I have waffled a long time about posting this route. In the final analysis, we invest a great deal of ourselves in climbing and a great deal in the creation of routes. For this reason, it seems important to place this route in the public domain once again. MC 900 ft Jesus (this is not Mark's name)  climbs the imposing grey streak on the right side of the Project Wall.  It's far from the hardest route in the canyon. It is mostly vertical and has a lot of thin edges or semi-pockets with some big reaches tossed in between. Mark Tarrant put in the anchors for this route in 1985 and had it largely figured out at the time. In 1989 he showed it to me as project that inspired him, and he asked for my assistance on the other end of the rope to get it in.  Before Mark could run his red point, a variation was established on the right (The Eighth Day) that chased Marks bolts through the streak and not through the 5.10+ sector on the right as was originally proposed.  I will always view this as Mark's route, and we all should. Mark's original line approached the grey streak from the left via 5.12b face and edge climbing. The right hand variation converges at the same spot just below the streak. The climbing through the streak wanders around a bit to find the shallow pockets that link it all up. This route is well worth three stars for the imposing line with it's near dead fall onto the road, continuously difficult climbing, and (now) solid stone.

The Eighth Day (aka MC 900 FT Jesus)

Simply Redlined

Waka Flocka

Rehabilitator

The Gay Science

Simply Read

Bottom Feeder

The Gayness

Defenseless Betty

Hang 'Em High

Strange Ranger

War and Peace

Of Mice and Men

Living in Fear

Modest Mouse

Sick Little Monkey

Irie Meditation

Fist Full of Dollars

Let it Burn

Little Monkey

Apocalypse '91

Mighty Mouse

Hang 'Em Higher

Goofy Foot

Apocalypse

Baby Jesus

Twisted

Waka Flocka Flame

Mouse Trap

Sometimes Always

Top Feeder

Present Tense

This is the intro pitch into

MC 900 Ft Jesus

, which recently got its own bolted anchor. It is a fantastic addition to the climbs at Project Wall. Climb the slightly overhanging orange rock with a plethora of right-facing holds. This has great friction for now. Smear your feet through a couple of cruxes, and enjoy the ride.

This route extends

Simply Read

to an anchor at 33 meters, just in case your brain can't handle the entirety of

War and Peace

.

Clip the anchor of

Simply Read

(13d) then climb up and right through steep and blocky terrain, with no good rest, until the wall's angle lessens to just over vertical. Trend up and left on thin moves to the anchor. There are eight additional bolts above the

Simply Read

anchor.

War and Peace

(14a) continues from here to the top of the cliff.

Waka Flocka climbs the clean, overhanging face left of

Living in Fear

. Climb relatively easy terrain for two bolts to a large undercling. Psych yourself up and power through a viciously crimpy boulder problem (crux) to a jug rest below the small roof. Compose yourself and enjoy phenomenal 5.13 climbing on perfect stone to the chains. Waka Flocka requires very little fiddling and is a great addition to an already stacked wall.

This is a wonderful route and one of the longest, most sustained 5.11s on Rifle. There is a quartet of 5.11s on the very right margin of the Project Wall, this one being the third route from the [right] (and two routes right of

Hang Em' High

).

Rehabilitator climbs a very colorful, monolithic streaked face to a very faint, left-facing corner system and a high set of anchors. The route is pumpy yet positive right off the bat and stays continuously involved all the way to the top, with lots of opportunities to practice your Rifle sloping pinch technique on the upper half of the route.

Start off the ramp and step right onto the face, grabbing jugs and clipping a bolt. This route has been the scene of one bad accident when a climber got the rope behind her leg and hit the ramp with her head when she fell. Use caution getting to the third bolt.

Due to a poor guidebook description, and a lack of chalk, this excellent route is one of the most neglected routes on the [Project Wall].  With intricate moves, improbable holds, and [kneebar-dependent] moves, this route would be a 5-star classic at any other crag.

The Gay Science starts on a prominent blue streak, and continues up the steep, clean, blocky face between Apocalypse 95' and

Simply Read

. Two bolts of easy climbing bring you to a unique series of underclings that revolve around a tricky kneebar.  Once you have gained the break, some big, thuggy moves lead to an insecure boulder problem consisting of marginal pinches, sidepulls and kneebars, with a very long reach out right.  Make a couple of more strenuous clips and then tackle the redpoint crux- a lip traverse on small crimpers and slopers, to a sideways dyno. After resting, finish on the fairly straightforward headwall.

