Fun timing with the tides leads to fantastic and varied climbing.  Liebacking, tricky problem solving through the roof, and crack climbing, or at least some stellar jams.

Black Crack

Wonderwall - Left

Razorback

Wave Action

Dike Route

The Great Chimney

Ebb and Flow

Wiessner Route

Drunken Sailor

Swing Time

Plaque Crack

Spray Deck

Rolling Swells

Barnacle Baits

Wonder Wall

Climb of the Ancient Mariner

Seafarer

Staircase

Child's Play

Submariner

Sober Seaman

Engel Arete

Rock Lobster

Mermaid

Rising Tide

Guillemot Crack

Starfish

Maine Central

Whitecaps

Chockstone Chimney

Nerve Damage

Face of the Sailor

State of Maine

Guillotine

Yellow Wall

The  Flake

Greenway

Small Cove Problem

Easy Corner

The Mystic

Deep Blue Sea

White Horses

Seabreeze

Outer Face

The Gallery

Coppertone

Greybeard

Lady Luck

Choppy Seas

Tap Dance

In The Groove

Wonder Wall - Right

Overhanging Corner

Crucifix

Adair by the Sea

Crab Roll

Overview of Otter Cliffs "Sub-Areas"

Out to Sea

Fisherman's Folly

Summer Camp Corner

Jamcrack

High Tide Girdle Traverse

Open Book

Brochure Crack

Otter Point

Cakewalk

Cliff Traverse

Gallery Arete

Zephyr

Peak Performance

Alcove

Inner Sanctum

Start right of Overhanging Corner. Climb face to obvious ledge. Climb toward left end of long roof and pull to follow diagonal flake right to top.

A fun face climb with the crux being three quarters of the way up the cliff where the face becomes blank before reaching the next horizontal crack.

Climb to a dike and continue up the arete.

The obvious chimney between otter cliffs and the sea stack on which Rock Lobster is located on.  

  Classic & Fun

Straight up the corner between The Great Chimney and Black Crack.

Follow offwidth, pass a roof to the arete.

Climb through a slot and blocky rock. Pass roof on right.

Pick your line up the highly featured exciting face and enjoy the crimpy non-crack moves. Many different lines canbe taken on this face although no two are independant or far from the climb's 5.9 grade.

Follow arete, through an overlap and then face just right of the arete.

Climb the arete to a ledge. Then follow arete / left side of face to the top.

Climb face past an overlap using path of least resistance.

Up corner and right and finish on Sober Seaman

Same start as Drunken Sailor: climb the shallow corner, with a side-pull on the left face, between The Great Chimney and Black Crack (or what's left of it). But about 2/3 of the way up, at the overlap, veer left and diagonal to the top.

 NOTE- See COMMENT by Eliot Coffey about the route description.  R Hall  ME Admin. 

Crux is a balancy hand move 15 feet off the ground.  Good mix of moves and exposure many feet above the waves. 

  Route is short but worth lapping a few times to work on technique.

Climb up good edges and horizontals up the face right of a chimney to a small roof. Pull the roof and lie-back up a thin left leaning corner.

Climb to ledge and through nice face to top.

Pass the crack and a corner to a face and top out.

On the left side of the Amphitheater if facing the water, right next to the Sea Stack, climb the corner and crack that stays just left of the chimney if facing the rock.

Good thin and technical   the arete left of Flake

Climb past ledge to face and over a bulge.

NOTE: This route is a historical note. It is no longer the same route since the chockstone fell down. 

  Right side of Guillotine Wall if facing the water. Climb the corner at the bottom and finish in the chimney where the chockstone is midway up.

Climb corner through roof. Go right and finish (shared with Spray Deck).

I believe this route used to be a named 5.11d, but cannot find it anywhere.  It has a beautifully overhanging, chunky, dynamic start and a wicked crimpy face to top, all separated by a flexy roof move.

 "I climbed this with Steve-the chimney sweep in '97 and returned 10/2019 with my son & friend.  It did not look like it had been climbed since '97 and I did not see it listed on Mtn Project.  If anyone else has climbed this route and/or would like to edit my post, please feel free"

Follow the wide crack using faceholds and intermittent thin cracks to the upper dihedral crux.  After a funky move or two to get the lieback, move slightly left into the roof and finish with a fantastic overhanging traverse to the right.

On the left side of the Guillotine Wall if facing the water. Climb the arrete from the bottom to the top (exit left of easier and better protected climbing at the top if need be).

Ascend a right facing crack up a steep wall, skirting the overhang to the left, or direct up through the overhang for a 5.9- variation.

Climb up right of the triangular hole and through a green streak.

