Headed to the Catskills to climb after x-mas and wondering if there are places relatively close to the climbs or parking areas to camp. We are from the south and have never been in that area and will be camping five nights. We are taking the ice climbing guidebook but it does not talk too much about camping in that area. Thanks for any help.

There is camping at the Devil's Tombstone area, right at Stony Clove. I believe it's free in the winter.

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There's a leanto above the kitchen...er, I mean, the Black Chasm. Where climbers break off the trail to the left to head down the hill, stay on the trail for about .2 miles, if that. With snow in the forecast and cold to follow, things may be shaping up in the coming weeks. In the catskills, you can camp anywhere 150' from any road, trail , or stream.

What Pitfall said... Being from out-of-town (most of us are), your difficulty will be in finding places you can leave the car legally overnight. The Tombstone area is easy, but can be noisy with cars. Any trailhead allows overnight parking and there are some near several of the ice climbing areas in the Catskills. Enjoy.

Be careful where you leave your car if it’s snowing, those huge NY state plows show no mercy on vehicles left near or anywhere close to the road.

I read in the guide book and online that the Devil's Tombstone Campground is closed in the winter, do you still camp there or near by someplace?

You can find a legal spot if you cross the road from the parking lot there at Stony Clove, head up the trail a couple of hundred yards and then cut left at a flattish, open spot (before where the trail steepens, and slightly before where most people cut off the trail to head to the base of the east side climbs). The trick in most of the area around Devil's Tombstone/Stony Clove is that it's all way slopey.

Anywhere around Kaaterskill Clove to camp?

It's pretty flat near asbestos, I'm sure you could find a spot there. It surely won't be a serene wilderness experience but you could camp really close to some toproping...and the road.
The other side of the road, after you drop down toward the creek and buttermilk offers some spots too, I just don't know how buttermilk would be this early in the season. I'd imagine, not so good. Of course, there is a campground at the top of the clove (North/South Lake) which isn't officailly open but I've seen people camping in there in winter.

There's definitely flat spots at the base of Asbestos, or you could bivy inside "the Blue Room", that big recess under the roof near the left end that sometimes get completely walled off with ice curtains. That might actually block some road noise, and it's usually pretty snow-free in there. I'm not sure I'd be crazy about leaving a car at the pulloff overnight though; it only takes one delinquent local yahoo to spoil the weekend, if you know what I mean.