Mostly well bolted sport climbs with a handful of gear leads. Lots of easy and moderate routes, several of which aren't listed in Squeezing the Lemmon. Jailhouse Rock is relatively low and many routes are south-facing, making this a nice place to climb when its chilly.
Getting There
Head south down the creek from the Prison Camp parking area.
But! Watch out for loose rock and "temporary" holds. I have seen three holds break off with each resulting leader falls. No injuries in those cases but... . This area, although convenient and home to several fun climbs has a lot of bad rock.
Climbs on Alcatraz wall can be top roped by approaching via a trail to the left of Dragon Tower, slinging a boulder as an anchor and belaying to the chains.
It's a very short and easy hike to access this area and very easy to set up topropes, so expect crowds and monopolizing of routes for long periods i.e. don't go there deadset on doing one route, have some back-ups in mind.
Has anyone ever looked at the rock about a third of the way to Rivendale from prison camp along the same trail/wash. I only looked at it from the satelite photos on google, but it looks like it is the same size and shape, if not bigger that the prison camp L.
Does anyone know the name and difficulty of the route that's immediately right of the large, obvious crack just to the right of Mr. Meanor on the N side of the creek? It's got an interesting, hemispherical feature about chest level when standing at the base. People often avoid the harder, direct start and opt for using the large plate leaning against the wall just to the left of the direct line.
Jerry, I believe the climb you are thinking of is "Off Scott Free". It is a 5.9+. I just added the description. I believe I found a description after climbing it on the old tucsonclimbers.org site. I think the original post was by Vince Greene, but it must not have carried over.
I believe Ben added bolts to Mug Shot, so it's mixed gear now despite the trad listing in STL. I was confused for a moment myself because I was pretty sure I had climbed Mug Shot last winter but also don't recall any pure trad routes on that wall. But I seem to remember a post to that effect a while back. I haven't been to the wall in a few months, though--you know, that triple-digit temps thing...
Okay, I decided I was confused, so I went and looked at the Mr. Meanor wall to sort out the climbs. There are five routes. From left to right they should be 40 to Life, Mr. Meanor, Mug Shot, Off Scott Free, and St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Mug Shot starts with the bowl-shaped feature on the face, Off Scott Free is directly in front of the tree, right of Mug Shot. (I had them backward before, sorry.) A second opinion wouldn't hurt, but I'm pretty sure that's right. I fixed my route descriptions. (See Mr. Meanor Topo for details and proof that I have too much free time.)
And, in response to Joseph Stover's older question about the next bend in the stream: it looks killer from space on Google Earth, but it's pretty chossy in person and all the tall faces are broken by ugly, loose, vegetation-infested ledges. Not much promise. Now, the crag up on the hill directly north looks fantastic (aside from the approach).
Nice topo Scott. However, there's no way that Mug Shot is 5.8+ if started from the ground directly under the first bolt. If you step up on the large flake to the left, yeah, but not the way it's drawn...
The Alcatraz Wall is basically around the corner from the climbs on the topo i.e. as you're looking at the topo climbs, you head right and then turn left at the corner and trudge uphill, should only take a couple of minutes..
I think the topo is wrong. The route to the right of the crack with the round dish was put up by Kevin Carmichael. I will get the name at dinner tonight. Mug shot was a single bolt by the tree. Contact Ben Burnham or Vince Greene to get the lowdown.
Anybody know anything about the routes just around the corner from Jailhouse Rock? I don't mean The Exercise Yard, but rather the east-face just before it, on the same side of the wash.
Ah, I think I get it now. It seems to me that Assault With Battery is on the face I was wondering about. It's just before The Exercise Yard, and on the same side of the wash, right?
Any word on the route name and rating corrections?
I climbed "Mug Shot" today, the one starting in the dish. Even coming in from the boulder on the left is a bit sandbagged at 8+ if you ask me. I would call that at least 9- and the direct start 10a or even 10b or harder, but what do I know. I thought it was a fun route. After the start it is a reasonable 8.
Braxton, Assault with Battery is on a South facing wall on the same side of the canyon as Jailhouse rock. It's between The Exercise yard and Jailhouse Rock. Look for 2 bolted routes. Assault With Battery is the right one closer to the wash. The left one is Ben's route and takes a few bits of gear.
Found a nice New Balance shoe in the wash. Brand new, couldn't find the other one. If it's yours, PM me and I'll get it to you.
Also: watch out for kids(campers, etc...) playing around the top of the cliffs. Saw some uninformed youngsters tumble a huge death block down by the entrance to the canyon. It didn't come too close to the base of the Dragon's Back route, but never-the-less is a scary hazard.
Jailhouse Rock
Print a Mini-Guide - Includes Routes!
RSS Feed
