Hope this gets into right topic
I'll spend a week in Manhattan from Aug 25 and may be unable to keep away from good bouldering spots near town, if there are any. Have seen there's some boulders in Central Park, for instance. Would be fun to know where/which the best areas/problems are in/around NYC for someone who is not on a very high level, like up to 6b/6b+, possibly 6c on French Scale. Preferably access by public transport.

Also, I though I was not a complete Internet idiot, but I seem to be incapable of finding a gear shop with crash pads in Manhattan, except Eastern Mountain Sports. Looking for like a Metolius Boss Hog, Stomp Pad or Fat Bastard or something like that (EMS right now unable to execute order for one to store for some technical reason).

Thanks a lot for any help!

Sven...

There are quite a few good boulder problems in Central Park, and all of them are accessible by subway and a usually short walk... If you head to Umpire/Rat Rock area (Empicard, Aya or some other native give him directions) you should be able to link up with some other boulderererer's as there are usually some people playing around...

As far as the gear shop. I believe the EMS is pretty much it for NYC.

Hopefully a NYC denizen will get back to you and offer you their pad for a couple of days...

The Central Park website even has a little bit of info, and they have a map for you too.
http://www.centralpark.com/pages/sports/bouldering.html
http://www.centralpark.com/pages/map-it/maps.html

Rat Rock is the main spot in terms of traffic; you will almost certainly find people there to point out some fun little problems in your range. Rat Rock isn't very tall (like, 2 meters) and also has wood chips scattered at the base; you won't need a crash pad.
Central Park calls Rat Rock "Umpire Rock", on their map.

There are some other boulders scattered through the park, with some easy problems with good landings.

A guide to bouldering:
http://www.beta-boy.com/nycboulderingguide/

crash pads are for Sally boys. Go Gill Style man!!!!

RR

I don't remember seeing any big pads in the SoHo EMS... it's NYC, stock space is limited. There is Tent & Trails downtown but I don't know if they have any pads, and Paragon which may have one or two pads in stock, but I don't think you'd find what you're looking for there.

The right side of rat rock may be 2 meters, but the left side is over 3m. Wood chips? There's not much directly under the rock, it's nicely spread all around the area beyond the fall zone. You don't need a pad, but it wouldn't hurt to have. Just sucks trying to get around the subway with a pad.

Getting there is easy enough. Take the AC, BD, or 1 train to 59th St. Columbus Circle, or the NRQW to 57th street. Walk to the 59th & 7th ave entrance of the park. Head "north" into the park, cross Park Drive, and in about a minute you'll hit Heckscher Playground. Walk around to the left and you'll see the "front" of Rat Rock with people sunning themselves. The bouldering is on the "back".

Thanks a lot everyone! I'll definitely try Central Park. As for a pad, I intend to haul it all the way back to Sweden -- they're like twice as expensive there. Even with a possible extra charge by the airline, it's a much better deal in the U.S.

Back in the day, we swept away the broken glass and piled up discarded condoms for padding.

Softie. A real man would have eaten the broken glass and resused the condom.

TS

The scene in Central Park is a bit weird. Almost no one carries a pad, and no one spots there. I have been given strange looks when i ask someone to spot me.

this is Rat/Umpire Rock:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ge...z=16&iwloc=addr

and im pretty sure this is cat rock:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&ge...z=20&iwloc=addr

its not a bad scene though, just watch out for the broken glass, and the occasional downhill mountain biker with nothing else to do than take sweet jumps off the top!
(yes, really)

So true, but the real men filled the condoms with the broken glass before reusing them.

Once, there were kids playing on the rock above. I heard the sound of a bottle breaking, and quickly ducked as bits of broken glass showered down over the edge. Then there's little kids who throw stuff over the edge. And last time I was there, some big kids trying to do some "parkour" off the rock. Oh yeah, and some bum left a nice steaming package right in the right downclimb path.

It's definitely a different scene than most bouldering areas.