Castle Rock State Park, as seen from the parking lot/trailhead. *

Castle Rock with major formations labeled. *

"Zone 2" as named in the Climbing Management Plan. *

Skiing out to the Comp Wall on a nice day in February. The snowmobiles have packed out a pretty good trail, but once you leave the road to head up to the rock, skis are a must. *

The Comp Wall Splitter (5.11-). This is Brad Shilling, the Park's Climbing Ranger on the first pitch. *

Comp Wall Splitter. Brad leading out the second pitch (5.9?). *

Brent Hadley gives this nice looking boulder a go. We were unable to send this problem because we are big pussies. It's not that hard. *

Looking East towards the West face of Castle Rock, aka Lone rock. *

Looking South at the West Summit of Castle Rock, aka Lone Rock. "Excalibur" climbs out the right side of the central cave, then goes up the bulletproof arete to the summit. *

O-Town Spire. I made the FA of this formation on the May 11th via the slab on the right skyline. We added two more routes, a nice bolted 10a that climbs to the right of the overhangs in the center of the photo, and a trad route up the crack splitting the overhangs on the left side of the photo. *

This is "The Saddlehorn" a granite tower on the North Side of Lone Rock. As of the start of last weekend, it had no established routes to the summit, though it has been climbec, then downclimbed. *

Janelle making the FA of "Jug-a-Lug", a sweet bolted 10d at the right end of the "Crackhouse". *

Brent gets a spot from Janelle. This boulder is on the NW corner of Lone Rock. *

An appealling boulder on the SW side of Lone Rock. *

Boulder on the SW side of Lone Rock. *

The "Backyard Boulders" as seen from Lone Rock. *

Left side of the "Backyard Boulders"...nice looking crack problem. *

Potential roof problems on the "Backyard Boulders"? *

Another of the "Backyard Boulders". *

The Northenmost of the "Backyard Boulders". The pocketed features on the left of this face is called "tifoni" (sp?...rhymes with bologna). It's cool to look at, but off-limits to climbing under the Climbing Management Plan. You don't want to climb it anyway, it's very gritty and loose. *

This is the very south end of the "Backyard Boulders." This looks to me like the all-time classic problem...probably V3-V5, nice incut jugs to the lip with a difficult, but not impossible mantle...just waiting for someone to send it. *

This formation is about 50 yards north of the "Backyard Boulders." *

One probelm down, 100 to go.... *

Same problem, side view. *

High Balls anyone??

There will probably be routes on this eventually, but you could do some cool problems up that scoop to the right of Janelle. *

This is one of many boulders in the "unnamed" area on the map, on the South East side of Lone Rock. There is some killer stuff in this area. This is not my photo, I ganked it from the cover of the "Climbing Management Plan". *

Sorry this photo is not very detailed. This is also from the Climbing Management Plan. "Tiny Town", "Lone Rock", and "Backyard Boulders" are official names, the other names, "SW Corner", "Highball", just correspond to my other photos, and are unofficial. North is up on the photo.

We did one easy highball in the Tiny town area, there are tons of other possible problems. There's one that's probably a V5 or V6 highball on sweet stone. Tons of potential. *

This formation is un-named, but is marked on the Castle Rock entrance Kiosk as "BLM Highpoint".

The route shown is "The Rising", 5.13a, ending at a stance above the roof. The entire crack all the way to the bolts is currently an aid route named "Dad Blaster", first climbed by Brad Schilling. The final section that hasn't been freed is basically a steeper, thinner version of the "Green A" and should go at around 5.11. *

Janelle at the base of "The Rising". The route goes up the crack to the roof, traverses left to the toe, then over the roof to a no hands rest at a little ledge. *

Mike Anderson on "The Rising". It's hard to tell until you lower off, but this crack overhangs about 5-10 degrees.
*

It's also offset, as you can see here. I'm not sure if this makes it easier or harder. *

Rising 1 *