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!
Description
This area is composed of one large boulder about 1.8 miles beyond the tower (off the same road). The routes are of the same stone as the tower and thus, feature similar climbing. If your looking to pack a lot of routes into a short period of time, this is a great location. Although shorter than the tower, there is a quality selection of routes here. All the routes are right next to each-other and you don't have to travel far to get on another route. Grades range from 5.10a to 5.12 b/c, with the majority being in the mid 11 to low 12 range. Summer shade in the afternoon on the east side of the formation.
There are three different sides to the formation. The sides and routes are listed from left to right (west to east) as you see them from the road/trail.
(I) West Face (AKA Grid Wall)--9 routes
Hike up the trail and head left when you get to the boulder. This beautiful wall of overhung and pocketed rock is known as the grid wall for a reason. It's not difficult to get off route or create link ups on this one, whether on purpose or accident. Get an idea of where you are going before you start up these routes. Routes are listed from left to right.
Continue past the tower about 1.8 miles. When you see a windmill on your right, look left, and you will see the mammoth boulder up on the hill. Parking is on the right side of the road. The boulder is about a 50 foot hike up the hill from the road.