On the right side of the South Face of Surprising Crag, look for bolted, twin hand cracks that lead to a face with a bulge. Jam up the twin hand cracks either placing your own gear or clipping bolts, step left from a ledge onto the face, and jug haul to the top.

The Touch

Choss Temple Pilots

Wavy Gravy

Double Down

The Fix

Chasing Sticks

Monkey Bob

Frictionary

Dutch Oven

Killer Fish Taco

Dirty Dave's Dumpster Dive

Hood Surfing In Socks

Vitamin V

South Crack

Platinum Curl

This is located on the "Surprising Crag - South Face". Locate the route '

The Touch

' and find the route to its immediate left. An obvious, small roof and layback flake are apparent from the ground. Climb to the ledge (unprotected) and clip the first 2 bolts before moving over the roof, layback the flake and get some high feet to crank the roof. From here, climb past 3 more bolts to the anchors (5.9). It is a nice route, although the difficulty doesn't last long (3 seconds...). The grade is also a little high perhaps more like 11b/c ??

Locate this on the south face of Surprising Crag. Find this route by locating the obvious chimney and count 3 bolt lines to the left, just right of the arete.

Climb past the first 2 bolts (careful of loose rocks, but not bad) and then into a small, right-facing dihedral.  Go straight up from here. It is a good warm-up, even at 5.8.

This is the third route from the left on the small west-facing wall on the South Face of Surprising Crag, lying between Vitamin V and Dutch Oven.

Climb past an overhang, then follow a hand and finger crack to the top. Getting past a bulge at the start of the crack is the crux.

Double Down is on the right side of south face of Surprising Crag, just left of Frictionary.

Climb a steep face past two bolts to a ledge.  Angle up right to a second steep face, which can be climbed either left (5.9) or right (5.7) of the bolt line.

The crux is a thin face move past the first bolt; easier if you're tall.  This move can be bypassed by climbing the corner to the right then stepping back left at the second bolt.

The entire route can be done as a 5.7 by climbing the corner right of the initial face and climbing the crack right of the upper face.

The Fix climbs on the right on the same wall as

Killer Fish Taco

on the South Face of Surprising Crag. The fix hauls over a small roof at 20 feet. Overall, I found this to be an enjoyable moderate on largely very nice granite. However, and here we go again with the big "however", I will ask the question whether the pocket in the middle of the face is natural. When I sank my fingers into a sinker pocket on granite, I almost choked. For my own ascent, I simply backed down to the very natural, horizontal seam and made the longer reach to a system of jugs, not a hard move. If the pocket has been manufactured, and I honestly could not be sure, then it seems quite meaningless. If it is natural, then it is a highly unusual pocket for Boulder Canyon granite. This was a fun route with good moves and good continuity, so it would be a shame if had been drilled.

This is a particularly poorly bolted route on the South Face of Surprising Crag - 3 routes right of

Choss Temple Pilots

and just right of the dihedral/offwidth.  Bolt placement (first bolt 15-20 feet up a slab and a looong reach from a stance, with the second bolt 2 feet above it) makes an othewise good route lame.

Located on the south face of Surprising Crag, the 5th to the right of the obvious chimney.  This is most likely the first route you will see as you get to the wall from the approach trail.

The route starts in a broken up ramp that leads to a roof. Traverse right under the roof or go straight over for a slightly harder variation.  Finish with an easy low-angle lie back crack.

Locate this climb by looking for the furthest right,  bolted line on the south face of surprising crag. Scramble up to the base of the arete and friction your way up a crumbly slab, enjoy a few moves on the arete and continue to the anchors that are above and right.

Located on "Surprising Crag - South Face". Locate this route by counting 4 routes from the obvious chimney on the south face. The start of this route could be a little cleaner, as there are many loose blocks, pull down not out. Climb through a small bulge past 5 more bolts to the anchors. PG-13 by first bolt for beginners, and rock quality, be careful.

Killer Fish Taco climbs the clean, South-facing wall on the South Face of Surprising Crag and shares its start with

Choss Temple Pilots

. Juggy moves through a flake lead into very nice and very thin footwork in the middle of the upper plate. KFT is a good route with nothing manufactured that I could detect. 5.11b seems generous, but for someone breaking into a 5.11 lead, this is a decent, well-protected choice.

This route is on the right side of the south face of Surprising Crag, just right of The Touch and left of Double Down.  It starts at a corner whose right face is split by a thin crack.

Climb the face and crack past two bolts.  You can use the corner left of the bolts or the hand crack right of the bolts; both variations are about 5.8.  Just using the thin crack and face by the bolts is a lot harder (10 a/b).

Head to the upper face and climb steep rock past 3 more bolts.  A 10a crux is at the next-to-last bolt.

This is a fun route with several variations in the lower section.

Start by either clipping a bolt 6 feet off the ground over a small roof, or climb to the ledge and traverse left to clip the 2nd of 6 bolts. Continue on easy ground to the 4th bolt, and locate a small undercling and shallow, right hand pocket. Crank through the undercling with small feet to reach the lip, and climb to the anchors. This has a nice 2 move crux on a smooth slab.

This is the second route from the left on the small west-facing wall on the South Face of Surprising Crag (just right of Chasing Sticks).

Climb past an overhang, layback up to a stance, and climb thin seams and face to the top.

When you first come to Surprising Crag via the main trail, this is the obvious crack to the left.  It's located between the two routes The Fix and Chasing Sticks, and shares many of the same holds as these two routes.

This is done in two parts.  The first is clearing a steep jam crack by stemming out on to the two adjacent routes.  The second part is squeezing the annoying chimney above the jam crack.

Beware of loose holds.  I pulled off a few pebbles while struggling in this slot for a while.  The chimney itself is kind of blank and requires a solid wedge.  My beginner wasn't able to do it and ended up using one butt cheek on the chimney and her right limbs on the final crack of the top of Chasing Sticks.

This route shares the anchor with Chasing Sticks.

Description

Protection

Routes in South Face