This line defines the term "directissima," and were it vertical instead of 40 degrees overhanging, would be the proverbial, Comici-esque path which a drop of water would follow from the cliff's summit to the base of the wall.

Simply Read climbs out the center of the cave sector on the Project Wall directly above the parking area. It tackles an ultra-steep line on porcelain-hard white stone and can be recognized by a highly-chalked boulder problem start in the opening cave.

This line was originally equipped by Erik Fedor then freed about 5 years later by Scott Franklin. It basically consists of two powerful boulder problems separated by scads of sustained, overhanging climbing, and has shut more climbers down than some of the 5.14s at Rifle.

Simply Read ends at 80 feet for the time being, but were it extended to the top of the wall would surely take on another dimension in difficulty. Don't forget your kneepads.

Besides a little glue reinforcing a couple of holds below the upper crux, this line is entirely natural, making it one of the best hard routes at Rifle.

This is the farthest right route of the Project Wall "warm up routes".  Bottom Feeder is the easiest route on the PJ Wall, but it's also one of the spookiest due to minimal use of bolts.  It's actually not too runout, but I wouldn't throw a budding 5.11 leader on it (or would I?).  The climbing is fun and the route is well worth doing.

This route is a link-up beginning with

Gay Science

, climbing past the anchors up and right through the extension of

Apocalypse

.

Defenseless Betty is another great Project Wall route.  Stiff for the grade, it is all of 11d. Work up through the overhang just left of

Hang 'Em High

, climbing through the low roofs. Finish up the steep groove on great stone.  It has technical moves to the end.

This is a Project Wall classic for the grade. This climb almost always has fixed draws as someone is always working on it.

Climb straight up the middle of the X crack, following the bolted line up this immaculate piece of limestone.  Look for a couple of key rests to help the lower cruxes, and hang on tight because the fun is between the last bolt and the anchor, just the way it should be!

This is a technical and long and an endurance fest.

I avoided this route for years because of its funkous name, but it actually climbes quite nicely and is a good addition to the Project Wall.

Originally bolted in a aid solo frenzy in one afternoon by Duane Raleigh, this route collected cobwebs for a few years until George Squibb came along and freed it. It is one route left of

Simply Read

, and goes into

Simply Read

at the last bolt, sharing the same anchors.

Start with the second bolt pre-clipped (it would be nice to move this for free climbing) and bust a funky boulder problem to good holds under a roof. Stick in those knees, dyno high and left then work up flakes to a good jug. A final, complex boulder problem over the crux lip leads to a decent shake and some 12a getting up to the anchors.

War and Peace extends

Simply Read

for an additional 100 feet, creating a proud line up the entire Project Wall.

Clip the anchor of

Simply Read

(13d), then follow bolts up and right through steep and blocky terrain, with no good rest, until the wall's angle lessens to just over vertical. Trend up and left on thin moves until the 33-meter point (and anchors for

Simply Redlined

, 14a). Have a much-needed rest, then punch it for another 45 feet of steep, 12d climbing to the very top of the cliff.

To reduce rope drag I stick-clipped the 5th bolt of

Simply Read

, used loads of long slings, and four DMM Revolver biners along the way.

This is an exciting undertaking!

A 100-METER ROPE OR SEVERAL LOWERS ARE REQUIRED TO GET DOWN.

This is a worthy route that summits the Project Wall. It is the super-mega-extension of

Mouse Trap

. Of Mice and Men is an "old-school" route with some very demanding footwork as well as thin holds. The crux is a strange mantle into a series of very thin edges. The end of the pitch is often wet, making the last moves exciting!

This is the lefmost "tall" line on the Project Wall (

Sick Little Monkey

climbs through the blue, overhanging wall to the left) and climbs through grey-streaked rock onto a white and blue headwall with a faint dihedral near the top.

Without any discernible crux, this 90-foot route is a power-endurance nightmare and has only one spot where you can shake out both hands. The bottom used to be quite wet most of the season, but drier summers have left it consistently drier.

The "toilet-bowl" rest is better in cold temps.  Was rated 5.13d by Scott, Wilbur Nazarian did it quickly and downrated to 5.13c, it held there for a while.

