Lincoln sits between two of the most different climbing areas in the country. Half an hour south, on the schist crags above the village of Rumney, is the sport-climbing area that put New Hampshire on the international map: hundreds of bolted routes from beginner grades to some of the hardest climbs in the United States, 10 min from the car, on a sunny hillside with a river at the bottom. 16 min north, in Franconia Notch, Cannon Cliff rises a thousand feet of cold, loose, magnificent granite, the largest cliff in the East and a serious mountaineering objective in any season.
Around them sit the rest of a climber's week: the small crags of the notch, the granite of Cathedral and Whitehorse Ledges an hour east in North Conway, the frozen waterfalls of Crawford Notch that host the Northeast's ice-climbing festival every February, and an indoor gym in Lisbon for the days it rains. Guide services in Rumney and North Conway take complete beginners out for a day and bring experienced climbers up Cannon.
This guide is for both kinds of guest: the climber who wants the practical facts, fees, closures and logistics from a base in Lincoln, and the hiker who has always wondered what those people are doing on the cliff. It covers each area in turn, the seasonal peregrine falcon closures that shut some cliffs each spring, the gear shops, the guide services and the etiquette. It is not an instruction manual; climbing is learned from a person, not a page.
Rumney Rocks: the sport-climbing crag
Rumney Rocks is a string of schist cliffs on the south side of Rattlesnake Mountain above Buffalo Road, about a mile west of Rumney village and 30 to 40 min from the lodge by way of I-93 to Exit 26 and Route 25. The rock is steep, sharp-edged metamorphic schist rather than the granite of the rest of the Whites, and it is covered with bolted sport routes, hundreds of them, from easy slabs where guides teach first-timers to overhanging test-pieces at the top of the grade scale that have drawn the world's best climbers here since the 1990s. The crags are on White Mountain National Forest land and managed as the Rumney Rocks Day Use Area.
The practical facts: parking is in Forest Service lots along Buffalo Road, five dollars a day per vehicle or the thirty-dollar annual national forest pass, and the main lots fill on any decent weekend from April to November, with overflow lots farther along the road. The approaches are short, 10 to 20 min uphill on good trails. The Rumney Climbers' Association, a volunteer group, coordinates access, replaces hardware and maintains the trails; its website carries the current lot rules and any closures. Guidebooks and route information are sold at the Mountain Wanderer in Lincoln and online.
For a non-climber, Rumney is worth a visit anyway. The Meadows and the lower crags are a short walk from the road, and watching sport climbers work a steep route from a picnic blanket below is a good afternoon. Stay out from under climbers, keep dogs leashed and away from ropes, and do not walk under a party's belay.
Cannon Cliff: the big wall in Franconia Notch
Cannon Cliff is the sheer east face of Cannon Mountain, a thousand feet of granite above Profile Lake in Franconia Notch, 16 min from the lodge. It is the largest cliff in the eastern United States, and it is climbed by long traditional routes with names that mean something to New England climbers: the Whitney-Gilman Ridge, a knife-edge arete first climbed in 1929 and still the most famous moderate on the wall, Moby Grape, the Black Dike in winter. It is also loose. The Old Man of the Mountain fell off this cliff in 2003, rockfall is a regular part of climbing here, the approach is a steep boulder field, and the weather can come over the top from the alpine zone with little notice.
Cannon is not a place to learn or to guess. Climbers come with experience on long routes, a helmet, an early start and a partner who has been up before, or they hire a guide. For everyone else, the best view of the wall is from the Profile Lake shore and the Old Man plaza at Exit 34B, where on a clear morning you can watch parties inching up the granite with binoculars. Our Old Man of the Mountain and Cannon Mountain guides cover the notch below it.
The peregrine falcon closures, roughly May to mid-July
Peregrine falcons returned to New England as cliff nesters in Franconia Notch in 1981, the first pair after the species had been wiped out in the East, and the notch's cliffs are still core nesting territory. Each spring, New Hampshire Audubon, the state parks and the Forest Service close climbing routes on the cliffs where a pair is nesting, typically the Eagle Cliff and Eaglet across the notch from Cannon, from around the first of May to the middle of July, with the exact routes and dates posted each season. The closures are voluntary in some places and enforced in others, and climbers honor them; the recovery of the falcons is one of the state's conservation successes and the climbing community helped make it.
Check the current closures with New Hampshire Audubon or the climbing forums before a spring trip to the notch, and if you see a falcon stooping at a cliff, that is the sign to climb elsewhere. Rumney, well to the south, is usually unaffected.
Cathedral and Whitehorse: the granite an hour east
The other great New Hampshire rock is in North Conway, about an hour east of Lincoln over the Kancamagus: Cathedral Ledge and Whitehorse Ledge, two granite faces above Echo Lake State Park that hold hundreds of traditional and slab routes from beginner to expert and have been climbed for a century. Cathedral has a road to its top and a viewing area, so non-climbers can look straight down on the climbers; Whitehorse is the long, friction-dependent slab where many New Englanders learn to lead. Both are best paired with a day on the Kancamagus and a night at the lodge afterward.
