God's Crag

Earlier this summer, during a weeklong tour of Colorado crags, we visited Lake City and discovered yet another example of this state's embarassment of climbing riches: God's Crag. The setting: 10 miles up the Engineer Pass Road; the crag is at around 10,500 feet, making for comfortable climbing in full sun. The rock: pocketed rhyolite, like the stuff at Penitente Canyon, but more featured and easier on the fingers. The climbs: Something like 40 routes have been done, ranging from 5.8 to 5.13+, with several two-pitch climbs. All sport. 5.10-5.11 climbers will have a great weekend. 5.12 climbers will find two or three weekends of great climbing. 5.13 climbers should bring their drills. The Creamy Salmon Wall has an amazing cluster of five or six 5.12 routes on perfect rock; the picture at right shows climbers on the central (easiest) line at 5.12a. The amazing main face (left), with a pretty waterfall pouring over the lip, has only a few routes, all hard. Above this is the cave taken by Ryan Nelson and Jared Ogden's Jedi Mind Tricks, a good candidate for the world's hardest sport-mixed route, along with three or four other ridiculously steep mixed climbs. The effort they put in to establish these routes in the middle of winter, when the road is closed miles before the crag, is almost inconceivable.