Consensus these days is 5.13d -- but hard-as-hell 5.13d.

This is a link-up of Defenseless Betty and the extension of Mousetrap. Start by climbing DB to the anchors. I found it best to skip the last bolt of DB and climb up a little more and reach left and clip the chain draw on Mousetrap. After you clip, climb up and left to the anchors of Mousetrap and clip the extended draw that is usually in place on the right anchor bolt. Continue for four more bolts to the anchors. This adds three more tricky section on top of doing DB. The section are separated by good rest. This link-up is more popular and arguably better than Mighty Mouse.

This is an old project on the far left side of the Project Wall (where everyone urinates pre-redpoint) that got cleaned up a bit and sent. It climbs a grey-and-white-streaked face to a big bulge to a bit of blue stone above, and is back behind the trees.

Climb the vertical face on sidepulls and crimps to a first-set of anchors (given 11d, feels harder). Lower off, or continue right into the bulge and a gymnastic crux sequence on slopers that takes you to a good little brick, then layaways, above the bulge. The 13c rating assumes you do both pitches as one, without weighting the first set of anchors. Bring a good heel-toe hooking shoe.

Irie Meditation has bouldery movement with a little of everything: pinches, crimps, and slopers.  Good rests can be had if you're creative.

Just right of the ultra-classic "

Hang'em High

" is a long, right-angling route that chases up to a right facing corner system. This is Fist Full of Dollars and only a scratch less classy than anything else on the wall. Pumpy, technical, and continuous Fist is a very worthy line for one of those 5.11 days when you just are not up for hard cranking. The six routes in this cluster are all about Rifle climbing: sustained, interesting, slopy, and with less than zero approach.

Start as for

Present Tense

and

Sometimes Always

, but instead of doing yoga in the overhung dihedral of

Sometimes Always

, dive out left to a fun series of moves en route to the straightforward (mostly) redpoint crux followed by a tour of some of the best rock in the canyon. Your resting abilities and kneebar power will be tested on this rig.

Bring a 70 meter or a 60 something meter rope. Knot the end! Kneepads are definitely helpful on this one.

This stout and short route climbs up to the first anchors on

Sick Little Monkey

. A stiff boulder problem guards the chains. Follow a bunch of not so great sidepulls and edges up a seldom climbed part of the Project Wall.

This killer route climbs takes the very overhanging line just right of the cave in the center of the Project Wall, starting out of the dirt in the parking lot and not up in the cave itself. It can be recognized by a bulbous, blue tufa that gives way to very overhanging white rock at the start.

Sustained, cruxy climbing through the middle gives way to a rest, then another powerful bulge and a finishing headwall on depressingly slippery crimpers. This is a long pitch, bolted in the days when routes ended at half a rope length no matter what. Thusly, don't be discouraged when you find the finishing "jug" at the anchors is actually a flat sloper. Many people hang a long sling or two off the anchors and grab those once they have the sloper, before clipping.

Were this route extended, even just another 10 meters, it would surely be much, much harder. Nevertheless, it is a Rifle classic and a must-do at the grade.

Kneebar trickery gets you through the lower crux. Ask a local for beta.

This is the extension to

Mouse Trap

done in one push. Decipher the crux just above the first anchor (gasto-cling!), then move left on very thin holds. Continue to the anchor on face holds. Use an 80m rope, or lower twice with a 60/70m.

This is a three bolt extension to the classic

Hang 'Em High

. It adds some pump and ups the grade from soft 5.12c to very solid 5.12c. This makes Hang 'Em High(er) into one of the best sport routes of its grade anywhere. It makes it a full 30 meter pitch.

Goofy Foot climbs more like a fussy trad route than a Rifle sport climb. You'll probably fall because your foot slips -- not because you're pumped!

Goof Foot climbs the hanging, right-facing dihedral in the left-center portion of the Project Wall, ending at chain anchors at a diagonal break about 60 feet up, over a bulge. It is two routes left of

Simply Read

, one route right of

Present Tense

.

Start on the far right side of the conglomerated rubble heap, yarding on embedded rocks to stand up on a little ledge and clip the first bolt. Move up past deep pockets and good incuts to the base of the corner. An initial crux involves a sideways traverse on improbable holds (stay low!). This is capped off with some of the weirdest, sleaziest, sickest, stemmiest climbing in Rifle. A pumpy finishing bulge takes you to the chains, which are shared by

Strange Ranger

(13d).