Ice climbing: Frankenstein Cliff and the Ice Fest
When the waterfalls freeze, Crawford Notch becomes the ice-climbing capital of the Northeast. Frankenstein Cliff, above the Arethusa Falls trailhead on Route 302, holds dozens of frozen flows from beginner ice to hard mixed routes, all a short walk from the road, and on a January weekend the parking lot is full of climbers before dawn. The frozen faces of Arethusa Falls, the Nancy Cascades and Bridal Veil Falls, all in our hike guides, are climbed too, and Cannon's Black Dike is the classic hard winter line in the notch.
The Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest in North Conway, held the first weekend of February, is the region's ice climbing festival, with clinics for every level, gear demonstrations, evening shows and guided days at the Crawford Notch cliffs. It is the easiest way for a curious hiker to try ice climbing once, with a guide and borrowed gear, and it books out early. Winter ice is a serious sport with avalanche, cold and falling-ice hazards of its own; go with a guide until you know why.
The gym: North Country Climbing Center, Lisbon
The North Country Climbing Center in Lisbon, about 30 min northwest of the lodge by Route 112 and Route 116 or up I-93, is the only full indoor climbing facility in the northern White Mountains: roughly 6,000 square feet of climbing on walls up to nearly four stories, with bouldering, top-roping and lead climbing, rental gear, belay instruction and youth programs. It is the rainy-day answer for climbers and the safest first taste of the sport for anyone who has never tied in. Hours change with the season, longer on weekends and in summer; check before you drive over.
Guide services: how a beginner gets on the rock
Nobody should learn to climb from a website. Two long-established guide services work the areas around Lincoln. The International Mountain Climbing School in North Conway, in business more than forty-five years and based at the International Mountain Equipment shop at 2733 White Mountain Highway, guides rock and ice on Cathedral, Whitehorse, Crawford Notch, Cannon Cliff and Mount Washington, from a first day on a slab to multi-day mountaineering courses. Mooney Mountain Guides runs beginner and moderate rock days at Rumney, which is the natural place for a first outdoor climb: short approaches, bolted anchors, sunny rock and a river to cool off in.
A guided day includes the harness, helmet, shoes and rope, a certified guide, and instruction in the knots and the belay. Book ahead in summer and foliage season, describe your experience to the guide exactly, and expect a full day.
Gear and information
Lincoln has no climbing shop. The Mountain Wanderer on Main Street sells the Rumney and White Mountains climbing guidebooks and maps, and Lahout's shops carry general outdoor clothing and footwear. For hardware, shoes, chalk and ice tools the nearest full shop is International Mountain Equipment in North Conway, an hour east, which also rents. The Rumney Climbers' Association and the New Hampshire Audubon peregrine program post the access news that matters each season, and the online route databases carry current conditions from climbers who were there yesterday.
Etiquette, safety and the ground rules
Climbing areas in New Hampshire stay open because climbers behave. Pay the parking fee at Rumney, stay on the approach trails, keep music off and dogs leashed, pack out everything including tape, and never hang a rope on a route someone is waiting for. Respect the falcon closures. On Cannon, wear a helmet from the moment you leave the road, start at dawn to beat the afternoon storms, and turn around when the cliff or the weather says so.
New Hampshire Fish and Game and the volunteer teams handle climbing rescues too, and the state can bill a climber judged negligent under RSA 206:26-bb; the twenty-five-dollar hikeSafe card covers climbers as well as hikers. Tell someone your plan, and remember that Rumney and the notch have little cell service at the base of the cliffs.
Where to stay
Rumney is a straight run down I-93 to Exit 26 and west on Route 25, half an hour to 40 min; Cannon and the notch crags are 15 min north on the interstate; Frankenstein and Crawford Notch are 40 min by Route 3 and Route 302; the Lisbon gym is half an hour northwest; North Conway is an hour east over the Kancamagus. Climbers staying with us leave gear drying on the back deck and racks hanging in the supply closet, and the adults-only quiet suits an early alarm.
Our guests who climb tend to pair a Rumney day with a swim in the Baker River below the crags and dinner in North Woodstock, and a Cannon day with a very early start and a very long evening. Tell us your dates and we will hold a suite, and leave your climbing plan with someone at home.
Useful links
- Forest Service: Rumney Rocks Day Use Area
The official page for the crags, the fee and the parking lots. - NH Audubon: peregrine falcon program and cliff closures
The spring nesting closures in Franconia Notch and the story of the falcons' return. - International Mountain Climbing School, North Conway
Guided rock, ice and mountaineering days on Cathedral, Whitehorse, Crawford Notch, Cannon and Washington. - North Country Climbing Center, Lisbon
The indoor gym for rainy days and first climbs; check the seasonal hours. - Mount Washington Valley Ice Fest
The February ice-climbing festival with beginner clinics and guided days. - hikeSafe: the code and the card
The hiker responsibility code and the $25 / $35 card, which covers climbers as well. - Our Old Man of the Mountain guide
The plaza below Cannon Cliff, the best place to watch climbers on the wall. - Our Stinson Mountain guide
The gentle summit above Rumney, for the non-climber in the party.
Sources & official info: fs.usda.gov · mountainproject.com · mountainproject.com · nhaudubon.org · northcountryclimbing.com · climbimcs.com
— Launchpoint Lodge, From the lodge
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