We climbed the short offwidth just to the left of ...
Description
The Quarry Wall is a little-known trad climbing area located just east of the main North Table Mountain cliffs. Much of the development has been done by locals Jimmy Menendez, Hank Caylor, and Wayne Crill. The cliff has a handful of short routes of all grades, and three "showcase" longer routes on the main cliff -- all of which are excellent.
Although the rock can be flaky and dirty (primarily due to lack of traffic), and the ambiance is tainted by the constant buzz of the Coors Brewing Company, the wall offers an easy approach and sheltered, south-facing rock, making it a good winter destination. Also, it provides a rare opportunity to do some pretty sustained jamming close to Denver/Boulder. The rock seems to be columnar basalt.
Getting There
From Washington Avenue (Golden's Main Street), take 10th Street east. On your right you will pass the Coors complex. 10th turns into 44th, and parallels CO Hwy 58. After a mile, you'll go under CO 58; take an immediate left hand turn and follow the hairpin turn back west until it dead-ends at a T-intersection. To your left is an on ramp to CO 58 W, to your right is Easley Way. Park on the righthand corner at a large gravel lot.
Looking up from the parking past a few houses, you'll see the wall (and even the climb Bone Crusher) clearly. Hike towards the on ramp and follow a very good trail much further west than you think you want to go. This trail skirts underneath terraced road cuts on the slope above. Eventually the trail will wind back north between the mesas.... Keep your eyes peeled for a very well-traveled trail that splits off to the right (the junction is cairned). Follow this back east again, now above the terraces, until you are directly below the main wall.
There are three lines here: The left is Frank's Wild Years (5.11-), the middle is Silver Bullet (5.12-), and the right is Bone Collector aka Bone Crusher (5.12). Further to the right are the shorter climbs, and easy access to the top for setting up top ropes.
Stick clip first bolt, very unique route, cool arete section leads to jugs through a bulge, followed by a thin move to reach upper roof. Nexts comes a inspector gadget crux (long move), finish this one off with a tweaky move to the anchor. Mark Rolofson's years of route development shine through this master piece....[more]Browse More Classics in CO
Josh. Excellent that someone finally posted these hidden gems! Now that the cat is out of the bag, I think Bone Crusher is one of the best crack routes near Golden. Who would have thought that IC training could be so close to home! Thanks for posting them. Are you going to post the warm ups that are on the right? One is 5.9 hands/thin hands bit flared. The other one has a fist section through a tight corner. I don't remember what Jimmy called those.
By Wayne Crill From: an Altered State Apr 14, 2008
The flared thin hands crack on the smaller right buttress with anchors at the top is "the short tour", the line on the far L. of this butress, fingers to fists up high is Marry Me Becky ~5.10, Menendez and Gallagher respectively. All these route were done years ago.
I concur with Darren, Bone Crusher is the standout route at the crag and one of the best splitters "around".
Does anyone know the ownership of these crags and the land beneath them? It's my understanding that they were being kept quiet because they are on private land (an old quarry), even though all the surrounding land is open space. I hope the access is safe...the climbs are unique for this area.
Dougald, that's a great question. My understanding is that the crag itself is JeffCo Open Space, but was unclear about how far down towards the road that land extended. I have been told that the School of Mines has geology classes along those lower rock bands and that it is public access left of the power lines. This is unverified and may be incorrect.
By Wayne Crill From: an Altered State Apr 14, 2008
Dougald, my understanding is that this area was off limits until about 1.5-2 yrs ago when the land was purchased by Open Space, from the mine/quarry owners. This is also word of mouth, but my information is that Jimmy Menendez spoke with Open Space about this and the purchase was confirmed. I believe C. Leubben knows of the official status.
What I do know is that at this time ~ 2 yrs ago, the barbed wire fence with no-trespassing signs was taken down (still visible under the power lines) and official open space parking areas were constructed as described in the write up and also up at the end of ridge road (alternative access). It certainly would be nice to know "for sure" what the status is.
There must have been a lot of pent up demand to comment on this "secret" crag. The day of the area's initial submission may still be young, yet an impressive 17 posts have proceded this one.
I just posted some pictures I took on my first recon visit to the Quarry Wall. I have listed the pictures according to the routes I take them to be based on information gleaned from this site. If I am mistaken in which pictures are in fact of which routes, I apologize. I'm brand new to the area and exploring my new climbing home. I will happily edit the captions if any of what I posted is incorrect. That said, sick cracks!
I've always parked at the Ridge road parking area. It's the "Future Parking Area" on this conceptual map. You hike on an abandoned road all the way to the quarry. I suppose it's a little farther, but probably doesn't take that much more time and there's no question that it's on JCOS land the whole way. http://www.jeffco.us/jeffco/openspace_uploads/ntm_park/NTMco>>>>>
The approach trail as pictured in the new guidebook, is not accurate. There is a route here, but is much steeper and made of game trails. The trail as described in the body of the report above is a good sustainable trail. Have not tried the approach as described above in the comments section.
You are correct, the line drawn in the photo in the new guidebook is a bit off from the actual trail. However, the trail currently used crosses back and forth over private property several times. As such, the guidebook is drawn in so as to stay off any private property and potential access issues. Please feel free to let me know of any other comments you have about the book.
Actually, looking at the Jeffco Open Space Map as per Brian M's comment in Aug. 2008, ANY approach that starts at the CO 58 onramp crosses private land. Will try his approach next time. Also, the routes listed below The Mummy, currently starting with Natural Born Topropers, are on a separate buttress about 250 yards to the east, reachable by trail. Toprope anchors are a bit more challenging to find on the left side of the wall.
Doug, thanks for looking into this more. When I get some time, I would like to consult a surveyor's map rather than this one http://www.jeffco.us/jeffco/openspace_uploads/ntm_park/NTMco>>>>> as it is not extremely detailed/kinda vague and we do not want to encourage people to cross private property, even if it doesn't currently seem to be a problem. We struggled with the idea of including the area in the guidebook at all, but after talking with two different people from Jefferson County Open Space, they said that they owned the land from the cliff down to the highway now, thus allowing a legal access from the currently purposed parking area. If this is incorrect, we will attempt to contact the landowners and see if they are ok with the trail or change the directions in the next edition of the guidebook. Thanks again.
I've been meaning to post about the rockfall. I was up there early April and the rockfall hadn't occurred yet. I was up again May 8 and noticed the rockfall. I'd say it happened late April. Anyone in the area probably would have heard it. Bone Crusher and the other splitters are unaffected, other than a few big boulders at the base. I agree that there is probably going to be another big rockfall event at some point which will bring down the rest of the sport climb.
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