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From The Pond (Queen Creek)

This place is pretty sweet as far as Sport climbs go. There were even a few silly boulder problems you can find if you look around the base of the upper waterfall. I would imagine there are a few more bouldering problems in the summer when you are okay with falling into a pool of water.

Mike climbed three star 5.8 called Dead Pool that is just to the left of the upper water fall, it can be made into a 5.10 if you start at the lower set of bolts instead of the ones on the upper lip. We ended up climbing all over the place the routes go from some short 5.5’s to some long 5.12 they are all well bolted and really fun. We ended up doing 6 different problems a 5.5, 5.8×2, 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.11.

This trip consisted of Jeremy, Mike, Jason and Myself (Dan). It was a good trip, the only thing I would recommend is bringing as little gear as possible on this trip. The approach is a little hairy and the less stuff you have the better. I would even go so far as to break your gear down into multiple bags so someone isn’t stuck with a 80 lbs bag.

Directions:
As far as getting there, You take the 60 out past Superior like you are going to the Mine but you go past Atlantis which is the first parking just to the right of the tunnel as soon as you pass through it. You got past one more parking area on the right side of the road and on your third area you park. There should be the biggest parking area so far and you should see a trash can at the end of a rock outcropping you are going to drive around. If you go to Oak Creek Flats you have gone too far and need to come back. Once you park you are going to walk along the 60. There is a small path next to the guard rails. When you get to the bridge you are going to need to frogger it and haul ass over to the other side and then drop down you should see a pool of water and a bunch of rocks, you are getting warmer. There are two paths one up the right side, one up the left side. The left side is about 3 small bouldering problems and we found it to be easier. Most people will look at it and think Hell No, just be prepared for a little bit of a challenge on this approach. The right side has a ladder but it requires you to hop over the pond. This may be easier when the water level is lower but you’ll have to decide when you get there. Once you get to the upper Pond area you are in for a treat there are tons of routes all over the place and they are so easy to find a blind person could find them.

From The Pond (Queen Creek) - Parking Lot

From The Pond (Queen Creek) - Mike on Dead Pool 5.8 R

From Mike showing Dead Pool who’s boss.

It finally happened, the weather changed and my thin blood says Flagstaff is much too cold so Priest Draw is out. Time to start sport climbing in the many wonderful valley locations. Today I took work off and decided to hit Queen Creek with Mike and Jeremy. With a little nudge Jason decided to attend on his first outdoor endeavor.

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As I’ve been climbing around a year now and experienced many of my friends learning how to climb and facing the seemingly daunting task of discovering what gear they do and don’t need, I figured I should relay my discoveries.

The most used thing you will purchase when rock climbing is your shoes.  You should spend some time figuring out what kind of shoes you want.  If you go to a place that has rentals and you are using the rentals day in day out for more then a month, you are hurting your progress as a climber.  Rental shoes are generally cheap rubber with horrible heels and even worse toes.  Anything over a V3 you are really going to have some trouble with as you won’t be able to toe-in on an small foot hold or smear nearly as well as a person with their own climbing shoes.

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Jeremey, Mike and I all ventured forth to Priest Draw on October 11th. The high was about 55 degrees in the sun, it was a very cold wind that blew through this place. We arrived around 12 and left around 6. We visited Triangle Rock, Puzzle Box, Bat Roof and Anorexic.

We destroyed Triangle rock. We beat up the V0 on the left side of Triangle rock, then moved onto the V1 off to the right of it, then went further right to play with the V0+ traverse. Then came back to do the V3 through the center of Triangle rock, (Video below of Jeremy climbing it). Then I climbed the V2 on the left side of the rock which goes along the lower of the two cracks on the upper left of the rock.

From Triangle Rock, V0 up the far left. V1 across the highest crack on the left, V2 on the lower crack in the upper left, V3 up the middle

Jeremy on the V3 at Triangle Rock.

