Diablo Canyon outside Santa Fe New
Mexico offers extraordinary climbing on basalt cliffs up to three hundred feet tall.
Intrepid crack hounds began climbing traditional routes in Diablo in the 1970's, but it
wasn't until sport climbing was introduced to the area that traffic really began to
increase. Sport climbers began cleaning and bolting routes in Diablo in about 1995. Now
there are more than 70 bolted routes, a bunch of fine trad routes, and still lots of
potential lines in and near the canyon proper. Grades range from 5.8 to 5.13 with an
incredible variation of climbing styles, steepness, and exposure.
In many ways, Diablo is truly a
climbing paradise. There are routes that may be climbed at virtually every time of year,
and there are a significant (and increasing) number of multi-pitch routes, both sport and
trad. Approach times vary from 5 to 30 minutes, strolling in and around awe inspiring
towers of temptation. A large number of the routes fall into the popular 5.10 range, but
the testy and twiggy will also be able to amuse themselves on numerous harder routes.
As
is true with any Eden, there are significant objective DANGERS at Diablo,
rockfall being chief among them. In particular, the south facing rock appears to be and IS
chossy and loose. In the winter, the rock temperature can swing from over 100 to below 0 F
in a 24 hour period. The freeze/thaw and the tremendous thermal expansion/ contraction
associated with those extremes can cause rock that was solid yesterday to be spontaniously
airborn today. Experienced Diablo climbers tred lightly while leading, belay from a spot
out of the line of fire, and (if they have brains worth protecting) WEAR a HELMET.
We hope you will enjoy climbing at
Diablo, and that you will comment via email on both the crag and the web page.
Note:
Sport routes are shown with red dots. Routes that require gear, or
traditional routes, are shown with yellow dots.
