The Arena  Photos:  Recent | Best | Popular Page Views:  2,597. Good page?    Administrators:  Ben Mottinger, Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monomaniac, Tom Erickson Submitted By:  richard magill on Dec 10, 2003 Make this area a Favorite What's New   Print a Mini-Guide with routes Add Route  Add Photo  Add Comment  Add Event  Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 64° | 32° 68° | 36° 72° | 37° 75° | 39° 79° | 41°

Raptor Closures MORE INFO >>> FYI: Parts of Devil's Head climbing area are closed March 1- July 31 every year for Peregrine falcon protection. The official closure order and associated map can be found here: www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5280647.pdf. For questions or more information, please contact the South Platte Ranger District office at 303.275.5610. This information is a public crowdsourcing effort between the Access Fund, and Mountain Project. You should confirm closures, restrictions, and/or related dates. Keeping climbing areas open and conserving the climbing environment

Mother's Day cubs at the Arena. Fortunately we di...

Description 

A vast new expanse of granite at Devil's Head - this new area holds the potential for 50 more routes. And I'm not talking grid bolting - I mean independent lines, both Sport and Trad.

Walking into The Arena, there are various walls that are being developed to some extent.On the left is a long monolithic wall that currently has 3 sport lines - there will be others. On the right is a massive tower (up to 200' high) that has 3 sport routes and 1 trad route at the moment - again, there will be more.

There are also some other obvious things that will eventually hold routes.

The stone is generally very good (fine grained, featured, and steep), although there are sections of crystals and choss. The choss is being cleaned up rapidly.

The aspects are all different directions, so there is sun and shade in about equal proportions.

Seasonal closure of the rampart range road has got this shut down for the time being (December through April??) but if you come here in the summer of 2004 you should expect to see routes going in - bring a helmet, as choss will be tossed.

Getting There 

Now for the fun part - this is the most remote crag at Devil's Head, which some consider excessively remote in the first place. You have to hike all the way to the top and then back down the other side.Altogether, the hike is probably about 2 miles, and its not flat. Consider yourself warned.

The best way to find it: Hike to the firetower. Drop down into the near valley and attempt to follow cairns down hill. At the first junction in the cairns (which is a choice between digital tower or the crag ranch), take a left toward the Crag Ranch. At the next cairn junction, take a right toward HangDog Cafe. From Hangdog cafe, follow the cairns down hill to the Shaft.From the Shaft, follow cairns uphill 200 yards to the Arena.

Sound hard to find? It is - Tod Anderson is supposed to update his book this winter and you can get a map that way. Or email me next summer if you want to go down there. I will probably be there a lot.

The Classics

Featured Route For The Arena

Maximus 5.12a  CO : South Platte : ... : The Arena

This is a great line on the west-facing monolith at the Arena!This line is fairly easy to spot. Looking at the west-facing wall (on the left as you come into the Arena), there is a slabby section that rises to a spot where the wall then gets steep. Just right of this slab is a section of wall that is steep all the way. Maximus follows this steep portion. It goes up a section of slightly overhanging red stone that is pretty obvious, about 80 feet long.Starts fun and leads up to a section with...[more]   Browse More Classics in CO

Photos of The Arena Slideshow

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Cranking a fun 5.10 warmup at the Arena.

The splendor of Devil's Head.