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Hidden Jewels Rock Climbing

Climbing Area Map

Routes in Hidden Jewels

L › R R › L A › Z

	Cactus Corner T 5.8+ 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c
	Cactus Corner (Headley Permutation) T,TR 5.4 4a 12 IV 10 VD 3c
	Crescent, The T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b
	Lazy S T,S 5.10- 6a 18 VI+ 18 E1 5a
	Left One, The S 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b
	Right One, The T,S 5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c
	Soldier Blue T,S 5.9+ 5c 17 VI 17 E1 5a
	Soldier of Contortion T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a
	Soldier's Revenge T 5.7+ 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b

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GPS:	32.31542, -110.73742 Google Map · Climbing Area Map
Page Views:	12,185 total · 47/month
Shared By:	Tony B on Nov 13, 2002 · Updates
Admins:	adrian montaño, Greg Opland, Brian Boyd, JJ Schlick, Kemper Brightman, Luke Bertelsen Page Updates (admin only)

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Description

Hidden Jewels is a small Mount Lemmon crag with a little more dust and dirt than many other area crags. All of the climbs are a single pitch. Most of the routes here have a few bolts, but require some gear as well. With a single 60M rope and plenty of webbing + gear to set up anchors, you can TR about anything there. What makes Hidden Jewels nice is the fact that it is low on the road, which means that they are at a low elevation, and thus warmer when it is otherwise cold. It is a reasonably short walk in, and that there is a high concentration of moderate grades in this one place. You can go here for a single day and climb everything.

The rock faces primarily West, giving morning shade and afternoon sun, so plan accoringinly.

Getting There

Drive to MP 1.3 up the Mount Lemon Highway, to a pulloff on your left, which can accomodate just a few cars. Hike up the steep Soldier Trail through a nice forest of Saguaro Cacti for about 20-25 min to the climber's path at an obvious cairn on the left (It looks like the "small triangular rock" mentioned in the guidebook has been incorporated into the cairn.) In 50 ft or so the path branches: left leads to a small (camping?) clearing while the right branch seems to be the main path to the cliffs. The right branch soon weaves through cacti, contouring around to the right and, in 5-10 min (depending on how fast you walk through cacti) swings around the ridgeline to the top of some cliffs.

It looked to me as if the main cliffis up to the right another 150-200 yards or so. But just where you go around the ridge there is a cairn down low on top of the (much more fractured-looking) lower cliff. I don't know if this is supposed to mark a potential down-climb ( it looked pretty fractured, and leads to what? ) or rap location (no anchors) or what?

Overall, with gear and a rope I'd think the average climber on their first outing to this cliff would take 30-40 minutes to reach the actual base. The ascent was about 600 vertical ft by my altimeter watch.