Scout Rock is a small cliff situated right along the roadside in SSV canyon. The rock is variable in quality having some horrible chossy stuff that no one will climb and some excellent, consolidated granite. It holds a few trad routes, and it has seen some recent sport route development. The cliff faces South, gets great sun, and has been climbed throughout the year. Owing to its location at the bottom of the canyon, sun in winter is pretty sparse. Because Scout Rock is so close to the road, climbing here requires a lot of attention to the traffic. Some cars and trucks have been known to scream through the SSV, despite its sane speed limit. Nonetheless, it is fairly easy to keep out of the road, just be very aware.
There are now several trad climbs on the west side of Scout Rock, where the beginner/intermediate trad leader can work up the ladder of difficulty: Scout Route (5.5), Funhouse Chimney (5.5), But for a Silver Bullet... (5.6), The Lone Ranger (5.6), Route 166 (5.7), Tom Thumb (5.8+), Exit Stage Left (5.9), and In a Pinch/Genie (5.11c).
Broken Arrow takes the steep, yellow plate left of the unnamed wide crack on the West face of Scout Rock. The Arrow splits the face on the diagonal with a horizontal breaking line at 40 feet. Easy moves lead to a small lip and a difficult sequence stepping up onto the face. Very thin smears with largely good hands kick up several technical cruxes. The climbing is intricate, elegant, technical and not any where near as hard as it might appear. The...[more]Browse More Classics in CO
Watch out for poison ivy at the base of this cliff,... Particularly at the bottom of Comanche Warrior. I had my first brush with the 'devil in vegetable form' here. The rash lasted more than a month. I will definitely be more observant next time!
I drive past this cliff all the time. I have stopped once. Most of the established climbs don't look particularly striking, but there is an overhanging, water streaked, headwall with a flared hand crack that looks brilliant. It definitely needs some brushing for a free ascent, I don't know if you could get gear in it, it is such a flare. may climb like a sloper problem. anyone know anything about this?
AC:If you were to rap down the flared crack, I think you are talking about it has some fixed aid gear in it (mainly a lot of mash-heads). At least that was how it was back in 2000-2001
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