It’s our first visit to this small climbing area in Carson National Forest. We find a nice place to park the camper among some aspen by the Comales Canyon trailhead. The canyon has a number of quartz-rich granite walls on the east side, of which one small steep and easily accessed wall has been developed for climbing. Up higher the canyon broadens into meadows, aspen groves, and ponderosa stands. The weather is cool and prone to rain showers, but we get a little climbing done in between them.

Our Routes:

Tranquillo 5.7

A nice intro to the block, finely-crystalled granite. A small cam would improve protection between the first two bolts.

Puro Vida 5.9

Sustained leaning sidepulls with a couple of bulges. I put in two cams before the first bolt.

Black and Tan 5.10c

Toproped. Some awkward traversing face moves past the first bolt lead to a roof that felt great once I found all the holds. There’s room for some gear after that, then up to the final crux roof with a bolt that goes on slopers.

Yellow Wall 5.9+

Toproped. This felt harder to me than Black and Tan – similar climbing but with no downward pulling holds, just lots of little vertical rails. Looks like a couple of bolts have been added, but it would still make for a tense lead I think.