Across from the road from the standard Morrison bouldering area is a hill side of beautiful boulders that draws the eye as you repeat the same old standard Morrison problems. This area gained some recent attention from the video, Who Got the Props? Shady lines for summer bouldering abound in this newly (?) explored area. Perhaps you can find a Holloway or Gill problem here.... First ascent lines await your eyes and touch.
Getting There
Go to Morrison, look south of the road. This hill side is covered with various shady boulders.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for The Dark Side:
It is a little tough to find, but it is worth it once you do. Start from the main area (Breashears crack) and head west up the trail. You will have to mount 3 large boulders while heading west. Once you reach the farthest west boulder (large and short) Head south straight up the hill. You will see one arete that is pretty cool. Direclty behind this is a large problem that has an A shape. You start on underclings and head up a rail of perfect slop...[more]Browse More Classics in CO
It should be said that this is predominantly a summer destination. In the winter months it is cold, shady and wet, as the sun doesn't touch most of the hillside all day long.
The winter months do bring some great temps for sending. The best way to get here when heading West on Morrison Road is to take your first left after C-470 and park on the right after crossing the bridge in the dirt pullout. Walk to the end of the lot (South) and cross a concrete bridge over the canal. Take the steep trail straight up the dirt. When a fork in the trail comes, go left (up) rather than right (straight and flat). This good trail dips down, then continues up, around trees, and along rock. When you come to the first boulders (which may have notable chalk on them) squeeze between a rock and a tree with your pad. this will lead to, yet another, steep dirt path that will bring you to a nice "cave area." Up another steep hill, and to the right will lead you to the main area, with the Cube.
I have just added some very classic MoSo climbs to the database. The names I have chosen are names that myself and other locals of the area have used for the past 8+ years and have started to become the de facto names of the problems. I realize that we are most likely not the first ascentionists of many of the lines (if not all) and therefore do not have the right to replace names of ones that may or may not exist. I merely hope to give recognition to really good problems and provide a means of reference so that finding problems is easier. MoSo is a great Front Range area and I hope people can visit without having to decipher beta like "Go past Unknown V3, up to Unknown V8, and then start right of Unknown V6". It is for that reason I have added with our given names and will happily change any info if you are 100% sure you did the F.A. and it was called x,y,z.
If you have changes to make to submissions by me (Josh Cook) please comment or email me at joshuacook5@hotmail.com
I have also added some routes recently and if anyone knows any info on these, I would be more than happy to make corrections. I agree that it would be nice to have names to reference climbs rather than 'arete 1' etc... Also, I'm bad at grading things, so some consensus would be nice too. This is an awesome area, way better than across the road, you can actually top things out.
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