Crying Flyboys

Doomsday Birthday

Portrait in Flesh

River Run

Hangman

Groan Up

Mildage

Inner Gorilla

Shine

Suburban Cowgirls

Squeezing My Will to Live

Sucking My Will to Squeeze

Breakfast Club

Less Happy Fun Time

Killer Pillar

Moving Out

Primetime To Shine

Primeval

Portraits of Gorillas

Problem Child

Super Happy Fun Time

Squeeze Play

Flying Cowboys

Flying Child

Public Suck Shine

Suspended Sentence

Sucking My Will to Live

Public Play

City Slickers

Public Solitude

Grim Aura

Hooves!

Relative To Standing

Battle With a Bush

Halle-Bop

Eternal Recurrence

Tater Tot

Mirthmobile

Flying Cowboys is an interesting route, and the only 12d on the Primo Wall.  The best way to describe this one is two tricky boulder problems separated by a huge rest on a ledge.  If you can link the initial powerful throw for the lower crux, and follow this with tricky climbing into the mantle, then you can take a nap on the ledge before finishing the route.  Don't be misled into thinking the climb is over though, some difficult moves still separate you from the anchors and the Redpoint.  Two stars for the sweet moves, not three though because of the nap-ledge rest.

Doomsday Birthday offers great adventure climbing in a very secluded setting.

Traverse left under a large roof using the wide crack, hidden edges, and large feet until you reach the end of the roof.  Then follow an easy corner to the top of the wall until you reach the only solid tree from which you belay and rappel.

This route was put up on my birthday, May 21, 2011.  This also happens to be the day Harold Camping predicted that the world would end.  Hence the name.

Based on the loose rock and lichen, we are claiming a first ascent.  However, if anyone knows the history of this route, please let us know and we will correct the name and give credit to the real FA party.

Portrait in Flesh climbs directly up the center of the striking, vertical wall decorated with stunning green and gold streaks. The route is technical and fingery from start to finish and culminates with a bouldery, low-percentage crux that is literally within spitting distance of the chains.

The rock is perfect, the moves engaging, and the setting is spectacular.

Another strange Primo Wall route like its neighbors

Groan Up

and

Moving Out

. Start in the corner and climb the steep arete to the left of

Moving Out

on sidepulls and slopers. First bolted by Kurt Smith.

Hangman is the furthest route to the right (East) on Primo Wall and starts after the slabs - just off the trail. Hangman and

Suspended Sentence

share the first four clips up a near vertical face with an adjacent right-facing corner. Stem the corner, move out right onto the face, and solve the first fingery 5.12 crux. This will deposit you into a horrizontal slot that defines the beginning of the roof system. Cop a rest here. The roof can be had on its left for SS or on the right for Hangman. Either way, the roof gets surprisingly steep immediately with 5.12 cruxes to the left or the right. I found the Hangman finish to be  a lot less rough on the hands, perhaps a little more obvious. Hangman finishes through the roof on an open seam/flake system of lay-aways that are surprisingly powerful. These holds look huge, but in a couple of places you are working some pretty thin crimps on a steep wall. Two stars for sure for the complex moves at the start, powerful climbing, and excellent stone. Toss in another beer for Alan Nelson and his route finding skills.  By the way, did I mention that the roof was steep???

Groan Up is a short route, like the rest of the wall, with a few fun, tricky moves.

Climb a short face to a large ledge, then ascend an overhanging corner. The second clip is a little tricky, and you might want to have the belayer close to the wall once making the clip as the rope can nudge you off. Move right onto the ledge, and then the fun part begins. The last move before the anchors is a little different and fun. It gets only one star because of the giant ledge halfway up.

Scramble up the choss left of the 5.10 warm-ups, navigate the scrub and talus to the green lichened face above Nomad Cave. Two routes are there, a TR, and Mildage (11+ ish). It follows the obvious weakness on sharp, shady-looking flakes, underclings, and sidepulls. If it had more traffic it would "evolve" nicely. The crux is up high (above the last bolt, going to the chains) a mantle like stretch on steep slab (if there is such a thing). A very different climb than the rest of the area, and a nice change. Just pull down, not out!

Bolted by Luke Childers, this route is a very stellar line with beautiful green streaks of lichen in the rock. After about 12 feet of climbing there's a no hands rest, this is where the route truly begins. The route starts by grabbing holds on both sides of the arete with a good amount of body tension. After pulling the crux, just hold on until you mantel up to the anchors. The rock is clean and the holds are very fun and sometimes a bit odd.

Climbs the groove and steep headwall to the right of

Sucking My Will to Live

. Very bouldery crux. First bolted by Kurt Smith and Mark Rolofson.

