Rampart Range Road Area climbing???

I will be camping in the Rampart Range road area this weekend. Here are the directions to the camping site:

1 mile North on F.R. 303 – from the Intersection of F.R. 303 and Rampart Range Road…

That is the only description I've got. If you or someone you know is familiar with climbing in this area and knows where the hell this location is, please send me beta on where to climb. Most of the roads are closed, I realize.

Thank you, and may God bless you all.

Shane

are you sure you don't mean FR 323? that would be in the vicinity of scorpio dome, the kennels, vicodin rock, and balanced rock.

are you sure you're going to be able to get up into there? probably a lot of snow right about now.....

ok, i looked on google maps and found 303. it is kind of on the southwest side of rampart reservoir. this is going to put you a small ways from the climbing. if you can drive north on rampart range road to NF-322 or NF-323, you can get within walking distance of good climbing. scorpio dome, in particular, has some really good routes on it. balanced rock has a few good ones also. vicodin rock has 3 routes on it (2 good OW's and 1 wierd stemming corner). the kennels have good moderate slab climbing.

also worth mentioning is the zappa dome/la la land area. it is the canyon to the north of the mount herman road. it has several pretty good 5.8 to 10a cracks and some good face routes. good luck my son.

Shane,
I can't help with those camping directions, but if you are anywhere on Rampart Range Rd. you absolutely must go climbing at Devils Head.
It is the best granite in the state, quite atypical for the usual South Platte grunge.
Park at the gate and hike for an hour to the top and then take the Zinn Lookout Trail (left fork, right fork goes to fire lookout).
The hike to the top is on the north side and will be snowy, but once you head down from the top to the south side conditions will be better. Check out the Devils Head beta on this site.

Shane,
Call the Forest Service before doing any driving. Rampart Range road is closed in the winter (usually first snow). Pete Gallager may be able to give you more info too.

I was up in Woodland Park last weekend and there is still a lot of snow on back roads.

Tom....are you high? Best granite in the state? What are you smoking?

Shane,
I admire your determination to go climbing up there and I hate to rain-er snow on anyone's parade but......
There is more snow up there than there has been for the last 20 years or something. I tried to drive up Mt. Herman road from the bottom on Saturday to see how bad it was up there and got totally stuck about a mile and a half into it.
Unless you're packing a couple of snowmobiles - fogittaboutit.

The only other area I'd add to slim's suggestions is Parachute rock, which is in Hubble's South Platte Guide. It has a bunch of good 5.8 to 5.10 routes and faces south. Good luck with your adventure.

Off topic - Slim, is the Zappa Dome/La La Land the huge watergrooved dome on the N. side of Limbaugh?? Do you know who put up the routes around there? I'm trying to find any info on those sick looking 2 pitch watergroove routes.

Kevin Stricker wrote:Tom....are you high? Best granite in the state? What are you smoking?

Kevin,
Have you been to Devils Head? Not the junk around the parking lot, but the stuff that is up over the top on the south side?
I maintain that it is, in my opinion, the best granite climbing in Colorado. The approach is a bit lengthy for most modern climbers, but once you get to The Headstone, Redwall, Starcastle, etc. nothing can compare. No you say? Like what? Boulder Canyon? Fooey.
Have you been to any of the formations listed above?
Please tell me which GRANITE climbing in Colorado is better than The Head?

The Spires, man.

Tom, what the hell ARE you smoking??

Mark,
The Spires? Please elaborate.

Tom, You're talkin about a North American destination, the place is WILD with awesome natural lines & seas of pink friction. If I were struck by lightning on the CP, I'd have expired in heaven.

