Okay, I'm gonna post this crag...mostly due to curiosity. I've asked around and no one that I've mentioned this crag to knows much about it. Went there with Dow Jopp, but he's in NC or somewhere (then AK, now MD). Now, it comes from notes from 1996, and the memories are blurred, but with this reorganization bit on BC, I've come across this curiosity again. So, if you know this crag, let me know.
Lying across Boulder Creek from Cenotaph, this small, slabby crag catches your eye when climbing at Cenotaph. It already had bolts, so it was known 10 years ago. It has at least 4 routes on it.
Across From Cenotaph: A. Obscurity, 8, 3p. B. Unknown Groove, 10, 1p, 130'?, gear or TR. C. Black Groove, 9, 1p, 110'?, gear or TR. D. Right Side, 8+, 1p, 130'?, gear.
Getting There
Drive up to Cenotaph Crag, past Castle Rock. Park. Wade the creek. Wander up to the slab. 15 minutes for tortoises like me.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Across From Cenotaph:
This is a brief description from terse notes from a decade ago. On the right side, clip a 1/4" bolt, a 3/8" bolt, then use #1, #0 Friends, #4BD wire, #3 Friend, pass a tree, go to a higher tree. Rap.Anyone know the name of the route? history? This is posted here, since I'm curious & found these notes scribbled and no good answers....[more]Browse More Classics in CO
Not NC, was AK...but now MD. Had to stop a moment to remember to jog the brain, was crusty too wasn't it? Not sure, but I might have some picures somewhere, will try to find and scan them.
By Leo Paik Administrator From: Westminster, Colorado Mar 23, 2007
Dow, good to see you on the site. Welcome back from the Great White Melting North. Pictures would be great! I can't find any.
On July 23, 2011, I led my wife, Jeana, up the left side of this rock. We climbed a line that defines the left side of the blank slabs. Beginning a few feet left of a dirty trough, I climbed over a boulder and up a flake/trough/crack system, eventually heading diagonally right along a seam/crack to a small tree in the slab (5.6+). The next pitch continued diagonally right, then went up to a big overhang. I climbed over it by a tree, cranking up into the bottom of a short, right-facing dihedral (5.8). A short, easy pitch reaches the top. If I were to name it, I would call it "Weekend Obscurity." We walked down along the west side.
We approached from Castle Rock, walking along the aqueduct, a long way past Mtn Rose and Frisky. Eventually we came to a partly blasted rock that faces north and west. You can hike uphill, along the west side of this rock, to "Across from Cenotaph." This approach may be longer, yet it presents little bushwhacking.
BTW, in summer 2010, Mike Endicott and I climbed three routes on this lower, partly blasted rock, which sits beside the aqueduct. From the base of the unknown, bolted route on its far right, I led up to the first bolt, then moved diagonally left along a ramp and up into a out-facing, 90-degree dihedral, through which I followed a crack trending right, around a roof or two, to the top. Call it "Simi-taph" (10a?). We set up a TR on said bolted route (five or six bolts, plus chainless two-bolt anchor, all with brown-painted hangers, following a steep, thin zig-zag crack). I think the bolted route is 11d or 12a. Directly above the aqueduct, on the left side of the rock, Mike led up to the right side of a square-cut overhang (where a four-foot horizontal crack intersects a one-foot vertical crack), continuing up and right (10d+). It required lots hard cranks on loose rock and is NOT recommended. I would call it "Blasted," because that's what you'd have to be to want to do it, and that's what could get if you do.
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