Start by standing on the rock pile, or make it a possible 5.13b by beginning at the apex of the back of the cave. Then follow the bolt line through the center of the cave as the sharp flares burn your fingers and drain your tank.  At the end, get the "JUG" and clip, take a deep breath and pull out over the roof.  Then follow about 20 feet of seemingly steep slab and open hand.    Beware of crumbly rock and chalk X it when you can.

Chunnel

Battle of the Bulge

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Way Up Yonder

Up Yonder

Andromeda Strain

Motha

Ro Shampo

Strevels Gets in Shape

Hemisfear

Pulling Pockets

AWOL

Jump for Joy

Synchronicity

Five Finger Discount

Gumby Land

Tic-Tac-Toe

Trouble Clef

C Sharp or B Flat

Just Duet

I Didn't Know This Was The End

Runnin Down a Dream

Eric and Brian's Excellent Adventure

Roadside Attraction

The Return of Chris Snyder

Science Friction

Scissors

Stay the Hand

You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish

Hard Left

Wicked Games

Rosetta Phone Home

Crazy Fingers

Release the Kraken

Stay the Hand (Direct Start)

All Cows Eat Grass

Valor Over Discretion

Fadda

Ledger Line

Pine

Jersey Connection

Wild Gift

Dragonslayer

Altered Scale

Over Yonder

Milkin' the Chicken

Ro Shamlo

Harder Than Your Husband

Mantel Route

Strawberry Shortcake

Kampsight

With incredible iron rails all throughout this cave, one can imagine this region as a sort of Rosetta Stone for an alien language, giving the problem it's name.  Take time to marvel at the beautiful geology of this region while you're climbing.

Start with your hands on the X's marked on the photo and feet on the circles, straddling the feature that juts out from the wall.  Thrust up to a fairly large pocket above your head, then continue to ride the network of iron rails, with holds ranging from large pockets to sharp crimps, with a notable absence of good foot holds after the first two moves.

Traverse right along the line to a large pocket about 6 feet from the roof crack, match your hands and begin the crux moves.  Drop the feet or figure 4 and twist around, reaching for a crimpy hold, then do a final push to reach the roof crack, ending the problem.

Overall, a very fun problem in an awesome overhung cave.

From the anchors of AWOL, continue up the wide, dirty crack directly above. Make use of more face holds than the crack itself and get creative on gear placements. Once through the short-lived crack section, follow the slab up to a belay at a tree on the top of the cliff. 70-meter rope required to rappel/lower all the way back to the ground.

A cool face climb that ascends the face below the HUGE hueco on the left wall on Roadside Crag.

A few pieces of gear get you to a single bolt at a thin crux. There are however a few hard spots. The first is a long reach to a horizontal which isnt bad once you figure it out. From there a big move can be done with a dyno or hard undercling move to a jug. from here a mix of small and really small holds lead to the giant hueco. Most of the moves are harder for the short folks. Still fun and doable though.

This is the full route that starts on

Up Yonder

.  Start on

Up Yonder

(5.11b) and climb the over hanging jugs and slopers to the first set of anchors at the huge ledge.  Then climb up onto the ledge and begin the second half of the route on an extremely overhanging jug haul to the anchors.

Overhanging pocketed jug haul.  Continuous at the grade throughout, except eases between last bolt and anchors.  Can continue route to a second set of anchors (

Way Up Yonder

, 5.12a).  Need 60m rope.

Great climb in the dry season, but can get a little damp in the wet ones. Start on easy moves to get into a huge corner with a handcrack.  Jam and stem up the crack through sustained moves to reach the top.  Belay and rap from webbing on trees, and if still present after all of these years, a small stopper placed in a horse's skull.

Climba pocketed face past a couple of horizontal bands to bolted anchors using pockets and horizontals for pro.

A stellar sport route. Climb up steep face on plates and edges to chains. Easy for the grade, it felt more like a solid 5.11 in my opinion. A great lead for someone trying to break into the grade, especially if you have a big reach. Use an attentive belayer to avoid hitting the Boulder at the base.

A very fun bouldery route. Boulder up an arch like feature and make a big accuracy move to a pocket, fight through the steep face on forgiving holds to the first set of anchors for 12b. Another set of anchors is higher up but the rock lowers in quality and the grade stays the same, if you are a number chasing sort of person. Absolutely fantastic route though.

Sort of like climbing three V3s in a row, Hemisfear climbs up a series of tiny crimps and edges into a hueco about 40 feet up the wall.  Short, but sustained at the grade.  Being vertical and super crimpy, Hemisfear is a spectacular diversion from typcally steep, juggier climbing in the Red.

The fourth route on the 5.10 wall, between Crazyfingers (5.10c) and the trad line Synchronicity (5.11a).  Originally a trad line, this excellent route is now well protected by bolts.  Climb through pockets to a crimp crux, then pick one of several variations from the last bolt to the anchors.

Brilliant stone, great moves and your belayer will be blocking the  trail, so anyone who wanders up to the wall will be forced to watch you climb this route.

