Lion’s Den Area Rock Climbing

The Lion’s Den Area is the eastern most tip of cooks wall and the very first chunk of cliff line real estate that you see when hiking into The Cookbook Area from House Rock: which is not really part of Cooks Wall but is a smaller, seperate outcropping that faces west and is almost exclusively used as a popular tourist destination. 

Characteristic of Cooks Wall, which is a series of highly broken up buttresses scattered across the southernmost ridge of the park, The Lion’s Den Area is separated into three distinct sub-areas that are each unique and interesting in nature.

1) The Lion’s Den (proper)
2) Carnivore Club Area
3) The Tarzan Boulder

The Lion’s Den - a good sized wall, yet still moderate in stature, that presents a host of interesting climbs capped by notably steep to slammed head walls.

Carnivore Club - a handful of short routes that will eat you pretty fast given the moderate grades and the off camber ground beneath the climbs will also present some moderate resistance.

The Tarzan Boulder is a massive individual boulder just uphill to the east of Lions Den Proper that has steep climbs on 3 sides but also provides challenging off camber stances beneath some of the climbs  

The area has several easier lines and a host of extremely steep lines that are in the 5.10 / 5.11 range but the terrain around this area, like almost everything on the east side of Cooks, is not excessively user friendly like Pilot Mt or Moores Wall. The Lions Den Proper is mostly user friendly but the ticks are legit here as The Lions Den holds more run off and humidity than anywhere else at Cooks so the advice is to bring spray once the temps warm up. I’ve never used spray anywhere else but here as it can get legit in the spring! 

The whole area is more of a fun and interesting adventure spot vs a casual group destination which is typical protocol for the entire eastern side of Cooks Wall in general. Lion’s Den is pretty easy and friendly all around while Carnivore and Tarzan are the more challenging spots in this particular area and probably too much a pain for the weekend warrior but if you are willing to sacrifice creature comforts for some steep and interesting climbing at moderate grades with no crowd then this might be the place for you.