Radio Head Rock Climbing

If you actually find this area, you might want to add some cairns on the way back. Oct 9, 2010

Just to let anyone know that is back in this area, the cairns on the "trail" are almost random. Took me way outside the climbing area. Be cautious of your climbing guidebook as the scale may not be correct for this area at all. Also take caution when hiking to the Gully Slab, the terrain is technical almost from the start of the trail. May 3, 2011

Sorry for the confusion on the RH approach. I seemed to go different ways for the first few times. The maps in the guidebook are to scale as I extracted them directly from aerial photos. The trick is to start off staying to the west (left) of the ridgeline when approaching. There could also be cairns from crystal hunters confusing the trail, too. May 4, 2011

The cairns lead to RH pretty well as of this last weekend. You need to start off correctly though, since I didn't see any cairns until after exiting the trees at the beginning of the hike. Oct 1, 2012

The trail is well-cairned right now. Also, to get to the start of the trail: take Rampart Road towards Devils Head, then when you get to a split where Devil's Head campground/fire tower are one way you will need to head (right) down the other road for ~0.8 miles until you see the radio towers on the right side. Sep 3, 2013

Take trail n.w. from parking lot for about 100 yards turn west cross over ridge following the newly created (as of 2013) motorcycle trail until it drops downhill. Head north staying near the ridge of rock the whole time. There is a point were you squeeze through a few small boulders right before you cross a gully (you can go down this gully which is not as plesant and get to R.H. passing Lowball Wall first). The main way is to cross this gully and continue up a ramp heading north through an upen flat area, then skirt around a narrow point with a bit of exposure. After a few small elavation gains, you will pass a crystal dig and will see Line of Sight Wall.

In addition, after incountering several lost climbers looking for gully slab, it is located at the top of the gully beyond the north end of the main wall.

Hope this helps. Oct 2, 2013

We hiked down and out of the Gully Slab area heading N/NW along the base of the crag on a cairned trail and found 3-4 more bolted routes on this far end of the crag. Does anyone know which routes those might be? Didn't see them in Jason Haas' guidebook. Oct 27, 2014

You most likely found the routes on the Backslide Wall that are described in the frequently updated Rakkup app:

rakkup.com/climbing-guidebo… Oct 28, 2014

The standard parking lot has been closed. I received this email from one of the rangers down there:

"Wanted to let you know the parking situation at the “Radio Head” area off the Rampart Range road has changed. A gate and fencing was installed this fall to control access to the communication facilities and prevent parking and camping at that location. There is no parking available at this location now. We hope to develop additional parking the south to account for the 5-10 spaces this takes away. Best parking in the area for now is probably to the south near the Topaz Point picnic area."


Dec 8, 2014

^^^

Hi Jason, thanks for posting about this.

I have actually been meaning to write a similar post but obviously hadn't gotten around to it. In some sense, I understand the parking lot closure because there has been quite a bit of trash left at the "campsite" fire pit on the trail in (diapers, tortilla wrappers, etc.). However I feel like the complete closure is excessive and unwarranted on public land, but I guess if they plan on adding spaces nearby, then it is not a huge deal. That said, as it stands there is no way that there will be adequate parking for the West Valley/Wipeyur areas if they don't do something soon.

On top of this, the approach trail into Radio Head proper has been co-opted by an (illegal?) dirt bike trail. My guess is that the dirt bike folks have been trying forge this trail for a few years now, because each of the last few years they have smashed an ever wider gap between the rocks and trees to gain the ridge proper. This year they finally succeeded in smashing a big enough gap that they could finish paving their trail down the other (south) side of the ridge where it heads back down into the woods. I find this pretty irritating on multiple levels. First off, it is a hazard to the climbers and crystal gathering folks that have been using this trail for years, because the dirt bikers certainly don't slow down in that section (my brother and his wife almost got mowed down this fall). Second, the dirt bikers also cut down live trees to block the climber trail proper (I have pictures...it's pretty annoying and ugly). My guess is that they did this to "signal" to the other dirt bikers that the trail goes down the hill to the northeast (away from Radio Head) instead of following the climber trail back to the old, now closed parking area.

I feel like climbers are being punished here despite the fact that the dirty campsite and new dirt bike trail are clearly the bigger damaging issue (and I am pretty damn sure that it ain't climbers who are trashing the place with new trails and diapers in the fire pit). I guess what really gets me is that I and my partners spend probably 3 weekends a month somewhere in the Platte during the summer and fall months, and every single weekend we spend time cleaning up shell casings, clay pigeons, broken bottles, trash, etc. left behind by other (i.e. non-climber) user groups -- not to mention the several abandoned dirt biker fires I have extinguished -- and I am fairly certain that we are not the only climbers who pitch in to help keep the Platte a clean place. Yet we as a user group somehow get our parking area shutdown as a result of the other irresponsible user groups. Arrrgh.

Anyway, I was planning on making a forum post about all of this so that we as a user group can try and come up with a coherent message to the Forest Service about all of this if need be; thus if an admin sees this and wants to move my post to an appropriate forum, that would be just fine.

Cheers. Dec 9, 2014

The area was closed off almost solely to protect the microwave towers and their access. Another better, and more dog/kid friendly access to Radio Head has already been established. More details to follow before next season. Recent discussions have indicated that the USFS does have climbers and our impacts in proper perspective and appreciate all that we do to mitigate the impacts of other users. Dec 10, 2014

That's great information, Tod, thanks for the update. Dec 10, 2014

Does anyone know how far the Topaz picnic area is from the Radio Head Trailhead? I understand that's where you have to park for climbing at Radio Head. May 31, 2015

So, where is the best place to park to access Radio Head, and how much time does it add to the approach? Mar 5, 2016

There is a new parking lot planned for the vicinity of Mile Marker 10. Not sure when construction will begin, but I believe the USFS has everything all set up with Douglas County to do the construction, so it may even happen in 2016. It is also possible to park at the big hairpin about 1/4 mile past MM10 and head up to Radio Head from below, just stay right & head up through the woods. Mar 9, 2016

Is there another area by the Lowball Wall? Went looking for Lowball and found a bunch of routes down there, but the photos in both the South Platte and Rampart Range books were useless. Anybody have any insight to the unsorted routes down there? Sep 7, 2016

There is an area south-ish of Lowball with several routes not documented anywhere, yes. Nov 22, 2016

Hope to get more info into Rakkup for next season. The new and better trail is in Rakkup now and the start better delineated as of yesterday. Nov 24, 2016