Watchung Mountains
Martinsville, NJ
About | Routes | Logistics - Protection
About:
Routes:
There is a rock climbing wall at Middlebrook Heights section of the Watchung Mountains near Vosseller Ave. in
Martinsville, NJ from 10 - 19 ft high.
However the park service has not approved climbing there.
The best places for climbing are the SE face of the Middle wall and SE face of the East Wall.
On July 20, 2018 Tom and I established some climbing routes.
Routes: - SE face of the Middle Wall Tick Bite - 5.7-5.8 - 19 ft - Babesiosis * - 5.5-5.6 - 14 ft - SE face of the East Wall Tom's - A bouldering problem, grade V0 - 12.5 ft. - SW face of the Middle Wall Nymph - similar to lyme - 12 ft - Middle West Wall Lyme - A bouldering problem, grade V1Click on images to enlarge.
SE face of Middle Wall SE face of East Wall
Photos by Don McBride
* Babesiosis - I established this route 2 days after I was released from a 5 day stint in the hospital for babesiosis, a tick-borne blood infection with babesia parasies, which I got when clearing vines off of McBride's Rock. The little buggers had eaten more than half of my red blood cells requiring blood tranfusions and a cocktail of antibiotics.
Tom established Tick Bite at the same time.
He also free soloed Tom's.
Don McBride on Babesiosis Tom McBride on Tom's
Don on Babesiosis Carlos on Tick Bite
Photos by David McRitchie
Other potential climbs:
SE face of West Wall SW face of West Wall Boulder
The boulder is between the West Wall and Middle Wall.
Logistics: - Protection
The normal kind of climbing in this situation is top-roping, where the rope attached to the climbers is run thru carabiners at the top and back down to a person at the bottom, called a belayer, who will catch you by locking the rope with a belay device attached to his harness if the climber slips.
The carabiners at the top are usually fastened to 2 or more anchor points such as a large tree or rock.
At the top of the middle wall the nearest natural anchor point
is a tree 35 ft from the edge.
Tom said I shouldnt trust those shrubs (see below)
Tom engineered a good protection system. We bolted a hanger to the bedrock at the top and used #8 stopper (nut) in a crack a few feet back.
The anchor is no longer there so you will have to use the tree 35' back.
The Somerset County Park Service has not authorized climbing there yet.
Climbing In New Jersey