About ten routes have been done on Secret Crag, some dating back to the 70s. This seldom visited wall is South facing, has several quite good routes from 70 to 100 ft in length, and is composed of excellent Eldorado sandstone. Route numbering begins on the left end (West) of the crag with (#1) Mind Control (5.10+) and continues right to Eldorado Gold (#10). The isolation of Secret Crag makes for a superb adventurous day of climbing. While most of the routes are short of 100 ft in length, some are that long and so a 60m rope is recommended. Difficulty never gets above 5.11+ and a fine bolted 5.8 was put up several years ago.
Getting There
Starting from the trail before tunnel 3 and leading up into the woods toward Ridge 4, instead of crossing the talus field, continue uphill on the right side of the talus field. Hump up to another talus field that seems to be near the top of the hill, but not quite. The idea is to get to the West end of Secret Crag. From the West end, a third class scramble leads to the right and down on to a steep slab at he base of the routes, essentially the lower tier. This gets more exposed the further down the slab you go, so be careful getting to the routes at the far end of the crag. It can be useful to carry some camming gear for the belays, since you would not want to roll off the slab.
There's a sport route between Peril-less Journey and Burning Down the House on Secret Crag that's not in the guidebook or database. It has camouflaged bolts and it shares an anchor with the former route. Does anyone know its name? My partner and I thought it was mid to hard 11.
Print a Mini-Guide - Includes Routes!
RSS Feed
