Lookout Mountain Crag

I believe the granite here is metamorphosed. It creates interesting patterns in the rock that make the climbing interesting. It is definitely different than the South Platte and Boulder Canyon. The few routes here are short, so don't plan on making a day of it. But if you in the Golden area, have some quick burns and then head to the Golden City Brewery. Fun stuff- Casey Bernal

And-keep your eyes open for rattlesnakes. My buddy Andy just about stepped on one last summer. These guys are about an inch in diameter and two feet long. When they coil up on the ground they look just like a little, dark green, cow pie. They are very hard to see.

Last year somebody placed a number of new unnecessary bolts on this crag. Several of the bolts were partially placed, then abandoned. Maybe the bolter was using his short little pr#%k as a depth-gage?

Anyway, I just removed several of these bolts, and filled in about ten partially-drilled holes. From now on, if you want to toprope this slab, sling a damn tree.

And don't let me catch you (whoever you were) practicing to be a Sport Park grid-bolter on this crag. If I do catch you, we will be having an unpleasant discussion about spreading your filth were others have been happliy climbing since before you were a glimmer in your dad-uncle's eye.

Cheers.

Golden climbers (and particularly students from the School of Mines) have been teaching people to climb at this crag for decades. It is small, but it is very special to a lot of people. We'd like to keep it that way. Please respect the area and the rock. Pack out your bottles and trash, and PLEASE leave the bolt kit at home. Thanks.

This is one of the greatest rocks I've ever had a chance to play on. It has just about everything. The approach is about thirty seconds to the top of the rock. Once there you can rap down (if there is an open anchor), or scrable down a nice gully. The climbing is great. Everything from cracks to thin face moves. Almost everything has a roof to work your way over. Long slings will enable you to TR just about every route on the rock. A little gear will make it even better. (Please don't plug every placement for one anchor...)

I too was shocked to see a bunch of new bolt anchors last summer. The new anchor on top of the easy slab furthest east was a nice touch. I was never patient enough to get a good anchor set up there. The others seemed redundant. I was also confused why the bolter didn't bother to retro bolt the bottom bolt on the western most sport climb. You can tell where the bolt used to be, and if you take the bottom most start to the route, it gets a little run out at the bottom.

Today, I saw a rattlesnake at the bottom of the crag. It was very large and rattling. It was near the bushes. Be careful!!

By the way this rock is not granite it is gneiss. A very highly metomophosed rock. Just thought I would point that out since people seem confused about the rock type. By the way I agree with Matt keep your bolt kit at home.

[Ed. Note - Moved from duplicate posting]

Details: This area has just about everything: trad, sport, top rope, and aid. The rock is of ver high quality. The crag was a very short approach, 30 seconds off the road. It has very good beginner cracks to toprope, a 5.10 finger crack that you can clean aid at a very easy A1, a few sport routes in the 5.9-5.11 difficulty. This place has just about everything in a fairly small area, so it is a great place to take friends that climb at different levels.'

Get There: Follow 6th Ave into Golden and turn left on 19th St (at the stop light). Follow 19th as it winds its way up though the neighborhood and onto the mountain itself. The crags are on the north side of the Mountain, about 1.8 miles up the road. There are small pulloffs on both sides of the road and a path leading down to the crags, follow the path for 30ft to the top of the cliff. You can either set up a rappel from the bolts or walk down to the base. Note: If you go below the huge "M" on the mountain then you have gone to far.

Seems to me that some of the cold shut anchors up top could due with replacement...Would anyone be upset if I were to replace them. Most notaly, the cold shuts atop the 5.10a face climb. One is VERY rusted and the other is spun.

Was climbing last tues. morning at a large group of kids from the Colorado Academy. 8 12 year olds showed up to climb they set up a bunch of top ropes the two instructors were talking about placing a bunch of new bolts so it will be easier to set up top ropes. I told them that this spot didn't need any bolts but they really didn't care.

I noticed it has been a while since someone posted here. Is this area still able to be climbed?

It's still there and open to climbing. I was there recently. There was a group from CMC there who had topropes set up on all the climbs except the 5.7 Face and Dihedral. They were friendly enough and offered to let us climb on their ropes so it wasn't too bad despite being crowded.
I had a new climber with me and the 5.7 Face was great for teaching him to trust his shoes.

Several of the route descriptions on the list describe the same obvious routes, but with different ratings.
A good photo of the entire crag, with numbers, would help narrow this down a bit. Sorry, I didn't bring a camera with me yesterday.
Alan

Alan, I agree. How can a small crag with maybe 6 routes have 12 routes listed, all with different ratings?

I will take a camera and see if I can identify the routes better.

Fun "little" spot with surprisingly nice rock. Zero approach. In 2 hours' time, you can pretty much climb every variation possible.

I took my nephew up here today and I must admit it's a really great little crag. The rock quality is fantastic and for a 12 year old it's got it all. Easy trad leads, a stiffer sport climb, and a fun roof to boot. For some reason it reminded me of some climbs I've done in north Wales. Similar rock I would guess.

I left some gear on the big overhang climb. If anyone found it, please let me know. We came back within 10 mins and it was gone.

Why is this called "Lookout Mountain" crag if it is actually on Mount Zion?

I believe Jeffco open space refers to it as the "Car Crash Crag"

This crag has great rock quality and the trad here is really fun, but beware of crowds and bullshit top-rope anchors to climb around.

Climbing Sunday at Lookout Mountain, Golden, Alan stepped on what looked like good rock on the Hard Smear route, just left of the Hand/Foot Crack (this is "H" on the Mtn Project page). It broke off, sending a 'large piece of flake' about 20 feet into us. Amazingly it went between four of us and stopped after hitting a pack. Alan et al tapped the remaining rock flake and discovered a 12" by 4' or so section that is hollow underneath, just waiting for a hard smear step to break it off and nail a belayer.

Second rock problem is the large slab just right of the Hand/Foot Crack (again "H"). The reason there are slabs in the first place is 'years ago' the bottom part of the slabs have broken off, leaving a fun slab to climb up and over. Unfortunately the slab in question has had enough freeze-thaw cycles to begin to look like it 'might' break loose. In addition the top of the slab has a delta piece that John was able to rock when he grabbed it, so it is 'loose and balanced'. The delta piece is 2000-3000 pounds; the complete slab is 20,000 pounds, more or less.

Alan marked both the flake and the delta slab with chalk "X". But chalk washes off.

I hope to contact the county et al about taking my little 5# sledge and breaking the flake off. The delta 'might' be movable with a crowbar. The full slab is another problem. Remember some of the rock slides in Yosemite that buried camping climbers ?

If you need a sledge, maybe it is not ready to come off. Be careful, wear a helmut and never hang out below other climbers.

Found: Flashlight at base of cliff. Identify to claim. Topropecmc@aol.com