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Suggested Page Improvements to Continental Ranch
Getting There Suggestion
As of Aug 2019, the Continental Ranch will be open to the public roughly two holiday weekends a year. The Central Texas AAC chapter along with support from Access Fund are now co-hosting the Continental Ranch Roundups in the Fall and Winter.
More information can be found at www.continentalranchroundup.com and www.facebook.com/aacatx
More information can be found at www.continentalranchroundup.com and www.facebook.com/aacatx
Description Suggestion
The Continental Ranch is a private ranch on the Pecos River that offers 28,000 acres of beautiful semi arid West Texas hills. The ranch has a large peninsula with the Pecos River carving out some 17 miles of steep limestone canyons along the property boundary. There are two main climbing areas and two campgrounds on opposite sides of the peninsula. Emerald Pools and Painted Canyon may be accessed from the main campground above The Butt while Weir Dam may be accessed from the second campground or from a separate parking area and rappeling the route "Mr. Access".
Hello admins,
My name is Douglas McDowell and I'm the co-chair of the Austin chapter of the AAC. I'm reaching out to hopefully gain admin rights to this page. The Austin chapter has developed a solid relationship with the ranch owners Heather and Miles Gibbs over the last few years and the area is seeing a bit of a renaissance. I'd like to be able to keep the page up to date with accurate information so as to minimize confusion and prevent any potential access issues.
For instance, the directions on MP route climbers on private property (not on the Continental Ranch) to Weir Dam and bypass the landowners. This could pose a huge risk to access and I suggest we take down the directions ASAP. We provide GIS coordinates to Roundup participants via email only. The owners would like to keep the coordinates off the internet so that no one is tempted to try and climb at the ranch without permission/waiver/insurance. There is a lot of risk keeping those direction up... There is also a link to Pecosriverrockclimbing.com which is no longer a viable website.
In general, the topo in the pictures section has really been pretty accurate and has been our primary guide. Thanks for the effort on this to the creator! There are a few mistakes we've found after climbing almost all of the routes and we'd like to update MP with pictures of route topos that make it easier for climbers to identify walls/routes/bolt counts. We'll be working on hardware/anchor replacements and some routes that are missing anchors or need replacement. The approach to Weir Dam via Mister Access is bad beta at this point. The AAC chapter built a trail from the bottom of the ladder to the Solarium in October 2020 and this should hopefully mitigate rappelling accidents on the property. We have considered putting in a cable traverse at the top of Mister Access to facilitate this approach, but currently the trail on top of the cliff is meandering and has already landed climbers lost on more than one occasion. The step down to the anchors of Mister Access is also very exposed and is a hazard. We don't want to have conflicting MP info telling climbers to to bypass the ladder and trail.
I'm happy to see the edits so far and the access here is rapidly changing as the land owners are happy with the opportunities the chapter has brought them. There are guiding companies that offer trips here, the owners are now offering climbing leases and there are public weekends twice a year. There's a lot of reasons to make this page accurate and reflect all of the routes that are present. I have pictures that I can turn into topos and would like to update this page a bit before the Feb 2021 Roundup.
If you'd like to reach out via email to discuss, my personal email is douglas.mcdowell@utexas.edu and our club email is austinchapter@americanalpineclub.org. If any of the original developers are admins on this page, I'd love a chance to connect with you and get details on history and FAs of various routes! We're very thankful to Jaime McNally for maintaining such a close relationship with the family and passing on his connection to the next generation of climbers.
Best,
Doug
My name is Douglas McDowell and I'm the co-chair of the Austin chapter of the AAC. I'm reaching out to hopefully gain admin rights to this page. The Austin chapter has developed a solid relationship with the ranch owners Heather and Miles Gibbs over the last few years and the area is seeing a bit of a renaissance. I'd like to be able to keep the page up to date with accurate information so as to minimize confusion and prevent any potential access issues.
For instance, the directions on MP route climbers on private property (not on the Continental Ranch) to Weir Dam and bypass the landowners. This could pose a huge risk to access and I suggest we take down the directions ASAP. We provide GIS coordinates to Roundup participants via email only. The owners would like to keep the coordinates off the internet so that no one is tempted to try and climb at the ranch without permission/waiver/insurance. There is a lot of risk keeping those direction up... There is also a link to Pecosriverrockclimbing.com which is no longer a viable website.
In general, the topo in the pictures section has really been pretty accurate and has been our primary guide. Thanks for the effort on this to the creator! There are a few mistakes we've found after climbing almost all of the routes and we'd like to update MP with pictures of route topos that make it easier for climbers to identify walls/routes/bolt counts. We'll be working on hardware/anchor replacements and some routes that are missing anchors or need replacement. The approach to Weir Dam via Mister Access is bad beta at this point. The AAC chapter built a trail from the bottom of the ladder to the Solarium in October 2020 and this should hopefully mitigate rappelling accidents on the property. We have considered putting in a cable traverse at the top of Mister Access to facilitate this approach, but currently the trail on top of the cliff is meandering and has already landed climbers lost on more than one occasion. The step down to the anchors of Mister Access is also very exposed and is a hazard. We don't want to have conflicting MP info telling climbers to to bypass the ladder and trail.
I'm happy to see the edits so far and the access here is rapidly changing as the land owners are happy with the opportunities the chapter has brought them. There are guiding companies that offer trips here, the owners are now offering climbing leases and there are public weekends twice a year. There's a lot of reasons to make this page accurate and reflect all of the routes that are present. I have pictures that I can turn into topos and would like to update this page a bit before the Feb 2021 Roundup.
If you'd like to reach out via email to discuss, my personal email is douglas.mcdowell@utexas.edu and our club email is austinchapter@americanalpineclub.org. If any of the original developers are admins on this page, I'd love a chance to connect with you and get details on history and FAs of various routes! We're very thankful to Jaime McNally for maintaining such a close relationship with the family and passing on his connection to the next generation of climbers.
Best,
Doug
Getting There Suggestion
As of Aug 2019, the Continental Ranch will be open to the public roughly two holiday weekends a year. The Austin AAC chapter along with Access Fund are now co-hosting the Continental Ranch Roundups in the Fall and Winter.
More information can be found at www.continentalranchroundup.com and www.facebook.com/aacatx
