This easy route provides a good opportunity to practice gear placement, anchor building, rope management, and other multi-pitch skills.  P1: Start on Nieto (or Nieta), pass the anchor, step from the Mexican Pillar to the main wall behind, climb up to a ledge and set up a tree anchor. (5.7) P2: Traverse to the right, pass One Piece at a Time, and set anchors when you reach Rubber Chicken. (easy class 4) P3: Continue traverse from Rubber Chicken, across Little Sprout and Fesic, and set anchor when you reach The Man in Black. (easy class 4) P4: Continue traverse from The Man in Black, across the dihedral, and set anchor slightly to the right of Swamp Rat. There is a good ledge where you can sit and belay. (5.6) P5: Step slightly left to be on the Swamp Rat route and finish on the Swamp Rat anchor. (5.8) (Please contact me if you climbed the same line before us. I'm happy to put you on the F.A.)

Ropebelt

Arizona Bay

Fesic

Fashion Sense

The Man in Black

Bolt Em All

Rubber Chicken

Sphagnum Esplanade

Swamp Rat

Dirty Thieving Bastards

One Piece at a Time

Ramp Up the Insanity

Little Sprout

Fireworks in February

Krusty Panties

Climb up large jugs staying left of the large orange overhang.

This route starts near the beginning of Little Sprout. Large Jugs on top.

Great route with some gutsy first moves. Route begins on the high end of the slopping rock. Starts out on some small holds to clip the first bolt. DON'T FALL... The Start of this climb is key and give it the "R" rating. Once the first bolt is clipped move up through some solid holds to the second bolt. At this point it is smooth sailing and a solid climb.  

  Make sure to Anchor the Belayer into the rock....

Starts on some large jugs. climb over a large bilge onto a resting ledge before moving up more jugs to the top.

This route has been set up as a multipitch. It could also easily be done as a single pitch with a couple of longish runners (which would make it the longest pitch at HCR). I will describe the two pitch variation here.

 P1. 50 feet -- 5 bolts (5.8) This pitch has a crux low and one higher up that are quite different. One comes on a mostly easy slabby section (where for at least shorter climbers) the holds seem to vanish for a move. Work right and smear or high step your way through. Casual terrain then leads to a short overhanging diheadral which turns out to be easier than it initially looks. Arrive soon after at the great midway anchor ledge. P2. 45 feet-- 4 bolts (5.9-). The second pitch is generally pretty easy climbing, but a short much steeper section of orange rock off to the left, which is not currently bolted as well as the rest of the route (possibly to prevent rope drag on a single pitch variant), clocks in harder and more bouldery. Another section of only slightly less steep 5.8 grayish rock above follows but is better protected. Then easy to the top after the previous multicolored/combined sort of headwall feature is climbed. Guidebook rates this 2nd pitch 5.8 as well, but the consensus from the Ranch staff seemed to be 5.9. I interpolated on the high side due to that one section definitely verging on PG13.

Start on the large boulder located on the left side of the wall. Fun Simple Route that is well protected and very juggy.

This route deviates from the others on the lower section of cliff.  Half way up, a slight bulge interrupts the easier terrain.  A little footwork when the jugs run out leads to the anchors.

Starts to the South of the Large Pillar rock formation. The belay is directly south of the Pillar rock. Start up the face through some finger ledges.    Mossy route, but solid.

Jug haul start leads to a bulge, followed by the crux and a slab finish off to the left.

The bulging crack system to the left of Rubber Chicken. You can stem, jam, lay back, and pull on jugs. Route goes to the very top or near the top traverse over to Rubber Chicken anchors.

Traversing route that gradually makes its way up the right side of the Cliffs of Insanity. On an empty day, it's a good spot to learn to travel on easy traversing terrain, managing rope drag and protecting the second. But if you overprotect and don't extend your slings, you might find yourself wanting to break this up into two pitches or fight through heinous rope drag. Once you are around the corner, about 30-40 ft in, you lose line of sight with your belayer and communication is a little harder, as is the rope drag.

Starts just to the right of the large boulder. Several reachy moves begin that route and leads you to some large jugs near the top. Great Novice route.    Great views from the top.

Half jug fest, half low-angled scramble to a large ledge.  Don't let the rope drag pull you down.

The route starts at the crack system just left of Fireworks in February.  The route follows the crack up, through a solid traverse to a short vertical crack(crux), then stepping right on slabby moves to the anchor for Dirty thieving Bastards ending the first pitch.  The second pitch tops out to a 5th class scramble up the corner on huge chicken heads. There are no anchors so do a short down climb or rap from the tree.  The route was put up by a group of pros with the NTXAAC.  Longest Trad route at the ranch

Located on the east side of ranch, Cliffs of insanity is right next to the Roman Wall, which provides  great climbs for the novice recreation climber. This area is recommended for spring and late summer/fall climbing. If you climb this area in the summer months you will most likely  be baked by the sun.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Cliffs of Insanity