Welcome to the newest section of SplitterChoss.com, the Choss Files. This will be a section that details the search for new cliffs and the results of those explorations. I guess the first installment was technically my jaunt into Rocky Canyon outside of Boise, so we’ll call that Issue #0, and it’ll probably become a collector’s item.

Thumbing through the local guidebook up here there is a section that talks about “Other Areas.” Sounds like a good place to start. One place in particular sounded appealing. Less than an hour away, located on the shores of a reservoir, and the book said a couple routes had been done and the area was supposedly ripe for development. Bingo!

I headed out there last night to see what could be found. Along the way I stopped at a small wall right off the road. It looked ok, but incredibly dirty. I’ve never really seen moss like that on a sunny cliff. Looked like the kind of thing where you COULD put routes up, but you would spend hours cleaning, and that’s just not fun.

Continuing along, the road turned to dirt and I kept my eyes open for cliffs. The setting is very scenic with the contrast of the water and mountains. Finally I came around a bend and saw the cliffs up on the hillside. As I got closer, it looked more and more promising. Walking up the hill, I started to scope some lines. When I finally got up to the rock, I saw it was the same stuff I had just been looking at. Some of it was super mossy, most of it was pretty crunchy. There were a few lines that stood out, maybe 6 or so that looked promising. I didn’t see any evidence of the lines that had been done before.

Overall my impression was that it was a super cool spot with marginal rock. Might be fun to develop if you had nothing else to do, but for now I’ll probably keep looking for other stuff. There is a crag up in the mountains above town that looked like it had some good potential. Next up, Mores Mountain…

On one of my first trips to Rifle, I remember looking around the canyon thinking that there could be a lot more routes there. I was told there was a bolting ban instituted by the City, and no new routes were allowed, period. Some were snuck in under the radar, but for the most part route development was stagnant.

Fast forward a couple of years to 2004. The city of Rifle realizes they have a great climbing resource on their hands, but they also know it’s mostly an area full of hard routes. They want more routes that “normal” people can climb, climbers just want to be able to create more routes in general. The compromise was to lift the bolting ban, allowing new routes on a permit-based system, and under the conditions that a new wall would be established with several easier climbs, and that for every new hard route, an easier one go up as well.

This has lead to the establishing of the Canine Wall, mostly by the folks at Climbing Magazine. This wall currently holds 7 routes, from 5.8 - 5.11. To the right and left, new walls have been developed by Michael McGee, the G3 wall and Section M, respectively. Combined together, this zone offers some great new climbing at lower grades than you find in most of the canyon.

More information and topos can be found here.

Fixe USA is a branch of their parent company in Spain that makes bolts specifically for climbing. They are one of the few companies that do so, and they offer a high quality product. Many people just buy whatever crap bolts they can find at the local hardware store, but if you are taking the time to put the bolts in, you have no excuse not to use the finest equipment available. Think about how comfortable you would be knowing your girlfriend or child was taking falls onto these bolts. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

For a long time the standard bolt for climbing has been the Rawl 5 piece. This bolt works well in a variety of rock types, but it has its flaws, most notably the tendency to jam up in the hole, due to all the pieces. The idea behind the Fixe Triplex bolt is that it takes the functionality of the Rawl/Powers 5 piece and eliminates some of the parts. The result is a very simple and strong bolt that consists of a nut, a sleeve and stud/cone. This virtually eliminates the possibility for the bolt to jam in the hole. No more botched placements!

A very unique feature of this bolt is that it’s also designed to be easily removable for inspection and/or replacement. The way this is accomplished is that the recommended 12mm bits drill a hole slightly larger than the diameter of the bolt. The bolt tightens up just fine, but if you need to remove it, you loosen the nut, and pry the sleeve off. Presto, out comes the bolt! I was skeptical at first, how well could this really work? But my first try at removing one went smooth and it really does work. The only caveat with this bolt is that because the hole is slightly larger than the bolt, you need to be certain you tighten it properly the first time.

These bolts are more expensive than their Rawl counterparts, but you certainly can’t beat them for quality. So the next time you head out, ditch the red heads (Are you really still placing those?) and grab a box of Triplex bolts instead.

For some reason my fingers have never been kind to me and my climbing ambitions. The last three years I’ve tweaked tendons in June, which is definitely a bummer as I am just starting to hit my stride about this time, and then have to take a month or two off and then be cautious when I start climbing again. Oh well, it certainly pales in comparison to the stuff some people have to deal with.

Whenever I get injured climbing, I like to head over to ClimbingInjuries.com. They have some good info on there, especially about finger tweakage. I’ve had some personal correspondence with those folks and they seem to know what’s up. I also really like this tidbit from their advice on rehabbing an injury: “Concentrate on other aspects of your life.” So I’m hoping it’s just a sprain and that I’ll be back on the rocks soon. But if not…

We all know how easy it is to get completely wrapped up in climbing to the point where it becomes the sole focus of your life. I’m not sure the last time I went fly fishing, or played guitar, or read something beside a guidebook. And of course I bummed about it, because I wont get to explore some cool cliffs in Idaho while we’re here, but maybe I’ll get to see some other places I wouldn’t have gone if I was just focusing on climbing.

Now where is that fly rod…..

I have only been to City of Rocks once before, about a year and a half ago. I remember many of the climbs we did had great patina on the steep faces and then you always seemed to be finishing on an engaging slab with no holds. Apparently nothing has changed. We spent last weekend there, and damn if I couldn’t seem to remember how to stand on small, subtle granite footholds!

I also forgot how damn “sporty” some of the bolted routes here are. It’s similiar to Joshua Tree, but I think it’s easier to get pulled in here because the rock is usually very featured, at least for part of the route. It certainly makes getting to the chains a more rewarding endeavor.

Maybe all our cush sport climbing spots in Colorado have just made me soft…