Hi Mark,
I was limiting my opinion to granite areas in Colorado only.
Granted, there are better granite areas outside our state.

tom,

with all due respect, that stuff you're smokin must go for 500 bucks a quarter oz! there is some pretty good stuff up on the headstone, etc. maybe if you said best bolted granite climbing in CO, it would be less objectionable. but comparing it to cyn pinn, wigwam, helen's, sunshine dome, sunshine face, the bishop, the good stuff on pikes, lumpy, etc, is kind of far out there man!

glenn,

when you are going up mount herman road, there is an overlook that looks to the north/northwest (i think it is really close to where you drive between the large pillars on the side of the road). if you look into the valley to the north (there might be a slight ridge obstructing part of the view), you can see a shit-ton of rock. this is the la la land area. the best looking dome, with a bunch of water grooves, is zappa dome. one of these domes (it might have benn zappa, can't remember) experienced MASSIVE rock fall in the mid-90's.

there are good routes in these area's. if you are super interested, email me and i will try to get some more info for you. as you know, this is serious death-bushwhacking territory (the worst bushwhacking/boulder navigating that i have ever done. ugghhh.).

TOM!!!???? - Why do you want to ruin my lunch??? I think I might actually toss up that fifth of Jack.

Have you been to the Pine areas?

Granted, I'll cut you some slack for being old fart & decrepid cragger; but this place is choice for CO.

Too late. NOW I've got a mess to clean up, not to mention a waste of good sauce.

Slim and Mark,

I might back off of my statement, but just a bit.
I agree that Cyn Pin, Helens, Wigwam, Big Rock Candy Mtn, Pine areas etc. have stellar stone. Perhaps I should say that my favorite steep (90 degrees and beyond) bolted granite face climbing is Devils Head.
Although, I have done some exceptional crack climbing at The Head too.
i.e: To the Fire Wind, Clouds of Jupiter, Noble Savage, Head Trip
If granite slabs are your preference, then the domes you listed can't be beat. For straight on granite cracks, Cyn Pin, The Bishop, etc are withoput parallel.
I must admit that I am biased, as my favorite climbing is onsite first ascent trad, and I wasn't lucky enough to bag any FA's on the classic Splatte stuff, just Devils Head.

Thanks amigos, climbing is out of the equation for RRR area.

Hey Dudes,

I have a few questions about the La La area and Zappa:

Is this the stuff you can see from I25?
Is this also the same stuff that you can see from the trail up the backside of Herman? If not, is that stuff the same domes you can see from 25?
Is the only access from Herman road?

I saw the rock from the Herman trail a while ago, but it didnt really look worthwhile at the time. I have also been looking at the domes you can see from 25 a long time, but always wondered how the hell you would get up there. I suppose you could hike from Palmer Lake??? I dont know what would be worse.

Peace!

chris,

the dome that you can see really well from I25 (just as you are passing through monument) is scorpio dome. you can see the big eastern shoulder of it pretty well and a summit block. this is best reached off of rampart range road, but you can also reach it (via death-schwacking) from the west edge of palmer lake (the town).

this is all sort of 1 valley to the north of la la land. also, approximately 1 or 2 canyons north of the scorpio dome area is icicle creek canyon, which also has some routes.

you should check it all out using the maps.google. and overlay the roads. there is quite a bit of rock back there.

Who is high here!!!???!!!

Does anywhere in the Splatt have the cast-iron bomber stone of DH?
NO! (Except Thunder Ridge or whatever the hell the other DH type crag is called)

There are nipple sized chickenheads you could sling a truck off of. Quarter inch thick boilerplates that protrude from the wall 3 inches that you can literally stomp on, they defy physics!

All that other Splatte crap...pointy crystals, crumbly, yeeesh.
Tom, do not be so nice. These people are misguided. Trad climbers are missing a few chromosomes, a dead end evolutionary path. Sport climbing is the game of gods!

Of course at 9500 feet there's probably still 3 feet of snow in the shade, the DH season is months away.

As far as the best stone in CO, from a geological point of view the white granite west of twin lakes reigns.

I-ZHEET M'DRUZ wrote:... All that other Splatte crap...pointy crystals, crumbly, yeeesh. Tom, do not be so nice. These people are misguided. Trad climbers are missing a few chromosomes, a dead end evolutionary path. Sport climbing is the game of gods!

Yeah, and there are still no tanks in Baghdad; and the infidel just throws pens and pencils at the Iraqi Repulican Guard who are relaxing and having tea at the palace.