A great problem to warm up on and show off if others are watching.  It is pretty small, only about 4 simple moves and the rock is quite sharp and unforgiving.  The crux is a small dyno up to the top of the cliff, top-out after that.  All in all a real fun and easy problem

Start up corner, traverse out under the overhang then work your way up the ramp/corner. 

  Climbable in the rain.

New route created by the recent rock fall at Otter Cliffs. Start off just right of over hanging corner and climb a vertical face to overhanging arete. Climb the left side of the arete on small crimps. This an atypical Otter route with a hard burly reach and height dependent crux. Much easier for the tall climber.

This route was pretty tricky for the grade

Climb through crack system, left facing corner and small roof.

Crimp, edge, lie-back, and smear up the steep technical face past a small roof to crux on opposing layback hold and straight up to top.

Up left side of notch and copper colored rock.

Climb corner, past ledge and follow grey streak.

Climb thin rotten looking face and finish through roof.

Climb to the right side of the alcove and top out.

Climb just right of the small triangular hole by the bigger one and finish through the arete.

Start up the obvious flake that borders Wonder Wall, enjoy the variety of moves that can be used to gain the top of this fun moderate flake.

This route starts in front of the overhang that is a little lower than chest height. There are nice starting hand holds for climbers of most heights however the first foot hold, although it's nice, is high which adds to the difficulty of the start. I saw many beginners borrowing the start of the neighbouring route 'In The Grove' located to the right but this may effect the grade.

Start up moderate corner and enjoy stemming, squeezing, and straigh on crack work. Don't forget to look around on either face, good holds abound. 

  Climbable even when wet (top-rope)

Steep face moves to a 10 foot finger to thin hand crack, face holds lead to top.

This is a nice route in a classic Otter Cliffs location. Start from a nice ledge just a few feet above the crashing waves; wet shoes are a real possibility! The climb ascends an obvious crack using face, and jam moves. The crux is down low, the climb eases off as you get higher.

M.P. Currently Lists 85+ routes at Otter Cliffs. Current guidebooks break up this huge area (huge in terms of # of routes) into several sub-areas.  

  These sub areas are generally considered:   [Sea Cave]    (No routes at the moment entered)  

  [Plaque Wall]    Engel Arete  Jamcrack  

  [Mermaid Wall]    Greybeard  State of Maine  

  [Amphitheater Left]    Otter Point  Black Crack  

  [Amphitheater Right]    Submariner  Guillemont Crack  

  [Seastack]    The Great Chimney  Swing Time  

  [Yellow Wall]    Chockstone Chimney  Yellow Wall  

  [Guillotine Alcove]    Fishermans Folly  Crucifix  

  [Wonder Wall]    Easy Corner  In the Groove  

  [Adair Wall]    Starfish  Peak Performance

Follow crack. Pass a ledge and continue to top.

Follow right of arete and finish going around the roof on its left.

Work your way up and left to a ledge and continue inside corner to top.

Start the same as Summer Camp Corner but continue straight up the vertical crack.

A good adventure bound to get some funny looks! This is a left to right girdle traverse that can be done anywhere from 6-10 pitches. The climb starts at the Escape Hatch and follows  generally easy blocky terrain within half to two-thirds height of the cliff  crawling around the sea stack (super cool)  and ending on a Dare By the Sea (5.10d). We found the most exciting part of the climb was from Razor Back to Drunken Sailor with options of traversing high through sharp questionable blocks, or low with minimal gear and ground fall potential.

Climb face, blocky steps and an open book to top.

Climb past a small triangular hole to a vertical crack and top out.

Climb right of the arete to the top.NOTE COMMENT : Detached block noted about 2 body lengths from the top of the route. Loose!     (photo shows lose block)                            

good route up the right side of The Guillotine Alcove 

  Climb through notch and right facing corners to top.

Perfect during lower tides, this large traverse can be found towards the beginning of Otter Cliffs.  It is easily over 100 feet long and probably about 20 feet high.  You will weave in and out of large pockets and there is no shortage of holds; you have a ton of rock to work with

The blunt arete between The Great Chimney and Rock Lobster.

Start 7 ft right of Adair by the Sea. Climb up to the small roof and step left into a short left facing corner to an overlap. Traverse right on a horizontal then trend left on jugs to top out.

-crux is half way up   -if your tall it has one hard move, if short you'll get 2 hard moves

Most famous and heavily used climbing area in Acadia. Toprope or rappel in to climb here.

 Anchors are solid steel bars pounded into the top of the cliff because years of toproping here has killed many trees.

 Excellent place for beginners to learn about climbing, the beauty of nature, and placing gear in a wet crack.

 Beware high tides as your ropes will get soaked and your gear will be salt encrusted. the rock that the routes start on just gets underwater at the highest tide points. Tides change rapidly here, keep an eye on your time and check out the tide charts before you come. 

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Otter Cliffs