (though not all of these items are essential), the list below is meant to provide a sense of whether or not your local area is a good fit for a crag tour.
Pre-Crag Tour Success Checklist:
- Legal access – It is required that a crag tour run through SNECC does not break any laws. Before announcing a Crag tour, please ensure that there is legal access to the area.
- Adequate Access – Climbing in Southeast New England isn’t always easy to get to, so please make sure you know of an access point that will allow for the expected turnout of your event (ex., if your tour expects 20 people and the only parking is a two-car long pull off then you will likely run into issues and need to plan accordingly).
- Pictures/Mountain Project Entries – This is certainly not an essential part of a crag tour, but to get people to turn out you have to get them excited. Quality pictures, Mountain Project details, or other area guides are essential for this.
- Permission from the Land Manager – This may not be explicitly required, but you should be confident that bringing a large group of people to the area will not harm access. This is especially true if you are planning a tour that will be on or near parking, trails, or climbing areas on private land.
- Strong Leave No Trace Ethics – One of the most important things we can do as climbers is preserve our climbing areas and LNT is the best way to do that. Visitors to your area will be looking at you as an example of how to behave while climbing in your area so the best thing you can do is lead by example.
Tips for Crag Tour Success:
- Be Excited
- Get there Early to set up any SNECC materials
- Have a game plan in mind – You should have an idea of the climbs you want to show everyone, this should include a sampling of the classics for the area (of all difficulties), suggestions for warm-ups, and maybe point out any open projects.
- Have a way for people to find you. Whether this is a cell phone number or a post on the event page, make sure those who arrive late can join you.
Southeast New England Climbers Coalition 