This is a pretty cool route in a bizarre, only-climb-it-once sort of way. It was originally rated 12d, and while the grade has slowly crept up to 13b, it's still a stiff tick.

Seeing as how the original anchors are gone now, I figured the route description could use an update. This is the easiest of the king lines at the Project Wall.

Begin at the far right side of the Project Wall Cave on a pile of solidified rubble below an attractive blue streak. The route basically breaks down into two sections: a power endurance boulder problem with a finicky kneebar (or not) in the first six bolts to a very nice rest, followed by some awesome endurance 5.12 climbing and a tricky little boulder to the chains. Some will argue that the addition of 20 extra feet does not warrant the .13c rating, but a few intricate sequences above the original finish may make you feel justified in taking the higher grade when you make it to the anchor. It is an excellent route of very high quality.

This route shares the first two bolts with The Eighth Day on the far right of the Project Wall.  Stem up the corner, then move up and right under a large roof.

Waka Flocka Flame takes a great route and makes it better. This line is an absolute monster of a pitch that combines basically all of the best climbing on Project Wall into a 75(+) move, resistance 14c.Takes a great route and makes it better. This line is an absolute monster of a pitch that combines basically all of the best climbing on Project Wall into a 75(+) move resistance 14c.

Begin by climbing the brilliant start of

Waka Flocka

past the jug then onto the blue headwall. Right where

WF

eases up, bust right, and make a hard, 3-4 move traverse into

Living in Fear

. Execute crux moves on

Living

, and keep it together for the remaining 50 feet of bouldery crimping and eventually face climbing on Living the Dream.

The Pegg guidebook names Waka Flocka Flame “Rifle’s proudest link-up” and for a good reason.

One route to the left of

Defeseless Betty

.  Climb 30 feet up an easy loose slab to the first bolt. The first moves after the slab are the crux. This route has technical climbing with stems, hand jams, and even a knee bar.

This route is lonnnnggg and can rightfully be considered one of the best ultra-long single pitch routes at Rifle (the others being the 8th Day,

MC 900-Foot Jesus

, Schwa and

Present Tense

).

Sometimes Always is a rope-stretching, forearm burning 130 feet of overhanging limestone with plenty of hard business up high. It demonstrates just how much climbing all the other Project Wall routes out right would yield were they too extended to the top of the wall -- and through the twin, blue-streaked bulges which overhang the road 180 feet below.

Begin just right of

Living in Fear

on the dirty bench/ledge. Boulder up to a high clip and pass a glued jug-spike. The route goes right a bit then straight up the overhanging wall above. This wall fades into an elegant stemming corner, which leads to a capping roof. Above the roof is a beautiful blue/grey headwall with perfect stone in one of Rifle's wildest positions, high over the one of deepest, narrowest sectors of the Canyon.

A stem crux high in the corner can avoided by moving slightly right, then back left into the corner. This sequence presents its own set of problems, however.

Start on

Bottom Feeder

, then pass two sets of chains on your way to the top (hence the name). The crux is the last 3 bolts with big moves on drilled jugs. This has great position.  You can lower with a 60m from the top to the 2nd set of chains, then pull your rope an lower again.

Adam Stack called this the hardest of the Project Wall routes and for good reason -- it's one of the longest and most sustained.

Present Tense is two routes right of

Living in Fear

, or three routes left of

Simply Read

. It starts in the same place as

Sometimes Always

(up on the bone-white dirt heap above the parking spots) but trends right above the first bolt along a seam before heading up into a shallow corner capped by a roof and a long blue streak.

Boulder up the grey rock to the first bolt (the glue-in ring on the right). Underclings get you to the second clip. Sustained, perplexing climbing leads right to a hand jam. Bust a crimpy move into a kneebar rest. The next 40 feet, while littered with positive holds, is very sustained. A knee-scum rest below the finishing roof helps you bleed it back. Straight up over the roof into the blue streak is harder (this is how it originally went), but some climbers have gone left onto

Sometimes Always

then moved back right on  the headwall. Slabby, but interesting climbing takes you to the anchor.

A 60-meter rope just reaches (if you stay into the belayer's side of the rope), so tie a knot in the end and lower slowly.

This is probably one of the most spectacular pitches at Rifle.

Description

Protection

Routes in Project Wall