This line chases three bolts to the right end of the ledge above "

City Slickers

".  It involves a very challenging mantle crux past the first bolt.  I'll give it an "S" rating because the stance for the second clip is just barely in balance and if you haven't set up correctly you're likely to peel off backwards in a nasty, close-to-the-deck slammer fall.  I've never taken that fall, but I've seen all sorts of people struggle with the mantle and pitch off trying to stand up.  Getting onto the sloping ledge after the clip is no giveaway either, but that move is toproped by the third clip.  Two stars for quality stone and a significantly devious crux.

This is a worthwhile linkup of

Squeeze Play's

first crux into the sting in the tail finish of

Sucking My Will to Live

.   The linkup avoids the off balance Houdini-esque gaston match of

Sucking My Will to Live

in exchange for some powerful pulls between decent holds.  This one climbs nicely!

Climb the technical crux of '

Sucking My Will to Live

' to the good rest, then traverse over and finish on the top crux of '

Squeeze Play

'.  Another good Primo Wall link-up.

Breakfast Club is an interesting route with some varied moves.  Climb an initial crack with insecure moves to a sloping ledge.  Follow the bolts up the overhung arete until joining the final moves of the 11c route to the right.  The last moves are done in the crack at the top of the arete.  Staying out the the crack makes this route significantly more difficult.  The moves on the arete are powerful, but quite enjoyable.

ANOTHER frickin' linkup??

Yes.

Start on

Grim Aura

and traverse (just before the redpoint crux) into the rest on

Sucking My Will to Live

, then continue on to the finish of

Squeeze Play

.  The poor man's

Super Happy Fun Time

.  This gives you something to do if you're frustrated of falling off the last hard move of

Grim Aura

.

This is a good warmup route with a decidedly different character from its neighbor

Mirthmobile

(10a). It serves up a sampling of slopers, stemming, pinches, and jams. Pretty fun.

Moving Out starts in a shallow corner system at the right end of Primo Wall just above the slabs. This route starts hard with some very in-obvious fingery moves in the corner. After no more than 10 or 12 feet the routes settles back for several reasonable moves. However, the first 10 ft may be the crux and probably more like 5.12a/b than 5.12a  splitting hairs, I know). Slip out of the dihedral on some full-hand blocks to get a good stance before leading off into the second 5.12 crux. This sequence reminded me of The Crystal Tower route,

Quartz Sports

. It is a lot more delicate than it is powerful, and the feet leading into an undercling crux  are pretty slender. Haul out of the undercling onto some Thank-God jugs, a few clips on moderate terrain, and the anchor. Two stars for sure. The climbing is tricky, fingery, powerful, and continuous. Personally, I get on Moving Out almost every time I go to Primo Wall. I'd pour Alan's beer myself for this fine addition.

This route starts on

Primeval

moving through the lower crux and then climbs into the first crux of

Shine

. Finish on

Shine's

anchors.

This route tackles the prominent overhung arete in the center of the cliff. It has sustained climbing on relatively positive holds to a final tricky arete. Unfortunately the holds were drilled, then filled in, and a broken hold was re-attached. This awaits a glue-free ascent. Superb, steep climbing.

This is an awesome variation to the classic

Portrait in Flesh

. Crimp your way to the 4th bolt of

Portrait

, then traverse up and left past one more bolt to clip

Inner Gorilla's

anchor. You could also traverse the jug rail at the top of the wall to get to the anchor of

Portrait

.

Continue up the upper headwall above "

Suburban Cowgirls

."  Instead of finishing "

Suburban Cowgirls

" at the the large ledge, rather, you continue up on ever thinning/steepening/powerful movements that are in your face all the way to the anchors.  This has great moves on really nice solid rock.

An exercise in silliness... begin on

Primeval

and traverse like

Primetime To Shine

.  Keep traversing through the middle of

Grim Aura

to the rest on sucking my will.  Traverse even more to finish on

Squeeze Play

.

This route is just left of the 12c

Sucking My Will To Live

. A bit of a squeeze job as the name would suggest but I never felt like I wanted to move right or left to another route.

The biz starts at the second bolt. Varied climbing on bad holds for 5 bolts deposits you on a "slab" where you can get a marginal rest/shake out.  Move left and slap your way up the powerful headwall which you wish were just a little easier.  Not over until you clip the anchors.

This is a LINK-UP: climb the first half of

Flying Cowboys

to the ledge, but instead of mantling, traverse left along the lip into the top half of

Problem Child

.

Another "brilliant" primo wall link-up.  As far as I know, Nick is the first person to do this one: start on

Public Solitude

to the jug after the crux, traverse right into

Sucking My Will to Live

, do a few moves of that route, continue traversing into

Shine

, and finish on that route.  Adds several cruxes onto P.S., making it harder than

Public Play

, so it might actually be .13c.  In Nick's words: "Harder than

Public Play

but way more retarded."

