Best Of Mountain Project: Worst Crag Ever

Welcome to my new series, The Best Of Mountain Project, a selection of my favorite posts from classic threads. The first thread will be Worst climbing crag in America! The jist of the thread is pretty self explanatory, so let’s dive in.

1) Doug Lintz: 

Hank Caylor wrote:This little s***stain..

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105745783/woods-quarry
Gotta' make the "Top 10" at least.

This was the first place I ever climbed outdoors in Colorado back late 90s.  I was visiting a friend in Denver who suggested we check it out. We had some stoppers and draws for the few bolts scattered across the wall and a 50 meter rope which negated toproping....lead it, fix it, rap to retrieve the protection, prussik back up (no ascenders) and walk off.  As an uneducated noob coming from about two years of indoor bouldering, I was quickly initiated into the subtleties of friction climbing, thus my first "sport" leads resulted in my first whippers...20 to 30 footers on slab.  Yummy.

2) J P:

I haven't ventured down to try this one yet, but...

https://www.mountainproject.com/area/110786419/ney-springs

The comment left by a visitor (not a local) is scathing - seems there are a lot of things to turn you off from visiting:

I am not sure where to start in regards to this climbing area. Ill start with the positive and go from there. Ney Springs is located in a pretty remote and beautiful area very close to the town of Mount Shasta. It is also right next to Fairy Falls which is worth a visit on its own. The crag gets lots of sun so youll want to visit either in the morning or during a cold afternoon. Another plus is you will likely be the only one climbing if you visit this crag. So lack of people and beautiful area is about all this crag has going for it at the moment. This is a mostly mixed crag so bring a rack and draws. Be prepared to clip highly questionable homemade hardware which I will discuss in a bit.

Before I continue on to discuss the cons of this area I would like to make the point that even a terrible crag can be made half decent with developers who have good vision, are not cheap, and are willing to do the work necessary to develop a semi worth while crag. That being said some people just should not develop routes.

Bad Bolts and Hangers! Nearly every route at this crag is protected with homemade hangers and cheap hardware grade bolts. This crag appears to be in a time warp. It feels as though your in the 60's or something where bolting was still undeveloped except that these routes were all put up post 90's and even quite recently. After having a run in with a local climber and bringing up the topic of the ghetto bolts I learned the locals are proud of their home made protection and even believe this makes then and I quote, "old school" and if you don't like the bolts then "don't clip them". I'm not sure what king of backward twisted response to a very legitimate concern for safety this was but I found it to be a profound reflection of the culture and small naive climbing community in the Shasta area.

As of 04/20/2017 a large percentage of the routes are seeping and oozing water. This should dry out eventually but the area has been getting above average rainfall and snow lately so it may take a while. The most classic 10A "stinkwater" is basically un-climable at the moment unless your into wet oozing semi vegetated routes.

The area is also quite chossy. Not necessarily death block chossy although there is some of that but more like brittle and friable rock. It is also quite dirty with moss and lichen. The area could clean up if more people climbed here however this is unlikely to happen for the above reasons.

There is a lot of poison oak! A super lot! So be careful it really is just about everywhere.

3) Jennie Matkov:

C’mon kiddos, total upside to quarry routes is that they’re ever-changing driven by freeze-thaw cycles (our beloved Birdsboro in the northeast is anyway) and so...BOOM! New routes every spring! Will your proj still be there? You don’t know. Better get it done that fall. Lights a fire in all our hearts. We can all participate in the ceremonial spring cleaning of the routes too; everyone gets to feel the excitement of pulling their own piece out of the wall and getting some actual use out of those helmets. Ohh what a way for belayers to learn hyper-awareness and climbers to learn not to wrench on everything. 

Will a microwave-sized block with a bolt on it end up in your lap? Maybe. We’ll just re-bolt and name the new route “Bye Bye Bolt”. I have awe-inspiring videos of Volkswagen-sizes blocks being trundled from those walls during a particularly ambitious spring clean.

Feeling bored by your local classic climbs that have been the same for years? Have all the moves dialed in? Ahh, the beauty of a densely-fractured quarry. A lifetime of cleaning and exploration.

Adventure climbing at it’s...messiest. That’ll learn ya some good life lessons;) I love my messy home crag and have left a lot of blood sweat and tears there. In all seriousness, I’m happy to have it in any form, sweaty mosquitos and all.

4) Brandon Fields:

I once went down to Take-Out Beach area in Moab to get a few easy sport laps on our last day of a trip. I had to turn around and walk away. Never touched the stone. There were multiple groups of kids blasting music, tons of non-climbing teenagers lurking about on phones and complaining, a large group of school kids top rope gang-banging most of the routes. Dogs running everywhere. On my way up i had to help two girls who seem to have never seen rock before figure out how to navigate the class 4 access to the cliff on the right side. All while drones buzzed overhead, overlooking the Take-Out Beach area where an endless stream of cars are pulling in and out of the parking. People yelling from every direction. Car horns blaring.

I understand that areas like this are vital to diverting the flow of these sorts of groups away from better crags. So, it's my least favorite, but i still appreciate that it's there. The same way i appreciate Avalon and Sport Park in BoCan.

5) Matt Pennock:

Ive seen em all, even bad places in Asia and South America. the inner city Rocky Butte in PDX i live next to is the worst. Trash, needles, condoms, broken glass, foolhardy russian kids messing with your ropes and throwin sh-t off while you’re climbing (top access crag and high-schooler hangout), and homeless people pitching tents near the base, piles of human feces. Graffiti everywhere, chopped bolts...sewage runoff, a homemade 5:13a route with chipped holds, and a bullet hole bluff with a classic climb using bullet holes. Oh and its next to the freeway so all the noise hits it head on, cant hear your partner very well. Access Fund gave up on protecting it. We endearingly call it Rocky Butt. Lots of fun routes though!