General

Sugarloaf Mountain is a small 1,200ft monadnock 40 miles north of Washington DC and 20 miles south of Frederick, MD.  Sugarloaf offers local climbers some of the closest traditional lead climbing to the Washington Metro Area. It also offers some excellent toprope routes, as well as numerous boulder problems scattered throughout the forest.

The private Stronghold Foundation owns the land and welcomes many hikers and climbers each year.  Please bring $5 cash to donate at the entrance. Sugarloaf is also a trash free park, so pack it in pack it out.

We climb at Sugarloaf owing to the generosity of the owners so please observe their completely reasonable rules regarding access hours and parking.

The Sugarloaf website is here.

Type of Climbing

Though there are no bolts, a standard trad rack will suffice for most climbs. Many of the routes at Middle Earth and Boy Scout Ledges can be led using trad gear.

Top roping can be accomplished using only trees or boulders as anchors; however a number of climbs require fairly long lengths of static or slings to reach suitable anchors.

Sugarloaf is a popular destination for hikers who have been known to interfere with anchor setups. Always check your anchor setups before use especially if they have been left alone for a while, or you see hikers atop the cliffs.

Directions and Parking

To reach Sugarloaf from the DC area, follow I270 to the Exit 22 (Hyattstown), follow Route 109 west to Comus, then right on Comus Road to the Sugarloaf Mountain entrance. The entrance gate is open from 8am – 4pm and you need to leave by dusk.

The most popular climbing areas – Middle Earth and Boy Scout Ledges – are a short walk from the  West View parking lot

The Devil’s Kitchen area can be approached from the East View parking lot which is passed on the way to the West View parking lot .

Crag Logistics

There is cell phone reception over most of Sugarloaf. There are port-a-potties at the West View parking lot.

The main climbing areas at Sugarloaf are:

• Devil’s Kitchen
  Parking is the East View parking Lot, or in the limited spaces on the road leading to the West View parking lot. Devil’s Kitchen is the long broken cliffs to the right of this road.
• Middle Earth
  The trail to Middle Earth, marked with green blazes, starts by the port-a-potties and shack as you enter the West View parking lot. Follow the trail for 100 yards or so to the stairs. Middle Earth area is up through the woods to your right.
• Boy Scout Ledges
  Follow the trail to Middle Earth, from the West View parking lot. At the top of the stairs, head left to the short cliff band which is Boy Scout Ledges
• White Rocks
  These somewhat remote cliffs offer good harder climbing but are a two mile walk from the West View parking. The previous access, from parking on Mt Ephraim Road, was closed during Covid because of repeated parking violations. So either walk…or arrange for drop off and/or pickup at the prior parking area

Guidebooks

The climbing Sugarloaf is listed in detail in the recently (2024) published Climb Maryland Vol 1 by Mark ‘Indy’ Kochte.

It is also covered in the older Falcon guidebook book Rock Climbing Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland by Eric Horst (2013).

Online sources include Mountainproject and Indy’s Climber’s Underground Guide; the latter has been largely superseded by the published edition listed above.