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Castle Crags
Castle
crags, aah! this is where desire tranformed into addiction. Hundreds
of granite walls and only a handful of established routes. Could it be
true, it's gotta be choss! My first experience in the crags was excellent.
I went up to do the classic "Cosmic Wall" in the spring of 2002 and was
blown away by the amount of rock and lack of route development. The "Cosmic
Wall" was a true classic and I was inspired to check out the other routes
listed in the Falcon guide. I was finishing up school and my
time was freeing up again. So I started ticking the routes off one after
another. Solar wind, Castle Dome North Face, Six Toe Crack, and of course
the East Face aka, "The Dike Route". All quality routes with a unique
Crags feel. The Dike Route, being one of my favorite all time routes.
So the summer went by, I did nearly every route in the guide, and a few
others. I decided it was time to make my own contribution to the area.
I set out to find a project. Fall was closing quickly and I would
have to work fast. I decided to check out the gully behind "Six Toe Crack." You
could see the gully from the trail and it seemed worth a look. Amy,
my daughter and most frequent climbing partner at the time, and I set
out on a mission to do the "Six Toe Crack" and rap off the back side
to have a look. Six Toe was super fun so nothing lost if the "Descent
Gully" didnt pan out. But to my delight there were beautiful walls of
polished granite and crack seams that opened and closed making it obvious
that these were going to be some interesting routes. Fall of '02 in the
Descent Gully aka, "The Grotto" was one of my best climbing seasons ever.
When it was over 10 new routes, most of them high quality, ranging from
10a to 12d.
A new era in the Crags had begun!
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