Campbell Cliffs in Tucson

I have heard that back in the day before rock and ropes opened that people trained at the "Campbell Cliffs" I have run into some cliffs when hiking up the wash from my house (also the main wash running through the Old Ina/top of Campbell area. I Imagine that access may be tougher with the Cobblestone gated community and such up there now but does anyone from back in the day know where the walls are? Able to find them on Google earth/Google maps ect... I have looked and found several possibilities but my access route would be different for each.
Thanks

32 20' 36" N
110 55' 29" W

Ahhh, those were the days...

Campbell Cliff has been closed to climbing for what, ~25 years now?
Last I'd heard, they were basically in someone's back yard ?
But I don't know, never having gone back up there after moving out of Tukson in '87, after which the area was developed.

If you look up at cobble stone and see a huge ugly red house at the top. The cliffs are just below. I loved top roping there in the early 90's. I think its on private land now but not sure.

So depressing to hear about crap like that

Anyone remember the culvert in Tucson? It has been a long time (I moved away from Tucson in '93), but if I remember correctly it was located somewhere south of U of A. There were 3 or 4 separate concrete channels that went under bridge, and someone glued a bunch of rocks onto the walls. Before Rocks and Ropes opened, we would go there and traverse laps. It was a little ghetto, but a great workout and tons of fun. Some afternoons there would be 10 or 15 people there running laps... Lots of good memories from hanging out there and bouldering at Gates Pass.

Bucket-less Bamboo Shoots... 5.12+ ...Paul Davidson, coveted 3rd ascent !

CC was kind of awesome, the list of locally famous climbers I met there is as long as my arm.

After access to CC became shaky, the scene kind of moved to Frank Abel's (first in the nation) backyard mega-woody.

I rememeber CC well. First time someone accused me of being a "sport weiny" was there. Ha! I also remember the culvert. It was somewhere near the sculpture of Padre Kino. The place was weird, but fun. Used to go there with a friend named Keith Marroquin. Anyone in the Naked Pueblo know him?

Remember how Mike McEwen would arrive at Campbell?

He would throw his EB's over the cliff and solo down Aid Crack in his tennis shoes.

Can anyone still remember the names of the routes from left to right?

Scott Mc

Scott M. McNamara wrote:Remember how Mike McEwen would arrive at Campbell? He would throw his EB's over the cliff and solo down Aid Crack in his tennis shoes. Can anyone still remember the names of the routes from left to right? Scott Mc

Scott, I do remember McEwen's entrance strategy. It was generally "The Bucket" (5.10) that he would down-solo though. First time I saw him do it in worn-out tennis shoes, I thought "you're sh*tting me !". Espec since the crux was the top move.

In my semi-newbie-ness (late 70s) I once asked him about the wisdom of soloing like that. He said "well lots of climbs you can't get anything in until you are pretty high, so might as well get used to it". Within a couple of years I was entering/leaving via The Bucket (or others) myself, just to keep my head in shape.

Bamboo Shoots, Aid Crack, Bucket, Scott Brown, Wing Chou, Center Crack, Some other thing, Corner, Overhang Crack (?), Prow. That's about as good as my memory can do.

Pretty Good, JBAK!

Do you remember the ratings, too?

Scott Mc

oh Scott you're always flaming people here. cut it out! :)

sounds like a neat place to climb. too bad it's closed.

Geir,

I think you would really have enjoyed it. You would have probably figured out some new problem for us all to try and puzzel out.

I have a lot of nice memories.

Anybody got pictures? I am not sure there were cameras back then.

Anybody remember Steve Grossman routinely jumping off from the second tier of the walk down? He said that he was training his legs to absorb the energy of a fall.

Scott Mc

I remember most of the ratings.

There were also 2 levels of traverse including Sherman's traverse on the far right side.

And then the little cliff below the main cliff which actually had much better bouldering. That's where Murray spent most of his time.

Nick, don't even think of going back there or messing with it in any way. I was actually back there a few months ago to grab some photos, the caretaker of the house happened to pull up while I was there. Since the house is for sale (I think they want like $30,000,000) I handed her a business card and quickly told the caretaker I was representing a couple CEOs for one of the major climbing gear manufacturers that were looking to purchase a corporate retreat. The owner also lives in the house and while my greeting was far less than friendly she assured me had the owner found me it would have been even worse. From what she implied, the owner does not have any fondness for climbers after a couple run ins with them prior to building the house. The cliffs however are on the west side of the driveway just after the steel gate.

Adam, I am not going there any more. Google earth showed a couple spots it could have been some of which were on public land but with difficult access, and some obviously right next to houses. Sadly the "Campbell Cliffs" I had heard about are private. My parents house is on the same wash as the cliffs only about 2 miles downstream so as a kid I have hiked up there many times and there are many rock walls of heights from 15-35 feet all over that wash. Basically I was hoping to find something in the foothills area other than like the death wall, especially since the few walls and boulders that we climbed in High School at the base of Pontatoc canyon are now like 40' from another new house (but still on FS land)which makes climbing there unappealing.

BAHAHAHAHAAH... Did anyone else take the virtual picture tour? Go look at the picture of the gym, notice a rock climbing wall?! Talk about ironic!

JBAK,

Was it?

Bamboo Shoots, Aid Crack, Bucket, Scott Brown, Wing Chou, Center Crack, Center Face, Beginner's Corner, Arms Route, and The Prow?

Remember all the rattlesnakes? Quite a few times I scared witless.

Scott Mc

I still have the full detailed diagram of the cliff drawn by Frank Abel with everything labeled. JBak, I'll have to check but I thought that was the "Scott Brown Memorial" between the Bucket and Weng Chou (not "Wing.") My memory is a bit fuzzy but I think I got the the 3rd ascent of the Bucketless Shoots after Murray and Abel. But, who knows? Maybe Paul got it before I did. I do distinctly remember Frank telling me that there was no way I was going to get it the way I was going about it as I pulled through the move. I might even have the movie that KUAZ made of us all out there. BTW, the big house is (or at least was) owned by Cary Marmis who used to show up and try to kick us off the property in later years. They will certainly call the cops on anyone who sneaks in now. The house is called "Campbell Cliffs" and features (of all things) an indoor climbing wall. As I recall, Ben Burnam installed it.

Here is a little section from John Steiger's book mentioning Campbell Cliff.

climbaz.com/sabino_canyon/p…

Scott Mc

John, my memory is: Bob, Frank, Paul and then me. Frank (funny man !) jokingly referred to mine as "the coveted 4th". It happened on a day when about 50 people were there for a "Save Campbell Cliff" meeting. That campaign sure failed !

Scott, I never saw a rattlesnake at Campbell until they bladed the property in prep for houses. Then I saw 2 of them looking forlorn and confused (with nowhere to hide) while hiking out one evening. It was pretty sad. Remember the crappy fenced-in access that we had to put up with for a while ? I was hating the rich folks up there.