Mid Atlantic Climbers

05/31/2026

Yesterday morning, a few MAC board members went out to Northwest Branch to tackle some large logs that were lodged between the Tulip and Tennies boulders. These logs were blocking a few climbs the last couple of weeks (like MAOI and Scum of the Heel). They have now successfully been cleared and our president got to put his Sawyer skills to use!

05/26/2026

On May 16, MAC worked with the Neighbors of the Northwest Branch group to teach them graffiti removal practices and remove some lingering graffiti on the north bank. These skills and practices will help them more quickly respond to graffiti that pops up (whereas MAC usually has capacity for a couple events a year there). Quick removal of graffiti is proven to be one of the best deterrents for future graffiti. Thanks for participating and for taking steps to maintain this area!

Last three photos are before and after shots of some of the cleanup efforts!

05/13/2026

Stretch.
Work.
Play.

Photos by from our April 13 Catoctin Adopt a Crag + some climbing after!

05/12/2026

Catoctin Mountain Park trail update!

On April 13, we worked alongside Catoctin NPS and AmeriCorps/Appalachian Conservation Corps (ACC) Trail Crew to begin a trail to the Teen Wolf/Next Gen boulder. We made good progress but it is a long trail and not a one day effort. After our event, the ACC and and NPS trail crews worked on the remainder of the planned trail to a boulder outcropping (but this does NOT go all the way to Teen Wolf).

Catoctin NPS gave us the OK to flag trees for the remainder of the way to Teen Wolf which we did this past weekend. This is now what climbers should follow. Please do not use any previous social trails to access this area!

Long term, the trees will be blazed to mark the way. No further trail work is planned at this time, but the path should be relatively clear with the markers and eventual blazes.

To get to the new trail, park at the Hog Rock parking area. Walk the Blue Ridge Summit trail for a short distance until you see a new trail split off to the left. Follow that trail until it ends and then follow the orange tape on the flagged trees (see second photo) until you reach the bouldering area.

Thanks to Catoctin NPS, Americorps, Appalachian Conservation Corps, and MAC volunteers for developing this trail!

05/06/2026

Please consider joining if you have climbed/want to climb at Wills Mountain State Park. There is a virtual option available. Two of our board members will be joining virtually.

The Maryland Park Service invites the public to join us on May 7 at 5 p.m at the Hawks Nest Cafe, located in the Day Use Area of Rocky Gap State Park (12900 Lakeshore Drive, Flintstone, MD 21530), for an update on Wills Mountain State Park. The meeting will feature guest speakers from the Maryland Park Service, the Wildlife and Heritage Service, and the Department of Natural Resources Executive Team. There will also be time for public questions and comments at the conclusion of the presentation.

To join this meeting virtually or by phone, please use the following information:

Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/ust-ijcd-yux

Or dial: +1 971-260-0814 PIN: 219331356

05/05/2026

As part of our conference recap, we'd love to highlight our partnership with Kaya! Our board got to spend quite a bit of time chatting with Eric & Andrew from Kaya and attending the Needleseye Bouldering Area Case Study on Saturday which both Eric & Andrew attended. Some info:

Kaya is the first climbing app that has given us direct access into the backend database to allow us to edit and modify access issues. These update in the app in real-time, ensuring climbers see the latest access issues when viewing crags or specific climbs.

Our recent Catoctin Adopt a Crag to build a trail to the Next Gen/Teen Wolf bouldering area also stemmed from a Kaya collab. While Eric was working on mapping the trails for the guides, he invited us to join a meeting with Catoctin NPS where we all reviewed the maps. Catoctin had already gotten a trail approved for the Next Gen area, but were not open to having volunteers help with it initially. However, during the virtual meeting it did open their minds to it, and they ended up allowing MAC to participate and it was a significant help to the trail day! This meeting also helped NPS gather info to prioritize future trail approvals based on usage/more popular climbs (NPS trail approvals have a strict and lengthy review process). Hopefully, this means more trail days in the future and preventing social trails.

Kaya and Skyler also reviewed the recently released Great Falls MD bouldering guide with MAC in full (including the map and GPS coordinates for everything) so we can properly communicate with the park on any ongoing concerns or natural resource issues that arise.

As several of our volunteers know, Kaya has also provided Pro access as raffle prizes at a few of our Adopt a Crag events. For anyone who has a paid Kaya pro subscription, portions of your fee get paid to MAC when using guidebooks for our local crags! That money goes straight back to our crags as we use it for tools, materials, safety gear, and more for Adopt a Crags.

We had some great discussions about the future, potential app additions, and how LCOs can utilize Kaya to their benefit. We look forward to the continued collaboration!

05/03/2026

The MAC board traveled to the New River Gorge for the weekend for the Access Fund's Annual Climbing Advocacy Conference!

While there, we got to chat with several other LCOs and Access Fund board members, attend several panels where we learned valuable information to bring home and apply to our crags and access issues, and participated in case studies in various areas around the New! Our board split up to attain as much info as possible.

We also got to chat with biologists, NPS staff, Kaya, WV Land Trust folks, Climbers for Bat Conservation, PMC folks, and more.

We are excited to share more info over the upcoming week. But for now, we want to thank and .official for hosting this and bringing us all together for such an incredible conference!

04/29/2026

You may have noticed we don't have anymore volunteer events on the schedule. We wrapped up the last of our 5 events last week and are shifting focus to other areas (see second slide for details of what we are working on!)

We had an incredible Adopt a Crag season and we will have a spring recap available at the end of May. Thanks to all volunteers for such a successful season 💪

The board is STOKED to be attending the Access Fund Climbing Advocacy Conference at the New River Gorge in just a few days and can't wait to share what we learn with you all.

04/23/2026

❌🛏️ no more mattress at Hooes (that thing was heavy?!)

This evening we cleaned up Springfield Boulders, including carrying out the mattress, picking up all trash along the parking pull off & the crag, as well as lots of glass. We even carried out a tire! Thanks to the volunteers who made it out on a weeknight for this one.

The trash has been staged at the top part of the parking pull off where Fairfax County will pick it up in the next day or 2. Just FYI in case you see it and were wondering.

04/20/2026

Group photo at the conclusion of our Cunningham Falls event yesterday. A great (though damp!) morning of stewardship and education on invasive and native species. 🌿