SOUTH Table Mountain?

I was at a party last night with some non-climbing friends in Golden who lived underneath the big ht painted "G" on South Table mountain. Climber's left of that, there's a prominent buttress that looks to be about 100' tall or so.

My question: Who owns that property? And have there been efforts made in the past to allow access for development there?

willeslinger wrote: My question: Who owns that property?

From what I've heard Coors owns it and prosecutes for trespass. I could be wrong.

The real issue is the rail line at the bottom of the mountain. The RR companies are notorious for limiting access.

I do know someone that climbed up there several decades ago and they did liken the quality to that of NTM.

From JeffCo open space website:

"Until recently, only a small portion of the mesa on the east side was owned and managed by Open Space. Conservation Easements acquired from the State of Colorado and the US Department of Energy allow for trail connections. In 2004, Open Space worked through the Trust for Public Lands to acquire Coors Brewing Company holdings on South Table Mountain. Presently, less than 400 acres remain in private ownership."

jeffco.us/openspace/openspa…

I suppose development would be dependent on JeffCo's management plan and where the remianing 400 acres of private land is located. Access to at least the top surface area has been open for years (lots of trails up there) for riding mtn bikes and from what I saw apparently motocross as well.

Edit to add: here is a link to the JeffCo climbing management plan.

co.jefferson.co.us/jeffco/o…

Jeffeos wrote:The real issue is the rail line at the bottom of the mountain. The RR companies are notorious for limiting access. I do know someone that climbed up there several decades ago and they did liken the quality to that of NTM.

willeslinger wrote: Yeah, I mean, it's CO, my assumption is generally that there's always going to be someone who's been there, done that on every piece of naked rock in the state.

willeslinger wrote: Yeah, I mean, it's CO, my assumption is generally that there's always going to be someone who's been there, done that on every piece of naked rock in the state.

FWIW, I've heard there are a number of routes up there. I've heard they are generally in the 10-11 range.

Mike Morin, JeffCo climbing ranger, may be a good source of info. He's on this website.

Randy W. wrote: Not necessarily. You might just have to bush whack... all the low lying fruit has been picked.

i did a little bit of climbing up there in the early 90's. in general, the rock gets better the further left you go. i don't remember any bolted routes, we just did some gear protected moderate cracks.

I free soloed a route twice on South Table this summer. I was scoping it out all spring while hiking my dog up one of the trails and eventually decided to give it a try. I am definitely not the first person to do this as there was a nut left in a crack just before the crux of the route I chose. It felt like a 5.10a but I’m sure my nerves made it feel harder than it actually was. After doing it a second time later in the week, I thought it felt closer to a 5.9+.

Beta: Get yourself to the base of the climb, positioned 10 feet or so climbers left of the white spray-painted circle with a line going through it (a symbol warning climbers to stay off??). From there, find a 15ft chimney section. Squiggle up that then work up the dihedral that leads to an unclimbable roof. The next part is the crux. Basically you have to commit to a few moves on an arete climbers left of the roof. This section is incredibly exposed and quite a thrill. Once you get around the arete, you’re home free.

Matt Chase wrote:

I free soloed a route twice on South Table this summer. I was scoping it out all spring while hiking my dog up one of the trails and eventually decided to give it a try. I am definitely not the first person to do this as there was a nut left in a crack just before the crux of the route I chose. It felt like a 5.10a but I’m sure my nerves made it feel harder than it actually was. After doing it a second time later in the week, I thought it felt closer to a 5.9+.

Beta: Get yourself to the base of the climb, positioned 10 feet or so climbers left of the white spray-painted circle with a line going through it (a symbol warning climbers to stay off??). From there, find a 15ft chimney section. Squiggle up that then work up the dihedral that leads to an unclimbable roof. The next part is the crux. Basically you have to commit to a few moves on an arete climbers left of the roof. This section is incredibly exposed and quite a thrill. Once you get around the arete, you’re home free.

Jesus Christ, opening a 10 year old thread for a not-so-humble brag. Hats off to ya. 

Now that I got that out of the way, are there really trails up there? I was under the assumption it was all closed for private property but don't know why other than I always thought that. 

Yes, there are switchbacks climbers right of the buttress that lead you all the way to the top of the table. Trailhead at 19th st and Belvedere Dr. It’s a popular trail… tourists and locals using it at all hours of the day.

I never knew that. I can see the trails all over Gaia. So if there's trails everywhere to the base of the cliff, what is stopping climbers from climbing? Is there any signage stating not to climb? There has to be a catch, or I would imagine this area would have been developed with hordes of people there, considering north table across the street gets packed all winter long. 

The biggest deterrent at the moment would be that it is R rated trad. Also there are no routes listed on Mountain Project so you’re going in blind. I haven’t encountered any signs warning climbers to stay out. I walked over some barbed wire on my approach but it’s practically buried into the ground and incredibly rusty which tells me it was installed decades ago and there is no active law enforcement efforts to deter climbers. Do you know how to bolt a route? I don’t but willing to help anyone that wants to try! South Table is such an iconic feature. It would be an honor to help in making the route accessible to sport climbers.

Matt Chase wrote:

Yes, there are switchbacks climbers right of the buttress that lead you all the way to the top of the table. Trailhead at 19th st and Belvedere Dr. It’s a popular trail… tourists and locals using it at all hours of the day.

But the hikers are going to the top and not taking the trails to the climbing cliffs, and as of now it’s still private property with no climbing allowed.  Not that I care, just FYI to others reading this.

Drill baby drill

The largest STM Butte (Castle Rock) is all private property.  https://www.jeffco.us/DocumentCenter/View/9383/South-Table-Mountain-Park-Map?bidId=  The owner has tried a number of strategies to develop the land over the years.  Litigation around access is currently pending.  Lot's of people still hike it as Jim said.  Just don't do anything stupid that adds more friction to the relationship (Like bolt or add it to this site).  There are active efforts by Jeffco to deter access as they attempt to work through things.

Wanted to point is there is active law enforcement on south table mountain since they actually have the police driving track there and you can see em training for pursuit driving in their fast cars. I have seen some park rangers patrolling also the side with the neighborhood trails but they have been friendly so far. I used to jog from my house to south table, but my dream is actually to ski a line on south table mountain on the north side right by the Coors factory on a pow day. 

I just climbed my second route on South Table. I’m going to unofficially name it La Capitana, because from a distance it looks like the nose on Yosemite’s El Capitan, only smaller and less… manly.

This time I used a rope, which served me well on a fall a quarter of the way up and a few rest points along the way. It’s not too hard (somewhere in the 5.10 range). I’m just out of climbing shape. The choss throughout didn’t help me either.

After doing some research and finding out that the rock is indeed on private property, I decided that bolting was out of the question. Trad is also a no-go because of the choss situation. My solution: wrap a rope around one of the pieces of steel that’s permanently cemented into the rock at the top! Rappel down and then climb back up.