This is the center route in the Crystal Cave and takes a direct line up the best rock (no choss here!). It is common to stick clip either the first or second bolt or both for rope management purposes. Since this is basically roped bouldering there's no need to chastise yourself if you start with the second bolt pre-clipped.

Begin in the center of the cave and crank through the undercut bottom on blocky features. The good blocks soon run out and a crimpy move takes you to the "cigarette pack" just below a fist-sized hole in the rock. Milk the hole, clip again, and fire through a finishing sequence that takes you left to a good pocketed seam, which then leads back up and right to the anchors.

Though notably short, this route is continuous and powerful, more akin to the bouldery routes at Hell in American Fork than anything else. Maybe that's why Utah climbers often bee-line it for the Crystal Cave after getting bouted at the Project Wall or the Arsenal ;)

The name derives from a morbid incident in which a deranged sociopath killed an elderly couple in Las Vegas in order to steal their RV. En route to Denver he decided to dump the bodies, burning them up in the trash dumpster at the Rifle rest area by I-70. He was later caught in Denver, still driving the RV.

Dumpster Barbecue

Grey Matter

The Glue Fairy (Under The Gun)

Astro-glide

This is an interesting route -- it was modified, with some fairly liberal gluing (a piece or two of talus mounted to the wall) but the glue dried up and the rocks fell off, returning the route to its natural state of very hardness.

It is one route left of

Dumpster Barbecue

and travels out the horizontal roof on pockets to a desperate lip encounter and the former home of the glue-rocks. I'm not sure if the route has been freed since the rocks fell off, but it would definitely go, for someone . . . any takers?

Grey Matter contains some of the most confusing and burly blocky climbing you will find at Rifle.

Right off the ground you are greeted with a cryptic boulder problem that leads to a great kneebar.  After resting, there is another 25 feet super powerful clips and awkwardly oriented sidepulls.  These underclings bring you to a difficult move that establishes you on the headwall.  With your power fading, fight through a few more surprisingly hard, technical moves on less steep terrain to the anchor.

This route has my vote for the hardest, most perplexing 13d in the canyon.  So, if you don't have the strength to do the moves and grey matter to figure it out, just move on.

Two kneepads are useful on this route.

This is the leftmost route in the Crystal Cave and climbs out the left side of a chossy bowl onto a mini-headwall of blocky stone. Pre-clip the first bolt or two (you can climb up and do this then down-climb) then make a big move off a horn/spike to some pockets in the face above the bowl. The anchors arrive sooner than one might expect.

Astro-glide is the best -- ask anyone in the biz!

Description

Protection

Routes in The Crystal Cave