Mostly bolted climbing on steep limestone towers at alpine elevations. Bring a small rack as many of the routes do require gear placements. And bring a helmet! The Hellgate Cliffs are infamous for loose rock, especially in the early to mid summer. Watch for loose holds, and do not belay directly below your leader.
Most of the climbing is 5.9 and harder, though there are a few 5.7s here. Also, the Clamshell has seen recent developments as well, and is just up canyon.
Most routes require a two-rope rappel.
Getting There
Drive to Snowbird and keep going a little ways. The Hellgate Cliffs are the obvious white limestone towers on the north side of the canyon. Park at a pullout just up canyon and across the road from the Hellgate Condos. Walk up the dirt road to a gully just before the chain gate, and head up.
Where has everyone been this summer? Hellgate has been my favorite hot weather crag this season, and I hardly ever see another party up there, even on weekends. Really good, steep limestone sport climbing in LCC and the place is deserted...
I vote for better organisation and separating the routes on Main Hellgate and the three Hellgate towers from East Hellgate (formerly known as the Clamshell). East Hellgate has been grid bolted to the point that using this site with all the routes in all the various Hellgate areas in ONE area is extremely confusing. By making a separate area for East Hellgate which would include the Melting Mud Wall and everything East of and including A CLOUD IN THE SKY will be alot more helpful for people trying to navigate themselves around the place or hoping to glean beta from this web site.
It would be as if all the routes between Green A Gully and Beckey's Wall was just under Gate Buttress with no distinction between the 6 or so separate areas that actually exist.
Mountain Project, I believe, is first and foremost an online guidebook. One line route descriptions without topos thrown into the mix where they subsequently are listed alphabetically for a single area with 50-60 1/2 pitch routes.... well, it makes it nearly useless or practically impossible for getting the climber to the route. If beta is so brief as to be vague at best, what is the point of reporting it at all? On the other hand, if the reporter really would rather not have other climbers find the route or the area, again, why report it at all? (please refrain from just taking up space!)
In conclusion, I vote for Main Hellgate, Tower One, Tower Two, Tower Three, East Hellgate (may be further subdivided to include the individual named walls at East Hellgate such as Melting Mud Wall, Goat Gully Wall, etc Does anyone agree? Will someone organise it better? How about using spell check, at least on the route names?....nobody is more dyslexic than me, so it's not a bad tool to use.
"Mountain Project, I believe, is first and foremost an online guidebook. One line route descriptions without topos thrown into the mix where they subsequently are listed alphabetically for a single area with 50-60 1/2 pitch routes.... well, it makes it nearly useless or practically impossible for getting the climber to the route. If beta is so brief as to be vague at best, what is the point of reporting it at all? On the other hand, if the reporter really would rather not have other climbers find the route or the area, again, why report it at all? (please refrain from just taking up space!)"
I think James has a really great point. Seeing lots of ooo style descritions... not so fun. Greg - we really love your work and the routes you're putting up. Thank you for all the stuff you are doing out there. Its why we bought the topo and spread the word. Please keep up the good work.
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO Sep 12, 2007
Sounds good to me. Bobby wouldn't mind if this main area description disappears anyway, so lets do this:
Someone(James?) create a brand new Hellgate overview area, and then add new empty areas underneath it for the various sub areas. At that point, i'll move the route descriptions to the proper places, and y'all can yell at me when i get one wrong.
And Greg, would you mind cleaning up the route descriptions, or would you mind if volunteers take over the route and add better descriptions?
Yes, I will try to get on it in the next couple of days. Andrew....that does sound like the best way to do it if it is OK with Gregorio. As the new areas pop up, you can start sliding the routes into the correct slots. I won't delete anything, as that will no doubt really screw it up! Thanks JG
Cool, I was thinking about this last week as well and wondered about the best way to revise an area into better subsections. Thanks for taking this on James and Andrew for moving things around. I too think it nice to see all the new activity and there are some good routes going in. It got me off my butt to start sniffing around for the first time in years. Better route descriptions especially with references to routes that are already in the book(s) would be helpful. Also be great if folks spell checked the entries as well. This is one of the few sites that can do it for you. We should take advantage of it.
By Andrew Gram Administrator From: Denver, CO Sep 13, 2007
If no one minds, I am also happy to correct the spelling and capitalization in route descriptions. I would never change anyone's entries, but I am willing to be an editor. I won the Grand Forks county spelling bee in North Dakota way back in the day, so I am uniquely qualified(though maybe in a bad way).
By Dan Roberts From: Apple Valley, Mn Sep 13, 2008
Grab the updated guide at IME in Salt lake. Proceds go to bolting fund. Great job to Mr. Martinez and anyone else involved with the development of the area. Enjoyed my time there.
I separated West Melting Mud climbs from the South facing climbs & weirdo & coo coo`s nest are not on these walls at all.there west of fossils from hell on main wall.I didn't post them here u did Garrett.
Hellgate Cliffs
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