AWOL is one of the best known routes at the grade in the RRG.

This was my first 5.10 redpoint and I had been terribly intimidated by the finishing moves for a long time. It was very tricky to find my way through all the chalked up crimps while pumped silly.

But then one night I had a dream where I flowed effortlessly through the final sequence and I sent the route the next day.

Start on top of a boulder at the base of the rock and pull on to the face- clipping 4 bolts along the way to a long ledge with trees and a bolted anchor for a belay/rap. This route is probably harder for shorter people, but not obscenely so.

A great route on the same wall as a half dozen similar sport climbs. This one just takes nuts though, not bolts... Start up the crack and offset with a few odd locks and jams to pass allow crux then toss in stoppers at will and cruise to the anchors above on big pockets and dishes near the crack.  I ran into Greg in the mid 90's when I was on a road trip and he asked: "I hear they are giving that thing 5.11a these days?  Is that true?"

"Well, yes they are..." I responded. "What did you give it?"

"It's a 10." Was Greg's reply.

What is it really? You decide for yourselves.

A nice thin crack and face just left of Fatha, this route appears harder than 5.8 from the base but is easier than it looks.  Climb the low-angle ramp up and left, then step left into a beautiful thin carck and flake to the top.

Obvious easy route just right of

C Sharp or B Flat

. It's a casual romp up an inside corner/flake.

A good time.

Follow steep and fun climbing to a tricky boulder problem at the last bolt. You can rest on hand jams on the way to save up for the tough crux.

Arrive early. Like many climbs at Roadside Crag, this is a well used route.  This route starts to the right of a crack, and on top of a waste high ledge.  Take a minute to enjoy the view from the anchors.

Climb a highly featured and polished slab to a more vertical highly featured and polished face.

The crux is a matter of balance and the rest of the climb is much easier.

This route used to have the distinction of being the easiest bolted route in the RRG, but this is no longer true. You might call it the most climbed route in the Red, as it had many years of beginner climbers on it before the easier routes were developed.

Despite all that, it is a fun and worthy route.

Fifteen feet right of Can’t Tune A Tuna is this super secret hidden trad line. Scramble a ledge to gain a finger crack, then dive into an off width section, follow that to a crumbly ledge to gain a hand crack. Run the rather unprotected slab to the barbed wire fence at the top of the cliff or sneak left to a tree for a belay. The view is spectacular. Rap from the tree line to the anchors of Can’t Tune a Tuna. A double rappel is required to keep from splatting.

This climb starts on the ledge above Jump For Joy. From the repel station on the ledge step right 5 feet around the bush and look up for a single bolt. This bolt is 15 feet off of the ledge. Right in front of your face is a small horizontal crack where a Yellow Metolius TCU will fit perfect. I hope you didn't forget the long runners. From here grab a couple holds and step up onto the slab, its a good stance so you can clip the bolt. After the clip shoot up and left, aiming for the best holds. Fight through the search for hidden holds and a small wire placement just for motivation. Slab up to a scoop and find another small cam placement take a deep breath your almost through the worst of it. Step right and up to a small roof where another small TCU placement can be found. Climb just left of the roof and up to a cool rail mantel and another mid range cam. Step up and into the alcove where some suspect pro is. Take the line of least resistance to the left and up out the small roof and head for the top on surprisingly strong patina rock where a bolted belay station is.

This route is an adventure indeed! Journey up the chossy rock trying to find a path to the anchors. It's a lot of route finding, hold searching, and adventuring. It's really annoying to clean this route. Perhaps not worth climbing even if you've done everything else at Roadside.

A beautiful dihedral crack.  Scramble to a ledge with bolted anchor for optional belay. Then jam, stem, and lieback past to the top to another bolted anchor/belay.

Begin on a short flake and slab up to a roof. Bust through the roof then climb about 65 more feet on overhanging pockets.

Scramble to the top of an 8-foot tall pillar to a ledge. Stare at the seemingly blank rail feature and remind yourself it is still sandstone. Pull on and lieback the rail making use of small divets and fat pinches for your hands and the tiniest of nubs for your trusty feet. Complete this delicate dance of friction and balance and you will be rewarded with a stellar victory lap on beautiful rock until just below the roof. Tech through one last boulder and surmount the roof on sandy jugs to reach the chains.

Exceptional face/friction climbing through the bottom two bolts that is very unique for the Red; which may be why it feels so hard to most climbers in this area.

The crux move right at the first bolt is followed by pumpy juggy climbing for the rest of the route.

Stick clipping is a good idea.

Sequential climbing on good holds. This would be a 5.10 if it were farther left on the wall where the angle is easier.

More bouldery than endurance dependant.

Challenging face climbing with a short crux section about midway.

Starting on a slabby section, balance your way to the first bolt about 15' up.  Work through crimpy features up to a slightly overhanging crux; good footwork will put you in a position to throw for a nice jug.  Continue up the face to the anchors.

Climb up the slab to gain a left-angling crack that eventually ends.  From here, traverse left to a large hueco and a two bolt anchor.

