Milagrosa Canyon, located at the foot of the Santa Catalina Mountains is fast becoming a popular winter sport climbing crag among locals. When it's cold up on Mt Lemmon, this place offers hard pulling in comfy temps. Climbs on both sides of the canyon might also offer a choice of sun or shade.
Occasionally referred to as "5.11 Heaven", Milagrosa is characterized by steep, hard sport routes is a nice desert canyon setting. A lack of easy routes means this place will quickly bore some beginner's, but for the moderate to hard leader, it's a goldmine.
Rock quality in this canyon is highly varied. Where it is good, it is very good. And where it is bad, don't even bother. Most routes are equipped with two bolt anchors and chains at top. As always, inspect these anchors before trusting your life to them.
Route development here is ongoing, though the most comprehensive guide is probably the recently published Tucson Select Sport Climbing guide.
Getting There
From town, head north on the Catalina Highway as if going up Mt Lemmon. Before the base of the mountain, turn right (east) onto Snyder Road. Follow Snyder east to Suzenu Rd. and turn left. Drive to the end of Suzenu, and park off the road near the large gate.
From the gate, hike east down a long, straight dirt road. After about ten minutes of hiking, pass through a chained gate and cross the bed of Molino Creek. Follow the road up a hill until you can see Agua Caliente Creek to the south.
To access Sunnyside, Main Wall, and Saguaro Corners, take the trail that heads down into the creek bed. After crossing Agua Caliente Creek you will hit a trail heading east up Agua Caliente Canyon. Don't follow it too far! If you do, you will be heading up the wrong canyon. After about 100 yards, the trail splits. Take the left fork back to the creek bed and into Milagrosa Canyon.
To access the Oasis, instead of heading down into Agua Caliente Creek, continue on the road which will take you past the turn off for the upper trail (now marked with a Pima County Parks and Rec sign). This upper trail follows the rim of Milagrosa Canyon and finally enters the canyon further upstream.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for La Milagrosa Canyon:
An outstanding route located in the round, amphitheater portion of The Main Wall. Thin ledges down low lead to a shallow dihedral and a large flake located below the anchors. Precise footwork on meager footholds will help alleviate some of the pump at several clip stances. The rock in this area tends to hold chalk even after a rain, so don't be surprised if you feel like the holds have already been "ticked". ...[more]Browse More Classics in AZ
Some of the ratings in here are getting a little sandbagged as the holds get polished, the opening moves on the usual 5.8+ warm-up (valentine's something) are starting to feel more like solid 10a..watch out for loose rock even on some of the established routes..
I'll back up that one, jbak. Could definitely use a better topo. If you're into that sort of thing. If you can stomach the fun, just climb at Milagrosa and ask questions later.
Jbak, do you think you could post the rest of the routes in the comments for the topo pic? I personally don't know them all but i don't want people to miss out if there is something stellar not noted.
This area has a lot of routes with sections that allow you to step a little one way or the other and change the grade a little. You will know it when you do it as it will generally cause you to ask yourself or your partner if you are on the route. No big deal climb have fun it's a great area.
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