Surprising Crag is the most popular area at the Sport Park. The South Face has many moderate, well-bolted sport routes and sees crowds of climbers; this is the place to hang out and socialize. The West Face has challenging sport and trad routes, and sees much less traffic.
Getting There
From the aqueduct trail, take a left. The first crag you'll see is Owl Prow. Head uphill around the right side of Owl Prow and you'll get to the South Face of Surprising Crag near the route Monkey Bob.
I'm a little confused about the bolted cracks here. Is the rock soft or is there just a lax ethic at this area? From the pictures, it seems as though there are a lot of lines that are at least partially proctectable with gear, yet there are bolts everywhere. If anyone wants to clue me in, go for it....
From what I've seen, people are bolting up bomber cracks here. This seems silly to me. From the pics, there is apparently very good gear here. If you can't climb above splitter cams, then perhaps you should grab a friend's set of hexes and develop some leading skills. As far as the people that have been bolting cracks in this area, I think you are destroying rock for all the people who visit it. Climbers placing gear at 5.10 will appreciate the grade much more than newbies whipping on bolts at .10. There is bomber to decent gear here, stop wasting time, money, and reputations to bolt good cracks. For a reference of where I like to climb trad, look at Mount Lemmon, Arizona. We pray for splitters out here. If you can place a nut in a shallow flared groove out here, consider it bomber. Stop bolting cracks!!!
As for all the trad climbers that have not seen this before, grow a pair!!! Don't allow this crap to happen.... Splitter gear in rock this good is not a place for bolts! Bolts = face, gear = cracks. If you can't place gear then find a sport route, don't ruin faces with cracks galore.
Surprising Crag
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