I was at the breakneck ridge trail today enjoying the beautiful weather and it occured to me (again) that the cliffs there would be interesting to climb. Also im sure it would be beneficial to take some of the pressure off the gunks too. Im no geologist but the rock quality seems quite good- ergo its not flaky or "soft"...

Which brings me to the question, why is there no climbing there? Maybe there is a very good reason that im not aware of, but I dont see how it would be harmful to allow appropriate climbing usage. It might even serve to counteract the profusion of graffiti that has no problem finding its way up the cliffs...

That said, what would be involved in pushing to get climbing legalized in this area? Is it worth consideration or should i just save my two cents and invest in some spray paint?

People used to climb at Breakneck (and across the river, on Storm King). But then Fritz saw the light (reflecting off the Gunks, as the story goes), and the rest is history. There was even a guidebook to Storm King.

The highlands are part of PIPC and climbing is illegal there. Farther south of Storm King it is West Point land, and there are unexploded ordinance in the woods to deter you. Seriously.

Our used-to-be-regular Lester LeBlanc posted a funny account of some scary stuff he was involved in on Breakneck years ago. Loose rock figured prominently. I tried climbing there once in the 70's and found little in the way of good pro and, yes, some loose rock. I did find a short line down along the river. Maybe 25-30' of good moves over some poison ivy.

A bit farther south there is an old quarry, if you don't find enough loose rock on Breakneck itself. There are rumors of an old bolted slab line-to-nowhere in there, if friction climbing on loose, dirty rock is your thing. Not sure if the bolts are still there though...

Two years ago I posted a pic of the ice routes that form in that area. They are really good if the weather is cold enough, as they were that year. But alas, illegal to climb there. (True story - that same year a local resident was out scouting ice to climb and he found the body of a hiker that had gone missing a couple weeks earlier. Fell off a cliff apparently. The hiker told the paper he was in there scouting ice routes. Gotta admire that kind of honesty. I probably woulda said I was looking for dead hikers. "Oh these ice thingies? I always hike with these")

The standard reply to inquiries of climbing on PIPC land is that the rock isn't safe. It seems, for once, that this is actually the case at Breakneck; although it would probably make for some good "alpine training", aka desensitization.
The palisades, as well as most of the gunks, however, is a different story.

with storm king mountain in my back yard, i would definitely like to see climbing access opened in the hudson highlands. the bouldering alone is outstanding, let alone the more adventurous stuff.

oh i see. fair enough. some of the rock seemed pretty solid, but then again im not a geologist and i didnt climb on it. I suppose even if theres a mixture of loose and solid rock its better to err on the side of caution. I always wondered how they came up with those regulations. Strictly out of curiousity, what do they do if they catch you climbing in an area that is off limits?

"Coach Crossley" and I established a number of 1 pitch bolted routes on Storm King in the early 80s. We did a fairly good slabby face climb that was 10- and another that was 5.8 (and other less noteable routes). They were above the road in the woods to the S (toward West Point) of the scenic overlook. I believe "Coach" told me the routes we did were on West Point land rather than PIPC.

We also did routes along the RR tracks right near the West Point campus (still used today)as well as stuff on natural cliffs much closer to the base of Storm King.

A friend of mine did several aid routes on Storm King in the early 70s while attending West Point. One of these went out a good sized roof and has/had a bolt on it near the lip. No idea where exactly these routes are.

the cliffs south of the 218 scenic overlook on storm king are on pipc land. the 'crossley wall', though is on the part of crow's nest mountain that is on west point land.