This is a pretty cool line despite the plethora of kneebars on the upper section and a few sharp holds. Actually, it's a very cool route -- ultra-overhanging and continuous with a good variety of holds and a stout, bouldery set of cruxes.

It is one route right of

Cracked Open Sky

, which takes the big overhanging groove on the leftmost section of the right panel. It can be recognized by a pair of good huecos and some funky tufa drips at the base.

Because this route sees a lot of water behind the bolts during the wet season, you may want to give them a close look. It might not be a bad idea to stick clip the first bolt, as the opening holds are semi-seepy, and climbers have unexpectedly slipped out of huge jugs.

A hard crux at the top of the bottom wall leads to a kneebar rest (if you're wearing pads). Sustained climbing takes you past another bouldery crux to a pumpy lip encounter. This route is more like 13c if you leave the pads on the ground.

Bone Machine

[Redacted]

Diddybop

Moroni Blows

Dont' Trust Whitey

Forgotten Years

Pile Driver

Cracked Open Sky

Skeletor

Pygmy Mastodon Boner

Cupcake

Daydream Nation

Diarrhea Mouth

Chokeslam

Climb out the cave, and pull the lip. This route begins with a boulder problem on pockets and edges then evolves into a steep, more juggy route.

Skull Fuck is just left of

Daydream Nation

, and right of

Forgotten Years

.

This route is all about pockets - some more natural than others. Nevertheless, with decent rock, thuggish moves, and thought provoking sequences, Skull Fuck is definitely worth doing.

Skull Fuck was re-bolted (along with

Moroni Blows

) in September 2018 with new glue-ins, and is now a safe route. The new wave bolts should withstand the early season seepage quite a bit better than the old bolts. A 50 meter rope will easily get you back to the ground

This is a great route with sustained pulling until the end! It is steep!

Interesting that a route so low on the quality meter was one of the earlier pitches bolted at Rifle. For connoisseurs of the truly awful, this is a must-do!

Moroni Blows is the spongy, green route in the very back of the Skull Cave, just between Cracked Open Sky and Daydream Nation. It climbs a sort of pillar to double-bolt anchors at a big hole.

The crux is at the anchor and involves upward slithering into the hole via moss clumps and barnacles. This route sees a lot of water, so be careful that the bolts don't pull out in your face!

With atrociously rusty bolts, and an unaesthetic line, Don't Trust Whitey mainly sits around oozing water and collecting moss.  Harder and steeper than it looks, this route begins with a involved, thuggy boulder problem and ends with a much easier rail traverse to the anchors.

This route is just to the right of

Pile Driver

.  Follow the discontinuous, vertical crack for 5 bolts to anchors below the roof.  A quality route; however, the bolts appear to be getting a little old.

This is the furthest left route in the Skull Cave. Follow the blocky corner on the edge of the cave. Steep and sustained, it is a good warm-up for the rest of the cave. This is worth doing if you're in the area, but not fantastic. The last clip is kind of hard.

Aesthetically, this route is fairly uninspiring, but the challenge, and movement that Skeletor offers still makes this line worth trying.  From the ground, shuffle through a confusing series of holds and set up for a perplexing crux that consists of scant feet, shitty pinches and a dyno to the break.  Recover, and call upon the power of Greyskull to help you battle through easier, yet surprisingly pumpy terrain to the anchors.

This is the rightmost route in the Skull Cave and one of the single worst pitches in North America. If you think I"m exaggerating then go have a crack at it . . . .

Climb past the grey cold-shuts through the hollow, overlapping flake/blocks into a corner below a capping roof. Turn the roof then lower off the last bolt -- or downjump -- or something.

Before climbers re-named it, the Skull Cave used to be named Old Maid's Kitchen, which is what the town locals still call it. Apparently an Old Maid of sorts used it as a kitchen to cook for some menfolk. Not much else is known.

If you think of the cave as Old Maid's Kitchen and choose not to climb here, you'll probably have a blast. If, however, you insist on seeing it as the "Skull Cave," then prepare to lock horns with a seeping, subpar climbing venue replete with sharp, barnacle-lipped pockets, oozing clumps of toxic moss and huecos filled with venomous spiders and various bits of nameless filth.

Just think of the Old Maid soloing this route in her cookin' shoes as you fumble desperately for a dirt-covered sloper at the lip of the cave and success will be yours!

Short, vicious, and relentlessly steep is the name of the game on this brutal line that is the first half of Joe Kinder’s mega rig.

Begin on the slippery polished ledge in the very back of the cave, 10 feet right of

Daydream Nation

. The first few bolts follow a Spain-esque tufa until it terminates at the dead horizontal roof. Consistent and extremely powerful bouldering and cave climbing out the roof lead to a finishing pocket sequence pulling the bulge. Clip the first set of chains, and you’re done. Pockets, slippery feet, and hard clips are the name of the game on what’s probably the steepest and most bouldery route in Rifle.

DO NOT CHANGE OR ADJUST ANY OF THE CURRENT FIXED DRAWS. THEY ARE SET HOW JOE KINDER WANTS, AND UNTIL HE SENDS THE FULL LINE, HE ASKS THEY STAY AS THEY ARE.

Wow! Arguably the steepest route in Rifle, this route suffers badly from seepage early in the season. After it dries, the route needs cleaning up for sure. Watch out for sand and spiderwebs.

Scramble up onto a polished ledge in the very back of the Skull Cave, and carefully climb to the first bolt which is about 20 feet off the ground. That is a bad place to fall. Move up and leftish for three bolts and then enter the horizontal world. It is very core intensive climbing. Powerful climbing brings you to the anchors. Kneepads are helpful.

With the exception of a few routes, Skull Cave has been mostly overlooked as most of the routes are old, rusty, and covered in spiderwebs. Now, the cave hosts one of Rifle’s best and perhaps most difficult line.

D Mouth begins by climbing

Cracked Open Sky

(13d) to a sweet, kneebar rest in the hole. Branch left from that route into unclimbed territory, and execute an amazing and difficult, power endurance crux sequence on pockets and heel hooks on very steep, beautiful rock to a flat jug at the lip of the cave. Rest up, and climb an endurance based traverse across the top of the massive cave to a 5.12a finish on blocky sidepulls. Essentially the route breaks down into 3 parts - powerful 13+ to V12 to pumpy 13+.

This is an incredibly inspiring line and a unique route for RMP, as most of the climbing is steeper than 80° and the holds are almost all pockets, similar to some steep limestone in Margalef, Spain.

Two decades after the the establishment of

Pile Driver

the route has now been extended, and the extension is actually really fun. Get a good rest at the anchors, and clip the first bolt on the extension (consider back cleaning or extending the anchor clip). Embark on a series of jumpy moves if you can't keep a foot on the large ledge, and work up into fun liebacking. As the angle eases, so do the foot holds creating challenging climbing up to a finishing jug. Currently the route shares anchors with a new? route to the right, making for an awkward anchor clip. There is still a fixed line, so maybe this will get its own anchors in time.

Description

Protection

Routes in Skull Cave