**IMPORTANT. PLEASE NOTE THAT ONLY ROUTES FOUND WITHIN CENTRAL VEDAUWOO, AS WELL AS ON THE NAUTILUS AND HOLDOUT are documented here. Everything else is considered as either ‘OUTBACK AREAS’ or as ‘OUTLYING AREAS’.

The little schematic on the right also represents Central Vedauwoo. It corresponds to the area marked ‘A’ on the orientation map shown at the bottom of the Intro Section.

On it you can also see Road # 700 to # 702 to the parking areas (shown in black / black dots). Trails to the climbing areas are shown in red.

The red line extending around the rock formations (shown in blue) is the Turtle Rock Trail (TRT) and the one in the middle is the Box Canyon Trail (BCT).  Other abbreviations are:  CM = Central Massif, HS = Holy Saturday, JP = Jurassic Park, GD = Glen Dome, TR = Turtle Rock, FT = Friction Tower, OE = Old Easy.

To get an idea of the scale of things, the Turtle Rock Trail is just about three miles long, end to end.

MANY SUPERB FORMATIONS SURROUND CENTRAL VEDAUWOO. There is probably more climbing and especially adventurous routes on these unique and challenging crags than there is in all of Central Vedauwoo. Some formations are large and significant such as those found in the GREATER REYNOLD’S AREA, BLAIR, and the CITADEL, while others are more compact (POLAND ‘HILL’ and the VALLEY MASSIF) and sometimes hidden such as SOUTH CORNER, THE SOLAR COLLECTOR and the more recently developed A-MAZE-ING.

If you take the time….. to explore these gems, you will find a surprisingly wide range of routes from light, recreational and moderate to very difficult and highly technical and very difficult in nature. While some climbs are quite simple and straight forward like ………. to challenging, hard off widths like those found at the VERTICAL FREEWAY, mixed lines like ………. DON’T MISS OUT ON THESE unique, uncommon and exceptional experiences.

BELOW YOU WILL FIND SOME CLICKABLE MAPS OF THESE AREAS. GO AHEAD AND EXPLORE AROUND. ODDS ARE YOU WILL FIND WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR. This is a work ‘still in progress’, so everything won’t be covered for awhile. It should be obvious that the marked/numbered red lines are USFS Roads, while the unmarked red lines are major trails. Also, you can still use the hotlink list at the left to get to where you ‘want to go’.

1.) REVENGE OF THE NOTHING

“Revenge of the Nothing” (11b/c) was put up on the right end of the COKE BOTTLE in Central Vedauwoo in 1995. It is a fairly long, steep, one pitch bolted (12 bolts) face route that traverses right from the start of “The Neverending Story” before it ascends the rightmost water streak. The traverse is extremely delicate, requiring lots of precision footwork and sidepulls using small crystals. As the traverse transitions vertically, thin exfoliation edges are found within the scoop of the waterstreak and a sequential series of small crystals provides additional purchase. A Fixe Ring anchor set was placed onSphinx Ledge at the top of the climb.

3.) JAMMINY CRACKUP
Jamminy Crackup (11c) is a mixed (trad and bolted) climb on the northeast corner of John’s Tower in Blair that will test your skill at gymnastic movement from the start. TAPE UP! The entry moves involve nearly inverting on good hand jams to obtain a heel hook with the right foot, enabling one to gain access to the main crack system by shuffling the jams upward enough to reach a good climbing position after several feet. Place a good cam or two (2.5 Friends) or a cam and a passive piece to protect these rather daunting beginning moves. Get a 1.5 or 2 Friend ready to slam into the crack above as soon as possible. Continue past a horizontal crack and protect well here because the crux section above needs to be negotiated fairly rapidly as it is very strenuous off-fingers. Proceed to jam the slightly flaring off-fingers crack section which is slightly overhanging and leans to the right. You might be able to get in a 0.5 Camalot here, but the first good pro comes at the next horizontal crack about 12 feet above. Nearing the end of the crack system about 40′ up, better edges and flakes are found and medium sized pro goes in well. A fixed stopper is found at the end of the crack near the shelf. It has been left for two reasons; first, several falls have set it well, and second, it keeps the rope from being eaten by the crack as the headwall is climbed.

5.)  T U R N A R O U N D
Here’s a ‘mixed’ line that promises unique adventure and challenge for anyone climbing at the grade. Turnaround, actually put up in ’93, is all trad. It begins with a marginally protectable offwidth trough at 5.8+ for about 40 feet to a ledge. Once the ledge is attained, a large chockstone is surmounted and one “turns around” (ie faces in the opposite direction, towards the south) to find two cracks leading to the top. One on the (now right) wall is 5.8 and can be linked with the lower off width as one long line at 5.8. We are calling this Turnaround 1. To the (now) left of this is one of the finest 5.10c/d finger cracks at Vedauwoo seen in the shot at left. The super lock-offs are reminiscent of those found in Mandella on Holdout. We are calling it Turnaround 2.

Descent is via a Fixe Ring Anchor set placed on the face roughly 50 feet directly north from the top of the climb. The rap takes you straight down the wide face that you saw from the bottom of the climb. To get to the rap station is rather circuitous, but well worth it and the rap takes you to the exact base of the climb. *NOTE: 90 foot rap!! One can also downclimb the Northeast end of the formation, but its quite dicey.
Turnaround is located on the southeast face of Blair 2 in Lower Blair. Perhaps the easiest way to locate the climb is to first find “Deadman’s Glove” and proceed about 20 feet to the right around the corner. You will see the steep offwidth trough at this point, but not the cracks which are hidden from view above. If you get to the very large boulder leaning against the face of Blair 2 under which there is a cave, you have gone too far.