The Icebox is the cliff directly across the river from Pine Cone Dome. There are several good sport routes with potential for more. The name comes from the large ice-flow on the upper right-side of the cliff that stay in frozen well into the month of May.
Getting There
Look for the big rock of the left side of the road at the 8.1 mile mark.The rock angles up a ridge and is quite overhanging on the right side. Park as for Pine Cone Dome and walk down canyon, cross the bridge and then go right on a trail to the rock.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for The Icebox:
Does anyone have information (name, FA, grade, etc) for the steeper routes on the upper right side of the Icebox? There are eight routes right of Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, including a good 5.10 warm-up, an excellent 5.11+ arete, and an outstanding and difficult (mid 5.13?) line up the middle of the wall. To me, this seems to be some of the best sport climbing in Elevenmile (not to diminish the Spray Wall, which is great but short and offers few options under 5.13). It also looks to have potential for more high end sport and trad lines.
Also, many routes here have anchors that are simply two bolts with hangers and screw-links, sometimes not even screw-links. To me, it's a shame to have such high quality climbs equipped with such sub-par hardware. I will certainly start putting better lowering anchors (i.e. chains) on routes as I get to them.
You'll have to wait for the names and grades until the new Elevenmile Canyon guidebook that Bob D'Antonio and I are doing comes out next spring...as for the hardware, all the routes have not been completely equipped yet. There are over 150 new routes in Elevenmile Canyon, most opened by Bob D', me, and friends, so this is the tip of the Icebox...best to just go climb and discover new stuff and leave it at that for now....
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The Icebox