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Southeast Ohio state park to offer new opportunities for local climbers
By: Amanda Pirani
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — On a sunny Thursday afternoon, Ohio University freshman Alex Beasley hangs upside down from a rock formation in Strouds Run State Park.
She’s tackling the bird’s nest, one of Athens’ most challenging spots for bouldering. That’s freehand climbing without ropes or harnesses.
“It’s one of those problems where … every move is technical and every move kind of counts,” she said.
Recently, Beasley got her belay certification so she can start sport climbing larger areas using a system of ropes and clips. It’s the type of climbing you may have seen on TV or in the Olympics.
“There’s nowhere really close by that you can make a good sport climbing session happen unless you drive at least three hours, maybe two and a half hours,” she said.
Most public lands in the region don’t allow sport climbing because of concerns about liability or safety.
“That’s sort of an issue that we have in Ohio, is that the best resources for climbing and the most convenient ones have not been developed and recognized and officially designated,” said Ted Welser.
Welser is a co-founder of Climb Athens, an organization that’s spent years making the sport more accessible in the southeast. And soon, it could pay off.
Strouds could be first park in the region to offer sport climbing
Thanks to collaboration with park leadership, Strouds Run is set to become the first park in the region to make sport climbing available.
“We always want to give the communities that we’re serving more reasons to get outside, more reasons to enjoy public land,” said Assistant Park Manager Phil Melillo.
The change would mark a major step forward for southeast climbers, who say there are many local areas with the potential for climbing routes.
But since the activity often isn’t legally permitted, they’re left to search elsewhere.
“We used to drive to Kentucky every weekend,” said Kate Bernens, who owns a climbing gym in The Plains. “If you’re really into it, you don’t bat an eye at that.”
Climbing is one of the fastest growing sports among young people ages 18-35.
“I think for most people, it just checks so many boxes,” Bernens said. “It’s a great workout, you can get super fit. It mentally challenges your brain. It can help bring down your nervous system and center you.”
Surveys from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources found it’s one of the top sports people would like to see more infrastructure available for in Ohio.
But landowners or managers often view climbing as a high-risk activity and fear legal issues.
Local organizations work to promote climbing in Ohio
Courtney Curtner says half the battle is helping people better understand the sport.
She’s the president of The Ohio Climbers Coalition, which works to promote rock climbing statewide.
The organization has helped county and city parks around the state create more opportunities for the sport.
Curtner says she often has to overcome a particular image many have in mind: an adrenaline-chasing outdoor enthusiast like Alex Honnold, gripping the side of El Capitan’s 3,000-foot granite face.
The idea can give people a sense of apprehension about facilitating the sport.
But most climbers aren’t scaling mountains. In southeast Ohio, they’re looking at rock faces around 30-50 feet.
Once land managers see the areas a climber might want to tackle, Culter said, they’re often surprised.
“It’s kind of fun to have those moments where the land manager realizes ‘Oh, this is completely different than what I thought you were going to be asking me,’” she said.
When it comes to concerns about liability, Curtner said that scenario isn’t very different from the risk hikers or other park users take when engaging in outdoor activities.
In Ohio, a law known as the recreational use statute protects landowners or managers from liability when people are engaging in a recreational activity on their property for free.
Melillo, the assistant park manager at Strouds Run, said he was assured after learning other parks allowing the activity haven’t faced any major safety incidents.
Preparing Strouds Run for climbing will require identifying climbing routes and installing hardware like bolts for people to tie their ropes in. Volunteers will also create small access trails, in addition to signage about climbing rules and safety.
Volunteers with Climb Athens and The Ohio Climbers Coalition plan to maintain the area long term. Curtner said the community is invested in being good stewards of wildlife.
“We want all of these areas to be around for generations to come,” Curtner said. “We want people to be able to enjoy the sport and all of the beauty that comes about when you’re climbing.”
If work continues as planned, sport climbing at Strouds Run will be available to the public in the early summer.
The park is expected to have at least 30 possible climbing routes.
Climbing could boost region’s local tourism
Melillo said Strouds Run already sees around 500,000 to 600,000 visitors a year. He’s hopeful adding a new form of recreation will increase that number, and community buy-in.
“That’s a big win for the park because there’s a whole other group of people now who are coming here that are invested in the park and will want to help maintain and conserve the park,” he said.
Ecotourism is a growing economic sector in Appalachian Ohio. Tourism bureaus in counties like Hocking and Coshocton have worked to position themselves as state destinations for hiking and hunting.
The Baileys trail system, which offers over 70 miles of premiere mountain biking, generated $3.6 million for Athens County in its first year.
Welser said he doesn’t believe it’s too far off that increasing sport climbing access could one day have the same effect.
He points to the success of Mad River Gorge, a climbing area and nature preserve in Springfield.
The Clark County park district and Ohio Climbers Coalition worked to take what had become an overgrown dump site into a local attraction for rock climbers.
It’s helped support local businesses like restaurants and breweries and even draws visitors from out of state.
“It has made a huge positive impact on recreation and tourism and quality of life for the people there,” Welser said. “And what we would like is something like that down here.”
Welser said he knows places like Athens can’t compete with the popularity of world-famous sites like Red River Gorge in Kentucky.
But he believes parks like Strouds Run still offer a great opportunity for convenient climbs and a chance to learn the ropes, so to speak.
“It’s just different than being in a gym,” Welser said. “You appreciate the nature, you hear the birds, you think about the season, all those sorts of things could be a part of people’s everyday life rather than just on special occasions when they go somewhere else.”
Clarification (4/21/26 11:45 AM): Strouds Run management initially shared for this story that there will be at least half a dozen climbing routes. It’s been clarified that there could be up to six crags, with at least 30 possible routes.