The Rift Rock Climbing

The Rift is a single-pitch sport crag at First Pullout in Calico Hills. It has short to mid-length routes (35’-70’) featuring chimneys, ledges, overhangs, crack, and slab. A 50m rope and 10 quickdraws plus your anchor is plenty for the area. The Rift gets morning shade and afternoon sun; however, the base of the Rift Corridor is only in the sun for about one half to one hour (10-11am in June).

Located 5 minutes from the parking lot in the gully below the main dirt path down to all the rock. It is to the right/southeast of Circus Wall and adjacent to Bowling Ball Wall. It consists of a 60-foot long, narrow corridor that widens and opens up at the southeast end near a boulder jam. Most of the routes are on the left/northeast wall as you enter the Rift Corridor, with a few on the right side where the corridor widens at its end. There are a few routes on the left before you enter the corridor proper, and more routes up past the boulder jam and out of the Rift Corridor. These routes are in the Upper Rift area.

The Rift Corridor area is small with a lot of routes and has the potential to be very crowded with only a few climbers. It’s also oft-visited by non-climber tourists and the narrow part of the corridor is only a couple feet wide. The floor of the corridor is all sand. A rope bag and shoe carpet is nice to have. If the corridor itself is crowded, you can access the Upper Rift area by going around to the right/southwest past Bowling Ball wall.