Group seeks to bring outdoor climbing to Pittsburgh

Some might look at remnants of an old bridge as blight, cluttering the landscape.

But when Todd McCormick looks out at the Mon Wharf, he sees potential in part of a deconstructed bridge on the bank of the Monongahela River.

“We don’t want to get rid of it, we want to climb on it,” said McCormick, director of retail operations and outdoor programming at ASCEND, an indoor rock climbing gym in Pittsburgh’s South Side.

McCormick is part of a group of Pittsburgh-area rock climbers, working together under a project called Climb Pittsburgh. The group wants to get the sport added to the list of outdoor recreational activities available in Pittsburgh.

“There are some barriers to entry to outdoor climbing, and I think this is an effort to satisfy both the climbers who already know what they’re doing, who already have the access to go where they want and to bring in new climbers truly on a local level,” said Paul Guarino, co-founder and marketing director at ASCEND. “Also, it’s just going to be really cool.”

Pittsburgh is home to two indoor climbing gyms and located within driving distance to a number of top outdoor climbing sites in Pennsylvania parks, including Ohiopyle State Park, as well as sites in nearby states like New York, Ohio and West Virginia. But those destinations, where climbers can practice on natural features like rock faces or on existing pieces of man-made infrastructure, aren’t always accessible, affordable or convenient, even for the most dedicated climbers.

That’s why the members of Climb Pittsburgh are interested in setting up sanctioned outdoor climbing spaces within city limits. The group released a letter of support to the public earlier this month and plans to move forward with working with city officials in the new year.

“To come climb in here, you need money, we charge a day pass,” McCormick said of climbing at private gyms like ASCEND. “This would give people a place where they could go climb that’s accessible by bus. You don’t need a car, you don’t need to pay for gas money, you could ride your bike to it if you wanted to.”

There are currently no plans to allow such activities in Pittsburgh city parks, Tim McNulty, director of communications for Mayor Bill Peduto’s office, said by email.

A 2019 report produced by the American Alpine Club, a Colorado-based organization representing the climbing community, estimates that there are about 7.7 million climbers in the U.S.

The sport isn’t cheap: Climbers spent $168.9 million on gear in 2018, according to the report. Most of that bill went to shoes and other accessories, harnesses, carabiners, ropes and safety gear. That doesn’t include money spent traveling to or spending time in climbing destinations.

With sport climbing joining the Olympic games lineup in 2020, those numbers could grow.

Outdoor climbing is already available in several cities around the country.

In Redmond, Ore., climbers may scale eight of the arches of the 70-foot-tall and 780 -oot-long Maple Avenue Bridge. Abandoned train trestles were equipped with bolts — anchors embedded in the climbing surface that where climbers can clip safety gear — in Richmond, Virgina, at the Manchester Climbing Wall in the James River Park.

The Scioto Audubon Park in Columbus, Ohio, is home to a 35 foot-tall climbing wall offering bouldering, top rope and lead climbing to climbers over 13 years old. Climbers of all ages may practice on the park’s 10-foot boulders.

Options in Pittsburgh could include pieces of an old bridge at the Mon Wharf, just off the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, or a space under the Bloomfield Bridge in Melwood Parklet.

“There’s existing infrastructure,” said Wade Desai, an instructor at ASCEND also working on the Climb Pittsburgh project. “Existing climbing networks that support mentorship and safe teaching, and standardized practices and what to expect when you go into these environments and how to act when you go into these environments — all of the things that make the climbing community something that’s so close to our hearts, is already sitting in Pittsburgh ready to go.”

The group is also considering safety concerns, but said those risks can be mitigated through education and outreach. They compared outdoor climbing to mountain bike trails or skate parks, which already exist throughout the city.

“I think by putting climbing on a more public level, it’s going to increase the awareness of it, people are going to want to learn about it and want to do it properly,” Guarino said. “I think it’s pretty clear to most people that there is a right way to do it. There’s safe ways to do it. There’s technical training.”