Hey! I don't drivel until I'm on my 3rd or 4th oil can (mmmm, Fosters).

I have climbed up that way perhaps 50 times or more! Climbing up from the base takes less time, and climbing back down is even shorter. You can slide down the hill in the winter, wow! It is also more traditional, starting from the bottom rather than the top to climb a mountain, and gives you something to contemplate and look at all the way to the base, you get to look at the whole cliff! There is a phenomenal difference if you start here; it's actually part of the climb. If you start around the middle, you will be hiking up through woods until your reach the top of a hill. That hill goes back down a ways, and then you go up another long wooded hill that goes back down a little, and then you go up another hill to reach the boulder-field. After this you should cross the boulder-field at its weakest point. Here there is often mist coming out from under the rocks, there is ice under there through the spring. Then you go up another hill covered in some orange boulders until you reach the cliff. The views are amazing and the hike can be more enjoyable than the climb itself. And this comes from someone who hates to hike. In the winter we would leave steps in the snow. Coming back made it like climbing stairs to the base of the cliff, way cool. It really makes you feel like a bit of a mountain climber and it takes less time. Rapping of the top is for sissies.

Donald, are any of the current landowners on North Mountain Rd allowing climbers to cross their property to do what you suggest?

I would guess the answer to that is no. But with this new land below the cliff it could some day now likely happen, right? I think it would be great if I could park at the base and hike up. Yea ... sorry I did not spell that out in the previous post.

But with this new land below the cliff it could some day now likely happen, right?

The map in the link in the original post in this thread makes that seem doable. It would take time, manpower and money for the ideal setup I suggested in a prior post here: a road leading to a parking area at the western limit of the Studley Property and, from there, a Stairmaster-like trail to the bottom of the cliff.

What a lofty goal that would be, but would the character of the crag then be changed? You betcha, but I think it would still be very worthwhile. I doubt the Preserve would want to leave someone down there checking permits but they don't bother now anyway and might be amenable to such a parking area and trail. I would expect many of us would volunteer to help.

would the character of the crag then be changed?

I'm not sure, but I suspect the swarms you see at the Trapps and Near Trapps are mostly those who couldn't do all but very few of Millbrook's routes. A first Millbrook trip might be a rite of passage of sorts for those whose standard is well improved.

I thought that was the case now, and if the charachter of the crag were to change, then that might not be the case in the future!

Millbrook is accessible right now via a $6 parking fee, a 15 minute easy bike ride, and a 150' rappel. I doubt making an hour long stairmaster approach from the bottm is going to make it more appealing to the masses.

Empire pass