Home Base
Coopers Rock and The Surrounding Cheat Canyon Areas
Ascension Climbing Guides is proud to call Coopers Rock State Forest home base for all climbing instruction and guiding.
Coopers Rock State Forest is nestled in the Cheat River Canyon vicinity amongst the Appalachian Mountains and only 15 minutes from downtown Morgantown, WV. Coopers or “Coops” as the locals call it is home to some of the most condensed climbing in the United States.
The forest is littered with rock around every turn. Coopers is home to over two thousand established boulder problems and hundreds of established roped climbs. The rock within the forest is know as “gritstone” which holds a very coarse texture and many of the routes have a multitude of holds ranging from slopers, rounded jugs, crimps, pockets to sharp edges.
Most of the cliffs at Coopers are easily accessible from the top so the park offers exceptional ease for instruction of top rope anchor instruction classes to learning to lead trad courses to a private guided day of top roping and rappelling.
Climbing at ‘Coops’
Learn more about Coopers Rock State Park Climbing on The Mountain Project
These guide books by Andrew Leich detail 2,500 problems within Coopers Rock State Forest on the north rim of the Cheat Canyon, including 2,100 previously unpublished lines.
Local Climbing Stewardship
Mike Paugh is a founding member of the Cheat Canyon Climbing Coalition, CCCC, created to preserve, protect, and expand climbing access and environmental stewardship in the Cheat Canyon Area.
As the number of climbers in the Cheat Canyon area increase, the CCCC hopes to negate the impact this increase has on the planet and to play a major role in the development of these local climbing areas, for example by putting grades on boulders and routes up and down the Canyon.
Mike’s Favorite Routes
Coopers Rock/Cheat Canyon Area
- Wandering Crack 5.10c, Trad Wall , Snake Hill WMA
- Zig Zag Wanderer 5.8, Big Blocks, Coopers Rock SF
- Rattlesnake Flake 5.10, Rattlesnake Point, Coopers Rock SF
- Pump it Out 5.11d, Tilted Tree Area, Coopers Rock SF
- Killer Pillar 5.11, Up Top Wall, Darnell Hollow
Conveniently Located
Coopers Rock and Cheat Canyon climbing areas are less than an hour from Deep Creek Recreation Area and only a few short hours from climbing gyms in Pittsburgh, Shaker Heights, and even Washington, DC and the Northern Virginia area.
So, if one of these climbing gyms is your local home, then one of our Gym to Crag classes is perfect for you!
Ascend Climbing Gym/Point Breeze (1.5 hr.)
7443 ThomasBlvd, Pittsburgh, PA 15208 to Coopers Rock State Forest
Iron City Boulders (1.45 hr.)
143 51st St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201 to Coopers Rock State Forest
FA Climbing Station Square (1.5 hr.)
195 W Station Square Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15219 to Coopers Rock State Forest
Movement Rockville (2.45 hr.)
725 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852 to Coopers Rock State Forest
Sportrock Climbing Centers (3 hr.)
45935 Maries Rd, Sterling, VA 20166 to Coopers Rock State Forest
Shaker Rocks (3.15 hr.)
3377 Warrensville Center Rd, Shaker Heights, OH 44122 to Coopers Rock State Forest