Devil's Den  

I was flipping through the routes here, and noticed a discrepancy in terminology. A lot of the routes here say they are sport but require gear, these should be listed as trad climbs so people do not get lured in and end up getting hurt. Hope this doesn't come across as offensive.

Wow, tons of routes. Great effort guys. I'll have to check out these climbs. Room for more development?

No offense taken Matt. I was hoping to call some of them "mixed" routes seeing as how it is mostly fixed gear. hopefully the site will have a "mixed" designation at some point. I will change them though i do agree, we dont want to get anyone hurt. Thanks for your input we want to make this page as accurate as possible.

Thanks shane glad you were understanding, I am really excited to check it out sometime, do you have any favorite routes?

hey shane just ta let ya know alot of trad climbs actually have bolts on them :) i just found that out the other day actually :) so you dont need to feel bad calling them trad climbs. trad doesnt refure (sp check?) to only placing gear it short for traditional.. which you probably know but even back in the day ( which was a wednesday) they would bolt stuff where there was no placements for gear so the route would go :) so go ahead and call em trad without fear :) ....side note.... all this info was courtesy of lee hansche :) good teacher :)

my personal favorite routes are Stolen and Hellraiser both pretty tech steep slab climbs[5.9ish] on very good rock. On the outback cliff Secret agent[5.10b] is a great short climb and also Devil man [5.11d] may be "the" hard route for the Den. This place is definatley worth a look.

Ground up? On rappel? Power drills/hand drills? What's the predominent ethic there. I'm game for whatever, I think a friend of mine, casey, went out and climbed with some of you guys there one afternoon.

The bolts that i know of, have been placed on rappel. Some by hand and some with a power drill.There might be a line or two put up this year on the lead but so far not yet. Yeah he did climb in the area with us a few weeks ago.

Alot of bouldering potential.

That is good to know I have been on a bouldering kick so iy gives me another reason to get out there

Checked out this area for the first time this weekend. Awesome rock with some great routes already set up and cleaned. Thanks everyone who made this possible.

I just ran across these descriptions yesterday for the first time; now I can finally put names to the development that I have been watching up at the Den.

A few notes for historical perspective:

I currently live in New Durham and have for the last 17 years. Much prior to that (1970's) I lived in Middleton and used to ride my bike to the Den to top rope and scramble.

Around 1978 I led an all gear route up the middle of the slab wall, but can't remember where exactly. Probably in the vicinity of your "Cloak and Dagger" or "Joyride." It was a bit run-out, definitely a no fall zone. I seem to remember threading a crystal that spanned a holizontal as pro about halfway up, but that very well may be gone now.

My daughter and I top roped "Secret Agent" and "Another Syd Route" right after they were scrubbed and after a couple practice burns I soloed "Secret Agent." This was before the bolts appeared; sorry, I really didn't think it would get bolted. On a subsequent trip Meg worked "Devil Man" for about 20 minutes, but we left due to cold and darkness, and she has yet to make it back to send; again, this was right after the bolts sprang up.

When we first noticed the bolts on "Syd's Slab," Meaghan started up with a rack of sport draws only and finished it (!) without any supplemental gear; she was 16 at the time! Realistically one additional bolt would help prevent someone else from making this mistake.

Three years ago I led a group from the school I was teaching at to explore the cave; it was a pigsty. We spent about 2 hours hauling out huge amounts of broken bottles, cans, candle stubs, cigarette butts, paper, and the remains of the old ladder. I realize that this is likely not climber related, but it would be nice if subsequent groups did the same from time to time to help keep it clean and make good impressions on the landowner, whoever that is.

I never personally bolted anything there because I was too lazy to check into landowner status. Who is it anyway?

Jon let me know i live 15 minutes away from the den i will certainly help out. Also on the trash note their is a shit ton of broken glass by the slabs so i would not recommend walking around with bare feet.

A big thank you goes out to Jon and Jim for cleaning out the den.It looks great keep up the good work.

GPS coordinates N43 30.832 W71 10.227

hey guys

so i was out at the outback wall on friday and i saw a new route that it bolted just climbers right of jedi mind tricks. its on the arete/right corner. i was wondering what climb this is and/or if it is an open project. anyways i was wondering if you could give me some bata on it like anchor, grade, ect.

thanks
pat

Any info on the Ice routes? I'm looking for place closer to the seacoast as this is where I now reside!

There is a little bit of ice here,the slab wall ices up nicely

To tell you the truth the ice out there is weird,Its thin at the bottom and big up top.If you can find the bolts down low clip them because you aren't getting any screws in till about half way up. It's a great place to tr. if you want to check out some ice, then let me know sometime an I will show you where we ice climb around the new durham, wolfeboro area.

found shoes today near the slab area. send me a pm with the description so i can get them back to you