Colorado Rock Climbing
Unaweep Canyon
& Nine Mile Hill
A couple of days of getting spanked in the desert proper had Greg & Iexploring other places to go climbing. One day we looked at the main
climbing area on the crystalline rock of Unaweep Canyon. Another day
we went to something called the Grit Wall, which is on the way to Unaweep.
They are two very different sorts of areas, and both quite enjoyable.
hundreds of feet out of Unaweep Canyon. It's crystalline granite contains routes
of all kinds: traditional crack and face climbing, as well as the bolted sport variety.
This was a first-ever foray for both of us, so we were'nt up for testing our limits,
just up for having a little fun. I lead something I believe to be Beginner's Luck (5.7),
for 80 feet to a two-bolt anchor. I took a few pictures of Greg as he rappeled.
campsite (at Colorado National Monument!), Don Juan (5.7) and
perhaps Three's Company (5.8). Driving East on the highway, we
spotted the Grit Wall to our right, and resolved to visit that the following day.
Nine Mile Hill is a big humpback formation on CO Hwy 141, all Dakota sandstone.
Better known for its bouldering possibilities, we stumbled on the sport-bolted Grit Wall.
There are only about half-a-dozen established routes (topo), quite good by craprock standards.
I think we climbed four routes there, all about 50 feet high, and balked on one or two others.
One thing we discovered was the steeper the route, the better the rock quality.
as well as the ones pictured here. The sound of balking, by the way, sounds a lot
like what you hear coming from a hen house... at least when we do it... Contact Me © 2013 EBBoykinJr Yew can do it!