Very crimpy with bad feet and long reaches.  Especially hard for people about 5'8 and under.

A steep climb with mostly good holds, but little good rest. None of the moves are particularly hard, but the route is pumpy, making the clips up top harder than the other two routes, but perhaps this is the best warm-up,  for lack of hard moves down low.

Start directly underneath the Roadside waterfall, pulling a roof move off the tombstone to begin, and climbing through a few tricky sequences to reach a no hands rest. From the no hands, set sail for an overhanging thug fest out one of the steepest parts of the amphitheater. Choose your holds wisely and "Unleash the Beast" as you vie for the chains, on what has proven to be a heart-breaker finish for many.

10 bolts currently permadrawed, bring a couple draws with you if you wish to clip the unnecessary bolts.

Choose from the very few options of small crimps and sub-optimal feet to pull on and boulder through an aggressively difficult sequence to gain a jug rail. Continue through sandy jugs until you join up with the welcoming, chalk-covered line of Stay the Hand.

Climb the nice edgey slab to a bulge. Pull around some goofiness and finish in a weird groove, making an airy move or two right or alternately finish on thin holds from directly under the anchor. Either way, the finish is the metal crux of the route.

Good climbing that flows well up to the second bolt from the top.

Starts from the top of a large boulder.  Climb the face right of an arete to a roof, then move to the left face and finish at a ledge.

Face climb the bolt line on mostly pockets through a high crux to cold shuts.

This is another fun 5.7 located between

C Sharp or B Flat

and

All Cows Eat Grass

.

Start off the ground with a few tricky moves to get established on the wall.  Continue up easy moves to a large ledge with a roof above.  Warning this ledge may be sandy making this section surprisingly difficult.  Pull the roof and head up the steep wall above.  Most of the holds are huge and bomber but many are underclings and the climbing can get pumpy.  Persevere past a crux and hang on for the easier run to the anchors.

Start as for Stay the Hand but branch left. Sequential moves off pockets lead to a good rest out right. Take a breath, go back left, and go from tiny crimps to a good rail. Follow good holds to the top.

Slopers and bad edges up overhanging cliff angling up and right. Super powerful moves make this climb unique and it feels impossible to link the moves for the inexperienced 5.12- climber(me).

A short pitch, but the whole thing is good.  THe brevity of it is mitigated by the chance to climb it, AWOL, and Crazy Fingers all back-to-back, for 150 feet of great climbing, all at ~ the same grade and character.

Just a few feet right of A.W.O.L. is a second climb of a similar grade, perhaps a shave harder. Your success on this climb is dependent on having some finger strength, and on finding and using some thin footholds. The monos are not 'hangers' because you have good feet to hold your weight, they are just for holding you in, so the stress is not incredible. The route also gets easier as you progress.

Stiff for the grade, Altered Scale has a nice variety of moves.

Starting on a ledge, pull some hard moves to the first bolt (stick clipping is a good option).  Continue on easier ground to a thin section about midway; save some energy for pulling a sequency bulge near the top, then finish to the anchors.

In my opinion this route deserves much more respect... However if you dont like groveling in steep grooves you might be right to avoid it... For its style it is awesome... Though it is slightly marred by a bolt at the top, there is a bomber hand sized cam placement right next to the bolt so i saw no need to clip it...

To the left of Way Up Yonder wedge in to the corner and chimney, jam, and stem up to the Up Yonder anchor...

Gear is good with a little run out here and there...

Previously known as "Camel Toe Jockey"

This climb was rated 5.11a in 1991, but I broke some holds off it in an early ascent as did many others.  This has become harder due to those deteriorating holds. I suspect (hope) that the climb has become more stable, however.

Head up a few vertical moves to small holds and pull into a shallow dish. Sling a horn (chicken-head) and head up to the anchors on easier moves.

Start on a left hand shallow dish and a right hand half pad two finger crimp.  Work straight up the small arete on open handed crimps and pinches.

This is a short but stout route for the grade.  Start in the corner and traverse along a low horizontal crack to reach the point where you can pull the overhang.  Reach out to the bomber hand jam and finger lock and scrape your way to a stance.  Follow to the anchors trending to the left.  The footholds needed to pull the overhang may be wet and are extremely slippery.  Very intense.

This route is a unique masterpiece of finesse and physicality. Start up the vertical face to reach the first ledge with your hands, clip a bolt and press out the first of multiple namesake mantles. Continue up on solid holds placing gear in pockets and horizontals until reaching 2 more bolts higher up and a final mantle to easier terrain that leads to the anchor.

Start on the crack to the right of the first bolt of All Cows Eat Grass and follow that crack about halfway up the wall. Then move right to another crack and follow this up until you can move right and clip the anchors for Ledger Line.

Similar in nature to C Sharp or B Flat, but harder. There is a couple of distinct cruxes at 1/3 and 2/3 height. The route is intimidating if you are breaking into the grade.

The moves are very fun once you get comfortable on this route and the exposure at the top is good.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Graining Fork Nature Preserve (a.k.a. Roadside Crag)