After living in Connecticut for over six years and about to move, I wanted to combine elements of trail running and rock climbing over some of Connecticut's traprock crags. Luckily most of this climbing is right off the Metacomet trail that connects these iconic cliffs. I had only climbed at a handful of the crags, so much of the climbing was onsight. This ended up costing me quite a bit of time, as I had some difficulty finding crags and finding climbs that were dry (many routes were seeping). I got a late start (12:45 pm) and finished right around dark for a total time of 6 hours and 32 minutes.
Surprisingly I saw no climbers out during my attempt (it had rained substantially the previous day), so I had all the crags to myself!
The attempt started off smoothly as I was able to cover ground from Rattlesnake Mnt to Ragged Mnt quite smoothly and efficiently. I had done all of these routes before. I lost a fair amount of time at East and West Peak as I had never been there and enjoyed some type two fun hurling myself down chossy/poison ivy invested gulleys. When I found the routes I set out to climb it went smoothly.
ROUTES CLIMBED:
Rattlesnake Mnt (Green Goddess 5.8)
Pinnacle Rock (Emerald City 5.8)
Firewall (Flaming Arrow 5.8)
Ragged Mountain (Broadway 5.8)
Short Mountain (Out on a Limb 5.8)
West Peak (Picture Book 5.8)
East Peak (Thors Hammer 5.9)
Cathole Cliff (Pegasus 5.8)
In the end, it was a great day out. This run was done unsupported (running) and solo (climbing). I brought a running vest with climbing shoes, snacks, and a small ziplock bag with some chalk. This route is ideal in the spring as you can bring a tiny water bottle and fill up frequently at stream crossings.
This thing can certainly get done faster. Any takers?