Welcome to the New Mexico section of Mountain Project!
The contributions that are made to this site are greatly appreciated; this site is made up of an awesome community of users that make the site what it is.
Although there is very little information regarding “rules” for submitting climbing areas and routes to this site, the New Mexico Administers all agree that the following guidelines may be helpful to truly make this site go “Beyond the Guidebook”.
1) Don’t be a jerk (this one states the obvious). 2) Route and area submissions should truly be helpful to those out climbing. Before posting, you should have some first hand experience actually climbing the route. This always results in a much more useful description. 3) Please, please, please… Don’t copy route descriptions directly out of guidebooks, online publications, etc. This is plagiarism! Remember, BEYOND the guidebook! 4) Please use the spell check and make an effort to use correct grammar.
Again, the Mountainproject community truly appreciates the efforts taken to make good route descriptions. If you feel that a route or area description is not up to standard, a brief email to one of the area admins for suggestions on improvement will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to make the New Mexico section of Mountain Project quality! We look forward to seeing you out there!
Written permission required to enter nearby Acoma Pueblo land. MORE INFO >>>
Restricted Acoma Pueblo land boundaries may be inobvious. Be certain of your location.
Insect affected (?) sandstone at the base of the C...
Description
El Malpais National Monument is widely known for lava fields of which some have relatively recent origins. The lava fields have much to offer including the well cairned Zuni-Acoma Trail and accessible lava tubes (cuidado!). Although the lava fields are largely devoid of significant climbing opportunities, there is climbing available in the soft Zuni-sandstone bluffs on the east side of the monument.
The two-pitch Crack of Heraclitus (5.11c/d or 5.10 A1) awaits an easy ~13 mile drive down Highway 117 from Interstate 40. Also, according to Dennis Jackson's Rock Climbing New Mexico guide (2006), the bluffs further south at "The Narrows" contain several easier but quality crack routes for the adventurous soul. The location of "The Narrows" on Highway 117 is often shown on detail maps such as the one currently available via the National Park Service's web page for El Malpais.
Getting There
The monument lies south of Gallup and Interstate 40 roughly between Highway 53 on the west and Highway 117 on the east.
The New Mexico Climber, a newsletter produced by Mark Dalen between at least 1976-79, shows many routes in the Malpais (at least 20). The climbs are on the cliffs 12 miles south of I-40 for several miles.
Early FAs were by Dave Baltz, Dave Dahrling, Paul Horak, Mark Dalen, Charles Ware, Steven Cheney, Davey Hammack, Rick Maleski and Merle Wheeler.
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