Background and Camping
City of Rocks is a huge climbing area in Southern Idaho, in a mostly rural landscape with varnished and pocketed granite formations all around in the National Reserve. There is paid camping within the reserve but we opted to camp on BLM land outside the park a few miles away. The BLM camping was just what we needed, a dirt road onto public land with a few turnouts for camping with fire grates in case one wanted to have a fire. The turnouts were large and so we often shared it with other climbers, van lifers and campers. We arrived towards the end of the season here so there weren’t too many people or crowds, which suited us just fine. This area holds a lot of historical significance for Native Americans as well as those traveling on the California trail back in the 1840s.
Climbing at City of Rocks
When we arrived, we immediately climbed classic, Wheat Thin on Elephant Rock. Kyle also climbed the route Bloody Fingers. Day 2 we spent on Steinfell’s Dome. We started with the 6-pitch route Sinocranium 5.8, about 650 feet of technical climbing and rappelled off the backside of that formation. Then we hiked down and around to another multi-pitch climb, Theatre of Shadows 5.6 (4-pitches about 500 feet of climbing). It had been about 2 weeks since we had last climbed, so by the time we were off the second route of the day, my legs were on fire, I was absolutely spent. But after all that, Kyle still had energy for another climb and went up Thin Slice 5.10a single pitch but another 100 feet of climbing!
Day 3
Kyle climbed up Skyline to setup a toprope on THE CLASSIC of the area, Crack of Doom 5.11c, put up in 1965 by Greg Lowe! Kyle had a few falls down low on the first attempt at the crux. Then he sent it clean on the second attempt after a good rest (it was hard to make him wait and rest long enough, he was too excited to try it again). We took a beta video for when we return so Kyle and lead it!
Then we went across the street to climb Double Crack. Kyle was halfway up he ran into a bat in the crack! Just as he placed a #3 cam into the crack the bat hissed, both of our hearts stopped when we heard that sound! At that moment Kyle was at almost ground-fall potential and I was praying he wouldn’t pitch off. Kyle downclimbed a little, placed a nut and clipped that (phew). He then climbed back to the #3, adjusted it a little more, much to the bat’s dismay, clipped the rope into that cam and blasted past the bat. I could finally breathe again, we were out of the danger zone. When Kyle got to the anchor he jokingly asked if I wanted to follow, “Definitely Not” was my reply, there was no way I was going to climb near an angry hissing bat. We hadn’t had enough adventure for one day, even though the sun was going down and we stopped at Elephant Rock on our way out of the park and Kyle climbed Rye Crisp 5.8 by headlamp. He rappelled by the light of the full moon, it was so peaceful that evening.
Day 4
The next morning I wanted to try my hand a leading a climb, I had picked out a fun, easy looking crack climb in the Breadloaves area, Carol’s Crack 5.8. The climb starts out in a stemming section (stemming is a technique that does not come naturally to me). So I struggled and struggled, after 3-4 tries, I had Kyle place protection for me and after that, I made upward progress. I placed a few more cams and a nut, eventually I lost my nerve, felt out of my element and could no longer continue upward. Kyle lowered me down to him, and we switched positions. He checked all my placements on his lead and eventually brought me up to the top of the climb. All my placements were good, I’m so lucky to have a climbing partner willing to teach and critique with a patient attitude!
Lastly we stopped again at Elephant Rock on our way out and climbed Columbian Crack 5.7, 150 feet. The route starts in a chimney and you emerge onto the rock face for a long route, instead of rappelling this route, you walk-off the formation! This was a super fun route and great practice for me on the walk-off (something I’m not too comfortable with depending on the terrain).
We checked the weather and saw that a storm was coming to the area and would last for the next 3 days, we figured climbing was done for the season at City of Rocks so we headed south, into Utah.