This is the lefthand of the two big roof routes at the far right end of the Primo Wall.  It shares the start with "

Hangman

" to the second bolt.

Where "

Hangman

" traverses right, continue straight up to the roof crack above.  The crack contains a finger-eating lock (you'll know which finger to tape after you let this puppy chew on you), followed by a big blind reach out right for a sloping jug and a reach back left for the lip and the anchor hooks.

If you ever wanted to know what a 5.12b fingerlock feels like, this is it.  Just be thankful you don't have to fish in a crummy piece of gear to protect it like they did back in the olden days.

This is a fingery, technical wall. Back to back thin cruxes lead to a final hard move at the chains. It is stellar.

Climb the crux of

Public Solitude

and finish on the crux of

Squeeze Play

.

Short but stout, this is a slightly overhung route with somewhat powerful moves and not much of a rest. I won't divulge the beta, but know that it's not just an overhang haul - it requires some careful balance.

Climb the slab left of

Sucking My Will to Live

. It looks much easier than it is. Insecure and technical slopers and sidepulls lead to a bizarre final groove. This was redpointed by myself October, 2000 after the bolts were placed by a Golden local, Rich Purnell.

This nine bolt route links

Primeval

,

Shine

, and

Sucking

.... Begin on the first three bolts of

Primeval

, branch left, and continue in a straight line to the anchors of

Sucking My Will

by passing through the middle of

Shine

.

I've had my eye on this little filly for a while.

Hooves! breaks out of the gate fast with a hard move establishing in the undercling. Move left along the undercling and make some fun moves around the flake.  Some good gear and lieback moves lead to the mental crux where the feet get worse and you are forced to leave the crack for a single move.  With the finish line in sight, head into the homestretch with a few more lieback moves and then escape left onto the slab.  Traverse about 20 feet directly left until you reach a vegetated gully.  There is an excellent, vertical crack to place a #1 and #2 Camalot.

Established ground up, onsite, this route was not scrubbed and may be a little dirty.

Climb up a right-leaning ramp/slab while working the overhung wall to gain some nice jugs.  After clipping the 2nd bolt move up with your left hand to gain a sloper, and then the climb is on as you bust out right to a huge jug.  Work the steep face and arete past the (crux) section (bolts 4/5).  Finish by pulling up on to the final head wall to clip the chains on your right.

This line offers delightful dynamic movements up a steep face and arete.  This would make for a great warm-up for some of the more challenging routes at the wall as of current.

So, I was going to climb in the Primo area a few week ago, and I notice this little crack above the Nomad's Cave. I decided to haul my butt and my rack up here to give this a thing a ground up attempt with no idea what I was getting into. Turns out this crack is awesome though a little on the short side. From the abundance of loose rock and vegetation, my guess is that my send was a first ascent; however, people have been climbing here in CCC for longer than I have been alive, so I reluctant to name this. This route is a good opportunity for any crack (climbing) addict to get a fix.

This slightly overhanging crack starts out as slightly big hands and narrows down to thin hand at the top. There is a second crack that begins about 3/4 up on the right that is fist size. The approach is a bit of work, but IMO this climb is worth it.

This is the leftmost route of the trio of tens on the Primo Wall. The well-featured route is surprisingly pumpy with predominantly slopers for handholds, yet plenty of options for feet. The route is well-protected which makes it a good first lead for the 10/11- aspiring leader, as well as a good warmup for the real business that the Primo Wall has to offer.

It may not be the best climb on sunny days with hot temperatures.

Eternal Recurrence is the route right of

Primeval

. Start with a difficult, short groove that leads to the big, central shelf. Sit down and rest. Then tackle the upper bulge by traversing back left to a very difficult move to the obvious rail. A technical and balancy rockover leads to the final groove and the anchors. I'm not grading this, because to me the route is really two roped boulder problems with a sit-down rest in between, the first being V9/10 and the upper being solid V10. Since others may find these sections easier, as happened with

Primeval

, or find a way around them, as with

Shine

, I won't be more specific.

(Now that this route has gone eight years without a repeat, I am upgrading it to 5.14a in the hope that it will gain more traffic and there will emerge a better consensus on the difficulty)

Although Tater Tot is only 25 feet tall, its steepness, thuggy moves, and rock quality make this route a worthy challenge.

Start to the right of the first bolt on the arete and move left using slopers, kneebars, and underclings.  Once in the roof, make a couple of more burly moves past the second bolt, and top out on easier terrain.

There is a ramp to the left of this climb that never felt like a safety issue, but to avoid an accident an attentive belay should be given to climbers at the second bolt.

I hope you guys enjoy it!

Can you say jugs?? It's the second bolt line from the left on the wall. Follow the bolts... the crux is most likely around the first bolt.

Description

Protection

Routes in Primo Wall