Canidae Cliff (Hammond, MN)

Try to keep a very low profile here. Stand back while belaying as much as you can as there is some loose rock remaining, but also try to keep out of the way of the locals driving past. Most of them either are ambivalent or find the climbing amusing, but one woman stopped and told us how dangerous this was. Please check out the link on access above also for more info.

Also, the fixed ropes that were up there for toproping were there over the winter. So please don't use them this season, just do the bolted routes or set your own topropes from the trees or better yet, use the chains on the established climbs.

It should be mentioned that Dave Brandt from Prairie Walls found this cliff while driving through the area. He, as well as Tre Brandt, Shawn Tracy, Kiri Namtvedt, Darin Limvere, and several others put a lot of effort into developing this crag. It may be small but it's great for people from Roch who are trying to get out for a short workout after work, since it's only about 20 minutes (14 miles or so). Rumor is that Shawn saw a fox on top of the bluff, thus named Canidae (from Wikipedia: Members of the family are called canids and include dogs, wolves, foxes, coyotes, dingoes, jackals, and lycaons. The Canidae family is divided into the "true dogs" (or canines) of the tribe Canini and the "foxes" of the tribe Vulpini.)

My wife and I have hit this area a few times recently. It's small and a bit messy but a lot of fun! The climbing is very much like climbing at Barn Bluff in Redwing though not as crowded!
Personally I think the best climbs would be B, C, G and H... An interesting under cling on G made this climb really fun. (As a note this was my first 5.10 lead and it was great!) Anyone know what the rating for the far right routes (O and P) would be? I started them but did not finish the route..seemed a bit harder than 5.10 so I was just wondering.

Finally,
We both want to thank Dave, Tre, Shawn, Kiri, Darin, and any other person that has helped to develop this little area. Thanks a bunch!

Ron-- I PM'ed you. I have the topo/route descriptions, but I don't want to add any routes to this page if I haven't personally done them, so I didn't add those 2 you asked about. Glenn might be planning on it. Anyway, check your PMs. As an aside, please add your own thoughts about each route by rating it's fun factor and what you propose as a grade. The whole site benefits from this as we get a more accurate picture of each climb then. Climb safe, Chris

Thanks Chris. I will check out the PM in a bit. As for fun factor. Route s B and C were a lot of fun to climb. I would probably place them around 5.8 / low 5.9. Not too hard but they do have some tricky little moves and route B has an odd move where I had to pull like a 1/2 mantle to pull over a bulge. Basically, it forced you to be a bit off balance which was fun when it was top roped but a bit tweeky when I lead it. Route C on the other hand was pretty straight forward. A good climb with some really thin spots as far as hand holds go. My favorite route to this point though has been G and to a lesser extent H. Route G has a really fun start and it takes a bit of work to get over the slight overhang. There is some wild stemming thrown in about half way up and a decent little rest following that. Well decent is not really objective I guess. My wife hates that particular rest spot because she is quite a bit shorter than I am so she has a problem with longer stems. I would solidly place this at 5.10 maybe 5.10+ depending on your start. Route H is basically the same climb without slipping left to take the overhang. I would probably grade this lower than 5.10 but higher than just a straight 5.9. All in all its been a fun little area with lots of problems. Hope to take on some of the more overhanging sections soon.

As a note: We went out yesterday...the bugs were so bad that we just gave up. I guess with the fields coming out the ladybugs, boxelder bugs and some strange little biting, swarming, annoying black gnats decided the nice warm rock would make a good home. It was like a bad horror movie. Probably clear up once the weather cools off a bit.

Another note: I was up top roping routes O and P. There were some OLD placed ropes up there and they were so brittle that I just cut them down. In my opinion they were dangerous. I hope no one gets up-set about that. I am considering replacing those ropes with chains. Anyone that has been up there would probably know what I am talking about. Don't even think I would need to drill. But I will see what would be best for the route and for safety. I post when it's done.

Ron,

Thanks for the great reviews and I'm glad you like the area. Also, thanks for taking down the old ropes that were mistakenly left behind. One of us thought the other took care of it and the other thought the same, etc.

I respectfully ask, however, that you NOT place any top-anchors or running bolts on routes established by other folks without discussing it with them first (bad Karma). We put alot of effort into cleaning those routes off and the ones without top anchors or bolts are WORKS IN PROGRESS. We already have plans for those routes' anchor locations and feel that we should have first shot at finishing our hard work. I appreciate your interest and enthusiasm though and would love to have you lend a hand with us next spring! Drop me a line and we'll plan it

....respectfully, Shawn Tracy.

Oh yeah! On another note, I did see a fox at the cliff, but the name came, mostly, due to the fact that the cliff's first established route (Room With A View), has a Coyote Den on top of it. Avoid the top of that climb from April-June evenings or mornings.