From Traverse on the Far Right

Mike on the Traverse

From V1 to the Right of Triangle Rock

Dan on the V1

From Jeremy on The Hermit(V5) at the Puzzle Box

From Jeremy on The Hermit(V5) at the Puzzle Box

From Anorexic

Sorry I didn’t get more videos of Puzzle Box or Anorexic but it was cold and we were climbing hard. Guess you will just have to wait for me.

Peace Out, Safe Climbing

I’ve added forums for all you az climbers who are looking for a place to share info about your favorite climbing spots as well as find out about others favorite climbing spots.

Yesterday my brother, Guss and Guss’ friend Nick all went to Priest Draw.

We started at “The Island” and warmed up.

From Best Warm Up Around

From Backside of the island, some sweet V0 - V2 climbs

After our warm up we hit up Bat Roof.

From Bat Roof w/ a Chris

From Bat Roof V1 and V3 starter hold w/ V1 finish.

From Batroof V1

After Bat Roof we hit up one more spot but I didn’t get pictures as I was exhausted and had to at least finish one route on this wall. Overall it was a super awesome day and I would recommend Priest Draw to anyone especially if it is your first time outdoor climbing. The rock is mostly limestone and mudstone so your hands don’t get ripped up and most of the routes are not too tall. I’ll be sure to post more about it in October.

I didn’t get many pictures of the climbs because I was climbing and no one else was helping me with my little endeavor but I’ll be going back Oct 9/10 so I’ll be sure to get more pictures as I won’t be so awe struck by how much fun the climbing is.

Also over the next few weeks I need to get lead certified so when things get chill around the valley I can go out and start hitting up some sport climbs. I hear there is a 5.7 sport climb on Camelback mountain that goes up the Monk. I have seen this rock formation all my life and I can tell you it will be so fantastically awesome to climb it.

Peace out, Safe Climbing

I know I’ve been neglecting this site but I’ve been doing some traveling and gearing up for this years outdoor Bouldering Season.   I’m really pushing hard to be able to consistently do V4’s and get into V5’s at the gym.  Currently I can do any V3 and I’m working on getting a few V4’s down.

I have plans on doing a trip to Flagstaff to try and check out Priest Draw.  If your bored and looking for something to do I plan on driving up around 6-7 am and try to get a bit of climbing in before it gets too hot.  More then anything it is to go out there and see what I can see.  We have plans on making a big trip with a few people from AZR here in the first or second week of August.

Mike now has a job at AZR so you can prolly visit him most days you are bored.  I did get my new camera but I haven’t got any really great footage with it.  We shall see what I can come up with when we hit Priest Draw. That about does it for updates, things are well we are all improving and enjoying climbing.  I’m sure we will be getting much more content here in the coming months.

Later, Dan

FYI,

You are all invited to come climbing. I go Weds and Friday after work around 6ish. Then I go again on Sunday sometime around 3-4ish. It just depends on what is going on. Sooner rather then later Sunday’s will be replaced with outdoor climbing day and I’m hoping some of you will be interested.
If you aren’t sure how to get to AZR check out Az on the rocks site.

Also I broke down and got the Canon FS100. This should help make the recording look much better.

Since I realized few people understand what a V2 or a V0+ bouldering or a 5.10 Top Roping really means I figured I should add some information to fill in blanks.

Wiki Article on Rock Climbing It has some interesting articles attached to it.
Wiki Article on Climbing Ratings Systems

I took this video with my Cannon SD630 Digital Camera. It’s not the greatest quality but this should give an idea as to how the AZR routes look. I think I’m going to need to get a better camera for this stuff.

This is a pretty mean V2 at the gym. There are two big slopers that make you take your time with this problem.

This is a V0+ that is, from what I’m told more typical of the outdoor bouldering problems.

This is another V2, it rolls through an under hang and is pretty fun. I just slapped the top and came right off. There isn’t much of a grip at the top of this route….

This is a fun V1 at the gym. I do it for warm up.

SideNote:
Grats on your first V1 Mike.