Mountain Project: Climbing Moab Area

Submitted By: Andrew Gram on May 12, 2002
Administrators: Andrew Gram, Perin Blanchard
Latitude: 38.6276 Longitude: -109.4966
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Description

This is a big spread out area basically encompassing everything along the River Road north of Moab. The climbing is very diverse, including everything from nailups on towers, one pitch cragging, and even one of Moab's most popular bouldering areas.

Approaches range from 1 minute strolls from the car to 1 hour uphill bushwhacks through loose rock. There is a ton of new route potential here - there are at least 10 unclimbed lines for every established route.

Getting There

All of River Road between Moab and the Dewey Bridge has climbing. Most of the time you just park in a pullout along the road.

The Classics

Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for River Road:

Center Start V1 Boulder Big Bend Bouldering Area

Slots of Fun V2 Boulder Big Bend Bouldering Area

Arete Left Side - Black Box Boulder V3 Boulder Big Bend Bouldering Area

Arete Right Side - Black Box Boulder V3 Boulder Big Bend Bouldering Area

Circus Trick V4 Boulder Big Bend Bouldering Area

Kor Route 5.8 C2 Trad, Aid, 4 pitches, 300 feet, Grade III Dolomite Spire

Artist Tears 5.8 A4 Trad, Aid, 3 pitches, 400 feet, Grade IV Anasazi Buttress

Bloody Elbows 5.9 Trad River Road Dihedrals

Peapod Crack (aka Bloody Knees) 5.9 Trad, 1 pitch, 120 feet River Road Dihedrals

Raven's Delight 5.9+ Trad, 2 pitches, 140 feet, Grade II Barney Rumble Tower

Lonely Vigil 5.10 Trad, Grade II Lighthouse Tower

Poseidon Adventure 5.10 R Trad, 4 pitches, 310 feet, Grade III Lighthouse Tower

Sorcerer's Apprentice Right 5.10+ Trad, 3 pitches, 280 feet, Grade II The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Infrared 5.12- Trad, 4 pitches, 400 feet Big Bend Butte

Iron Maiden 5.12- PG13 Trad, 3 pitches, 300 feet, Grade III Lighthouse Tower

Featured Route For River Road

The Infrared buttress, Dolomite Spire, and Lighthouse Tower at the end of the day.<br /><br />Infrared is the right-most of the three obvious lines on the buttress.

Infrared 5.12- UT : Moab Area : ... : Big Bend Butte

An overlooked gem of a tower route! When looking up at the Butte from the road, three splitters are visible on the right side of the buttress. The thin, thin one on the left is Clearlight. The obvious one in the middle (a 6-8" horror) is Dolomite Wall, and the rightmost one is Infrared.P1: Begin in the first crack system left of the corner formed by Big Bend Butte and Dolomite Spire. It is a stemming slot up broken rock and roofs to a wide-ha...[more] Browse More Classics in UT

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