The Beta
Blake Bowling on All That Glitters, 12c. Photo by Ben Cassel.
The PMRP offers year-round climbing thanks to dozens of clifflines that face nearly every direction and steepness that caters to all tastes. The hardest decision of the day often isn't whether to go for the redpoint or not but rather how many crags to hit that day. With the PMRP as large as it is, getting to know the terminology is, to say the lest, helpful.
The northern portion (see the PMRP Maps page for a more detailed look)
is called the Coal Bank Hollow. It has the Far Side, Dark Side, Solar Collector, and Gold Coast.
The southern and larger portion of the PMRP is Bald Rock Hollow. Bald Rock has Drive-By, Chica Bonita, and Bob Marley Crags as well as the Sore Heel Hollar. Sore Heel is further broken up into several walls: the Gallery, Volunteer Wall, Left Field, Playground, Shady Grove, Bronaugh Wall, Purgatory, North 40, Shire, Rival Wall, Courtesy Wall, and What About Bob Wall.
All in all, it's home to over 350 sport, trad, and mixed routes ranging from 5.5 to 5.14c, not to mention a few open projects that promise to be in the 5."very hard" range. And that's just the beginning. Routes are in a constant state of development with much of the PMRP yet to be fully realized.
Below is a brief description of each wall. Click on the route name for a more detailed description and a list of routes from Ray Ellington's Online Guidebook.
Coal Bank Hollow |
Bald Rock Fork |
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| Far Side | Routes range from pumpy 5.10 to powerful 5.13s. Usually pretty shade and overhung enought to stay dry. Don't miss Papa Loves Jugs for a local favorite. | Drive-By Crag | Routes from pumpy 5.10 to powerful 5.13s and The Nothing, a 14a. See morning shade and afternoon sun. When it's raining, several of the routes stay dry except for the anchors. |
| Dark Side | Several RRG test-piece routes with a more than a half dozen classic 5.13 routes. Also has several classic 5.12 routes. This wall is a site to see and is famously intimitading: the first thing you'll see when you arive is a huge wave of a wall with thousands of iron pockets. Dry and cool, this wall is sure to pique a your interest and have you begging for more. | Bob Marley Crag | A beautiful wall with that will open your eyes to pocketed roof climbing. Most of the routes here are 5.11 of above with several routes above 5.12 and even an open project or two. The roof area stays cool and very dry. |
| Solar Collector | Like its name suggests, this wall definitely sees strong morning sun and is a good start to a cold day. Usually, though, the sun disappears over the cliffs in the afternoon and is still comfortable in the heat of the summer. Several routes from hard 5.10d to 5.12c. In a light rain, you'll be dry but if it starts to pour, expect the water to run down the top of the wall and get your anchor jugs wet. | Chica Bonita | A relatively new wall with all of the climbs established in 2005 or after. A bit of a hike to get here but it's well worth it: high quality trad climbing as well as very technical faces. Most of the routes here don't stay dry and, since it avoid the sun most of the day, it's a pretty good summer option. |
| Gold Coast | This might be one of the most picturesque walls in the country. Streaked bright orange, gold, and black, this wall will catch your eye and test your power. Gently overhung with holds just big enough, this wall harbors several hard 5.13 routes and a couple 5.14, not to mention a few lines waiting for their FA. Gold Coast sees afternoon sun and usually stays dry is almost any condition. | Sore Heel Hollar |
With more than a dozen crags all within a short walk of each other, it's hard to capture the essence of all of them in a single web page.
A visitor could spend weeks in this region alone visiting each of the destinations. More than a hundred climbs are in this hollar and
vary from casual as cake sport routes to adventure trad to test-pieces of the east. Essentially a full service destination, there's a crag
for every desire: overhung and dry, cool and technical, pumpfests and bouldery puzzles, it's bound to be here. For a more complete description
of each crag, click on the link that will take you to the Southern Region of Ray Ellington's Online Guide. Crags in the Sore Heel Hollar are:
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