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!
This crag may lie on DOE property; by climbing here you may be trespassing
Description
The Hospital Crag is a relatively short section of rhyolitic tuff located on the north side of Los Alamos Canyon, immediately east of the Omega bridge. The rock quality here is generally poor, but there are a few fun 35-40 foot sport climbs here. Just beware that the rock here is soft. The plus side to this location is that the hospital is just up the hill.
Getting There
There are several ways to approach the crag. You may park at the Los Alamos Medical Center or, if that's too much walking, you can drive south from the intersection of Trinity and Diamond Drive and turn right onto West Road. Take an immediate left and follow that road back east underneath the Omega bridge. Parking here may be limited. One can walk down toward Omega Road and turn left onto a small trail leading east underneath the bridge. Just after passing under the bridge, turn left again and head up to the cliffs. You can also access the crag from the cliffs above, but it involves a bit of bushwhacking over steep, loose terrain and you may have to search for a safe passage to the base of the cliffs.
I would give all the routes at this crag one star or less. The rock is really bad. You are better off to go to upper LA Canyon where the rock is better and the routes are better, and you won't be harrassed by the bridge nazis.
A few years ago a friend of mine (from Los Alamos) and I were going to climb what I think must be these routes near the big bridge, when several of the security officers for the science lab there in town pulled up with flashing lights on their big SUVs and stopped us and made us show them our IDs and then they told us to leave because the bridge was a "security risk". They actually escorted our cars to the top of the hill to the stop light!
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