This unique Douglas County gem offers fun scrambling and low-end technical climbing on beautiful granite. Much of the adventure is in the ambiance of the area, which includes Spanish-language signs about marijuana, speeding dirt bikes and the unnerving sound of gunshots. I now refer to this route as “Lawyers, Guns and Money.”
Bring your camera to capture magnificent granite shapes that resemble large heads. On the way out, we chose to hike Trail 677 instead of retracing our approach along the ridgeline. However, this was a colossal mistake because dirt bikes have the right-of-way on Trail 677. Take note, portions of the trail are in fact a deep trench, making it impossible to jump out of the path of speeding motor bikes.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, gunshots serenaded us as the dirt bike engines faded into the distance. Yeah, baby! It’s full-on warfare adventure in Douglas County!
When to climb
Spring and autumn are optimal times. Get an early start. If it’s over 80 degrees, you’ll bake on this route.
The approach
For driving directions to the trailhead see Jeremy Hakes' page on SummitPost.org.
Allow 90 minutes to reach South Noddle Head via the ridgeline.
The route: Lawyers, Guns and Money
Once at the base of the climb we decided to change into climbing shoes. Depending on your level of comfort, approach shoes are suitable for the route. The class 3/4 sections are short and will protect with trad gear. Lots of opportunity to practice building anchors and placing gear here.
You’ll come to a large flat section above the class 3/4 terrain. From here we dropped down into a small alcove (south) and then traversed around a large round boulder. We chose to protect this short section because a fall could be fatal.
Past the boulder there is a large area to setup a new anchor before climbing the final 30-foot section of 5.2 to the top.
Getting safely down the route
Climbing up 5.2 is one thing, but down climbing is completely different. Be sure you can get down safely. There is a semi-faded piece of black webbing at the top of the route. We were unable to fully inspect it and decided not to rappel on it. After my unsuccessful attempts at slinging a boulder, I lowered two people then down climbed the 5.2 pitch.
Before you go up the last technical section, be sure you know how you’re going to get down.
Trad gear
helmet, harness, belay device
approach shoes
rock shoes (optional)
doubles of #3, #2, #1 cams
3 large nuts
slings
2 cordelettes
4 locking carabiners
cleaning tool
20 feet of tubular webbing & rap ring (we were unsuccessful at slinging the boulder)
60-meter rope (a 30-meter rope is sufficient for the route)
Thanks for reading. Have fun and be safe out there!
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