The climbing in the City/Castles is spectacular. Think JTree only taller (100-300 feet), really solid rock, higher elevation (5000-7000 feet), and interesting color schemes (yellow, red, gold, grey base color). If you like cracks, then both the City and Castle have em, but the City has lots of them. One of my favorites is the semi obscure New Pioneers which rarely sees a line. Norwegian onsighted the classic Crack of Dung last year. If you like sport climbs of the Smith Rock variety (ie bolted in 80s and runout by modern standards) the City will surely wet your appetite.
Castle Rocks State Park became open to climbers in 2003. Emphasis is placed in Castle on creating safe enjoyable climbing. Hence the routes are well bolted when cracks are unavailable.
This particular trip had two main emphasis for us. First, my parents (who dont climb) rented a yurt in Pinyon Campground and brought my nephews along for a family camping trip. Secondly, to climb as much as time would allow.
We arrived late tuesday night and set up camp on BLM land (free). After an early rise we set out to climb Sinocranium, a five pitch dome climb with a steep 5.8 pitch in the middle. The climb went smooth and we arrived at the yurt on time...parents like punctuality.
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 Photo by Andy Laakman (Mountain Project) Steinfell's Dome is formation on right. Credit: Andy Laakman |
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The climb was not my favorite, but hey, it climbs Steinfell's Dome. The route is a quintessential Kevin Pogue "Everyman" route. Pogue's routes sport massive amounts of bolts and are very popular. If every climb were bolted this much, I may need to complain and start a thread on ST, but, after reflecting on this issue, Ive come to the conclusion that there should be trade routes like these. I felt, at times, cheated out of the full experience on the climb as I never really felt like I was on lead. Still, it is good to have a few totally safe climbs for the masses. Luckily, most routes in City and Castle will make you have a lead head.
We finished the day in much the same way that we would every evening...Smores baby. The first night we ate all the traditional smores. Then, we got creative and used cookies (like double fudge chunck cookies) to endcap our mallows. The young nephews liked this a lot.
Over the next four days we would hike with family in the morning, climb in the heat of the day (when any sensible climbers would be taking a siesta), and meet up for dinner and smores. All told, we did twelve pitches in five days that were jampacked with family obligations. The highlights included Between Heaven and Earth, Eye Full Tower, and parent viewing ascents of Mystery Bolter and Too Much Fun. I cant rave about Eye Full Tower's second pitch enough. Juggy 5.7 on a steep improbable looking arete it feels like all of those hero pitches reserved for hardmen.
When he saw my wife up high on Mystery Bolter, my Dad exclaimed "What a woman." Around the corner, Dad watched me put the rope up on Too Much Fun, steep juggy 5.8. It was a truely beautiful experience.
More pictures? Our camera broke. This got me thinking. Do we climb for the pictures that we see ourselves in or do we climb for the actual experience. Its like living as if you were in a movie and you were the star. Does this whole ST thing add or take away from the experience. Without ST we would be forced to experience climbing the way many of us used to. It was deeply personal and that was the only motivation.
