Manny,

I'm going to try to make it Sunday. Maybe I'll see you. Believe me the more you climb there the more you will like it. It is so different from just about anything else in the Southwest. Once you get used to it you will fall in love.

This morning I talked to my friend Mike from WA who you ran into down there. He's been on a climbing road trip for months and says it is the best area he's been to. He spent two weeks at the Homestead and thought it was really good too but he's loving Tamo even more. It is the total deal with a great scenery, great rock, and lots of climbs of all types and difficulty. He told me that he called his friends in WA to get them to come down too. Yes, it is THAT good. Hopefully the AZ folks will give it a chance before it is too late.

Hope to see you there soon.

Chris

I would like to climb at tamo. how do i go about it?
-z

email me. Or email Chris.

Finally got down to Tamo for a day. We did 3 FA's and a couple of other routes. The flowers are starting to bloom and it is beautiful there. The road still sucks though.

It was good to meet you there Zack. Don't be afraid to post your opinions.

Zach, Glad to hear you've been getting out to Tamo and happy to see you enjoying the AZ climbing.

CJD - please tell M&M to keep in touch during their travels.

~Susan

Hey there, wanted to thank the crew out at Tamo. I had a great time. Hope to do it again. Who knows maybe a road will go in sometime, hopefully in our lifetime.


Thanks again.

I wrote the following on the Mt. project Tamo page. It may not be 100% accurate, but it is my general impression.

The rock is Quartzite, a metamorphosed sandstone. The space between the sand grains is filled with silica cement and when the rock is broken it will break through the sand grains or pebbles unlike sandstone which breaks around the grains and pebbles. It is much harder than granite. It is almost horizontally layered and features occasional horizontal cracks and pockets. Famous quartzite areas are the Gunks, Ny. and Arapiles, Australia. Other North American areas are Seneca, Wv., Moores Wall, Nc., Big Cottonwood Canyon, Ut., the Uintas, Ut., Devils Lake, Wi., Lake Louise, Alberta, Stone Hill, Mt., and Ibex, Ut. It takes gear well, but requires some tricky placements. It can range from sharp to mirror smooth.

It usually offers trad, mixed, sport and bouldering at the same crag. It has a wide variety of features, cracks, pockets, heucos, horizontals, baby bums (Arapiles) and endless other variations. It often climbs steeply and tends to be very sequential. Seems to me the sequential nature is due to the slippery feel of the rock and difficulty of smearing my feet and my tendency to use THE foothold, not just a smear.

As far as Tamo is concerned, I like quartzite so I wanted to climb there and when in the area, I asked around and was given the opportunity. The road is horrible. Definitely a jeep road, quite rough and better for a short wheelbase vehicle. Legally it crosses private land, most likely owned by a copper company (very common for the copper belt in Arizona). I only got to go out there for a few days, so I have not seen much of the place or done many routes. There are saguaro cactus next to the cliff which, to me, means the weather is generally quite warm. This is good for winter. The cliffs face many directions and often have gullies and corridors, so sun or shade can easily be found.

The routes I did had excellent rock. The first was a 5.8 gear route that didn't look that great, but once on it, climbed wonderfully. It overhung 10+ feet in 80. The next was a 5.8 sport route that looked incredible. It was smooth, had limited features and took an improbable line. Definitely one of the best 5.8 sport routes I've ever done. From the ground I thought it looked 5.11. Next was a 5.10+ that was past vertical. Beautiful rock, hard to read, limited features, classic. This was the only place I've ever seen the baby's butt features besides Arapiles. All the routes I did in the few days had great rock. Obviously not all the rock I saw looked great, but much of it did. I was told that many of the areas have different characteristics and climb differently. The cliffs seem to be between 30-100 feet. I found it to be great cragging. The rock in places reminds me of Arapiles (the greatest crag on earth).

Politically, the area has issues. This was found as a replacement crag for Queen Creek. I think it easily surpasses the rock quality and route scope of Queen Creek (which I have spent only 2 days bouldering and 2 roped climbing). I think mining the Queen Creek area is unfortunate, it will devastate the piece of land and it will never be the same. I think the land swap is a dangerous precedent to set, what if someone finds gold under Yosemite, will they trade the land for something else and trash the valley to find the precious metals? (Extreme example).

On the other hand, climbing state parks could be a good precedent to set (at least for climbers). This resource could live on for the life of climbing, certainly longer that the mining of copper at Queen Creek. Not that climbers are a big economic force, but it would give the town of Kearny a small, very long term boost, rather that the quick and large boost of copper mining.

I don't know the exact figures, but for the sake of argument is the copper company going to give up on 20 billion dollars worth of copper under Queen Creek? For many generations to come they will be trying to get this deposit if the don't succeed now. They have done well for the last few generations.

In conclusion, I would like to be able to climb Tamo in the future. It would be a good addition to the available winter destinations. Joshua Tree, Ca. is great, but windy, grainy and short. Bishop, Ca. has great bouldering, but the roped climbing is limited because sun only reaches the Owens River gorge for a portion of the already short days. Red Rocks is ok in the winter, but sport climbing is the main option because a large proportion of the longer routes face north. Also, Red Rocks is a storm magnet with 12,000 ft Mt Charleston catching most storms in the area and once the rock gets wet, it takes at least 2 days of no climbing before it drys. Tucson, Az. has lots of good granite climbing in the winter. Cochise has excellent longer routes that wonder up a number of domes. It is generally slabby, multipitch routes with long approaches. Also many of the best climbs are closed march-august for peregrin falcons. Mount Lemmon has lots of climbing. The rock gets more solid the higher up the mountain you go, also windier and colder. Mt. Lemmon also attracts weather. Heuco Tanks, Tx. is some of the best bouldering in the world with some of the biggest access issues in the climbing world. Tamo has no good access, some very good rock, single pitch routes, a good range of route difficulties and lots of steep limestone with some deposition features (tuffas) in the area. If there was a road built, it would be one of my first choices for US. winter climbing, and definitely a stop during the winter climbing circuit.

Thanks Zach! That was a great post. Now, I really want to check this place out. It sounds like there is really good climbing, but how much stone is there? is it as big as J-Tree?

Nice trip report Zack. You did not mention the famed nightlife in Kearny.

I would say that the more you climb at Tamo the less you will think the rock is slick. In fact Mike is always talking about how you can just smear like it is 200 grit sand paper. He describes the rock as "granite sandstone". Wait until you see the Western Front. Some of the cliffs there are well over 100'.

Bill,

The area is not as vast as JT and the routes are more concentrated. The proposed park boundary encloses about 6 square miles. The current estimate of potential routes is around 2000. So far there are over 300. The bouldering is really good with potential for 1000 or so lines. Probably about 250 done so far. There are over 2 miles of cliffs.

If you are able you should come down in the next month. send me a message if you want more info.

The waitress at the Cantina is looking pretty good this year. DD

The pictures make it look like choss but it is bomber and featured.