The Industrial Wall

For hard, quality sport climbing in high concentration around Boulder, there is no competition for the Industrial Wall. I’ve lived here for five years, but not until the last few weeks have I visited this phenomenal area. The Industrial Wall hosts a 5.11d warm-up and a handful of 5.12s, but 5.13 and 5.14 are the norm.

The climbing on the conglomerate Industrial Wall sandstone is powerful, bouldery, overhung, beta-intensive and fun. For much of the year the area is closed for raptor nesting. Several months in which access is allowed are practically eliminated due to heat. But a crisp, clear winter day provides the perfect opportunity to climb some of the best rock around. Enjoy some images and the stories behind them from our recent trips to the Industrial Wall.

The Industrial Wall is an offshoot of the Mickey Mouse Wall located on Eldorado Mountain, just south of Eldorado Canyon. To get there, you’d better not be afraid of a hike. In good conditions, the continuously steep uphill jaunt can be made in about 45 minutes. With two feet of fresh snow on the hillside, an hour or more may be required.

But the reward for the work is amazing climbing in a beautiful setting with no crowds. Each of the three times I’ve visited the Mickey Mouse/Industrial Wall, my party has been the only group there.

Many of the routes sport difficult boulder problems right off the ground. I don’t even know how to use a stick clip, but pre-cliping the first and sometimes even the second bolt on a number of the tough lines is a must.

A good example of such a climb is Jump (5.13a). The severely overhung line is paralleled by a rock outcropping. The route starts by climbing 15 feet up the outcropping before jumping onto the face and grabbing a jug. Alternatively, if you’re like me and you don’t want to rip your shoulder out of its socket, you can just swing into the climb, establish and start cranking. This variation has been cleverly dubbed “Chump.”

Unless you’re climbing at least 5.12+, The Industrial Wall probably won’t have much of interest. There are, however, a couple 5.12b routes, described as “moderates” on MountainProject. One of these is Soul Train. The climb has a boulder problem crux followed by 30 feet of pumpy 5.11 that can easily spit you off. Ian and I devoted most of our efforts to this line today before heading for the harder routes up the hill. If you’ve made the trip out, don’t miss this climb. It may be your warm up or your project. Either way, I promise you’ll have fun.

Brett made the long hike out to work Rogue (5.14a). Unfortunately, the line was wet so he hopped on Judontwanttogothere, a lengthy boulder problem addition to Jump.

It was impressive watching Brett flow through the moves I had to desperately piece together bolt-to-bolt.

One of the most amazing lines at the Industrial Wall is TGV (5.13c). The 4-star classic towers over the east side of the buttress. I’m probably not quite to the level where I could realistically boil it down and send it, but just gawking up at the perfect stone inspires me to keep training hard and come back.

This time of year, every day on real rock is a bonus and may be the last for a long time. I’m really happy to have gotten out a couple times lately with Tyler, Ian, Ted, Brett and others for some hard sport climbing.