Theme Crags - Best Exemplars?

The Meat Walls at Indian Creek always got a sensible chuckle out of me

DYLAN WALL

conversation over….

Brent Kellywrote:

Glenwood Springs: Fortress of Solitude - Superman theme - Kryptonite / Metropolis / Lois Lame / Caped Crusader / Boy Wonder

And then you have the smaller, easier cliffline-The Pup Tent of Solitude!

Never climbed at Joshua Tree, but the Hemingway Buttress has a weird mix of Ernest Hemingway and poodle routes. (Lori, how do I know this?)  

Teton Tomwrote:

Decadent Wall at City of Rocks. Routes sporting risqué sexual references, many of which are now “redacted”.

Redacted, some, but also flat out renamed, MP vs guidebook. And, Bingham toned some of them down for the 2016 book. Once upon a time, I cruised through some of the earliest books for COR. Lots has changed. Personally, I'm old enough to "get" some of the puns from the "kids" bitd, so my take is different than other's might be now. "Kibbles and bits, kibbles and bits, I'm gonna get me some kibbles and bits"

I've also met Jay. And Carol. And other COR originals. Fun stuff! 

There is a small crag outside of Salt Lake City above Draper called The Red Rock.  It's a very beginner friendly place that I have taken a lot of people to for their first exposure to rock climbing.  

It was developed by a climber who is also a dentist.  All of the names have dental references:

Baby Teeth

Dry Socket

Cavity Bones

Bad Case of Gingivitis

Gum Cheese

Shark's Teeth

etc.  

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105739819/the-red-rock

Muscle beach, It was a  nude beach prior to Leavenworth's housing boom, but now someone build a house directly across the river. It's a free solo spot so going nude works quite well, but free ballin is frowned upon by the people that live there.

Edit: The people who live across the river will yell at you if you take you pants off.  

This Tahoe crag fits the bill quite well.
Monty Pythons Castle

Presumably the initial routes with that theme were named for their location in relation to the North America Wall, if I remember correctly. So it sort of became ‘theme drift’.

Adding to the already mentioned crags in the Red:

Highlands (scottish themed names), Scotch Wall (scotch themed names), The Zoo (zoo/animal themed names), Emerald City (wizard of oz themed names), Land Before Time (dinosaur/prehistoric themed names), Hole in the Wall (almostall route names have "hole" in them), South Park (themed after the tv show), The Dark Side (star wars theme), Bibliothek (book titles)

How about Cocaine Gully @ Smith? Freebase, Powder up Your Nose, Bound in Bogata, Shake 'n Flake...

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105789339/cocaine-gully

Jason Millswrote:

I developed an area called Excuses Walls -- all of the routes are named for excuses why someone bailed on a day of climbing. My personal favorite is Groin Irritation ... a buddy bailed because he went running the day before we were supposed to climb and "irritated his groin" ... he was less stoked than you'd imagine to be the inspiration for the name of the route. :)

Not quite a crag theme, but a name theme I like: I was in a long-distance relationship with someone in California ... I named a route I developed California Dreamin' when things were good, after we split the first new route I put up I named Lovers Leapt. They're both good routes, so there's that ... a fun, cryptic way to remember an interesting time in my life. :)

Hahahahah Reading Al Jazeera ?! Dear lord I love this so much.
Please keep doing what you're doing, Jason. Just brilliant.

Hank Hudleywrote:

Muscle beach, It was a  nude beach prior to Leavenworth's housing boom, but now someone build a house directly across the river. It's a free solo spot so going nude works quite well, but free ballin is frowned upon by the people that live there.

Edit: The people who live across the river will yell at you if you take you pants off.  

Well I just added one more item to my bucket list....

wendy weisswrote:

Never climbed at Joshua Tree, but the Hemingway Buttress has a weird mix of Ernest Hemingway and poodle routes. (Lori, how do I know this?)  

I have the vaguest memory of diving into the poodle lore during the few months I spent pseudo-dirtbagging in/around JTree.
Absolutely love this particular bit of climbing cultural history.
I think I remember reading a short bit about it in one of the guidebooks, as well? Can't recall. 

But joyfully refreshed my memory by visiting the comments on this route: https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105721849/poodles-are-people-too

Wonderful stuff!

Brent Kellywrote:

Hahahahah Al Jazeera ?! Dear lord I love this so much.
Please keep doing what you're doing, Jason. Just brilliant.

FTR, "Reading Al Jazeera" wasn't actually a climbing excuse, just an "excuse" ... years ago, I got in an argument/kinda broke up with a long-term GF, I left the house, called a buddy, told him what happened, and asked him if he'd meet me at the bar for a beer ... he told me sorry, he couldn't, he was pretty settled in for the night (most likely very stoned) and, besides, he had just started reading a really interesting article on Al Jazeera ...

We laugh about it now. :) 

Monster Rock is a tiny crag near Austin. The walls are broken into the DnD and Tolkien Wall, the Horror Movie Wall, and the Lovecraftian Madness Wall. Most of the route names are impossibly convoluted, but this is my favorite for being hard to remember: "Nyarlathotep Arises From The Blackness Of 27 Centuries".

Wipeyur Buttress at Devil’s Head.  It was somewhat an infinite supply of route names, Chocolate Corner, Brown Bunny, Exit Only, Mr. Hanky, Holy Crap, etc., way more route names than routes there. 

Shagg Crag:

-Shagg It

-Shaggadelic 

-Shaggin’ Wagon

-It Ain’t Pretty Being Easy

-AggroShag

-Shagg Zagg

Surprised that no one has mentioned The Fin yet, most of the crags at Mortal Earth are named after rock bands or music genre (classic rock, rolling stone, rock of ages) and the route names are basically song titles. I definitely had the songs looping in my head as I was going up

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/113384606/mortal-earth

Jason Millswrote:

FTR, "Reading Al Jazeera" wasn't actually a climbing excuse ... years ago, I got in an argument/kinda broke up with a long-term GF, I left the house, called a buddy, told him what happened, and asked him if he'd meet me at the bar for a beer ... he told me sorry, he couldn't, he was pretty settled in for the night (most likely very stoned) and, besides, he had just started reading a really interesting article on Al Jazeera ...

:) 

Aw man... I'm sorry your buddy wasn't a more supportive friend for you in that tough situation... but "Sorry man, I would, but I just started into this pretty engrossing article in Al Jazeera..." is such a hilariously bizarre and absurd excuse under any circumstances.

It reminds me of something John C Reilly would say in a Adam McKay movie, or the "What about the African guy?!" bit from I Heart Huckabees.

HEADS-UP: The clip below is NSFW - Language *immediately*.