This is a good beginner lead but not necessarily a route to make the drive to. Climb up easy ground to a short offwidth into a fun but short handcrack. Those not familiar with wide technique may find they will have to work a little harder for this.

Drunk Heathens

Backwoods Bidet

On the Rocks

Wild Turkey

Sobriety Test

Slappy Hour

Barley Made It

Bottom of the Barrel

Stoically Buddhaful

Nocturnal Emission

Bruce Ash-Lee

The Cheese Squeeze

Hair of the Dog

Last Call

Sleep

Pillow Talk

Sleep Chimney

Whiskey Business

Intoxication

Montana Margarita

Unnamed Crack #69

Rye Not?

The Ol' Flippy Dippy

Unnamed Crack #420

Crack Open a Cold One

Liquid Sunshine

Whiskey and Cheese (AKA The Drunkard's Variation)

Whiskey Crack

Highball

Gouda Company

Fine Cheese Club Initiation

Cheddar Business Bureau

Five Beer Plan

The Dregs

Whiskey Business is a fun slab problem! Start with your feet on the rail and your hands on crystals, and walk to the right until you can top out onto the slab, then climb easy ground to the top.

This is the only offwidth in a hole I know of. Use tough armbars and stacks, top out, and be reborn on the ledge.

Climb the colorful, left-angling splitter. It gradually gets harder and is deceptively steep, and there is not much on the face for feet.... Step off on the boulder stuck in the chimney. The crack seeps after rain. This thing is a blast!

To clean, either have someone follow, or you can set an anchor up top and swing across.

Wild Turkey is a nice invert problem! This can be a bit hard on the knees and shins.

Sobriety Test is a really nice squeeze chimney that narrows down to hands. The topout is similar to

Plumb Line

in Vedauwoo. Don't fall or just lead it on gear.

To start, layback to the right with your fingers in the two obvious pods and your feet on seam below. Slap the arete, throw a heel, and boogie up the foot wide slab to the top.

To get down, do it all in reverse. This is the crux.

Climb a sharp, splitter hand crack into an even sharper finger crack, then cut left and make a biiiiig reach to a hand jam, then top out using OW technique... "Rye Not?" takes the right exit on ridiculously flared hands. This is the kind of boulder that you need to bust out all the crack and face technique you have.

Start on a sharp, crimpy jug, make a big move to another hold, and top out.

I am not sure if this has been climbed! If so, go ahead, and correct me. My climbing buddy and I loved it though. It felt like we were doing the first ascent as it was very chossy down low, foot chips breaking off left and right. Anyway, start off to the left, and traverse slightly to the right to an undercling. Summit via fingers. GPS coordinates are: 39.22136,-105.33565.

This climbs a really sweet, albeit short, 45-degree overhanging crack. It starts as finger-size and widens. This is kind of a sporty route with a unique finish. It is easy to set a toprope, but you'll want a directional.

This is Anti-Classic! Start on the east side of the boulder, then chimney, invert, and squeeze out the other side. It is hard to keep your head off the ground if you are taller. This is very weird and very enduro-y.

This is a sort of variation to

Cheddar Business Bureau

. Instead of starting in the nice, wide chimney, start way back in the chimney to where it starts to pinch down, squeeze upwards, then rejoin

Cheddar Business Bureau

once you reach the top where the crack closes shut. This is quality squeeze chimney climbing.

A handcrack roof leads into a corner change and awkward handcrack. This will be better when it cleans up. It can also be done as a boulder problem. It is a punchy route.

In the corridor between

Highball

and

Whiskey Business

, find a detached flake on the ground, and begin from the top of it. Once established in the chimney, work through a bulge, up past good holds, and top out.

The lower angle wall hosts some very nice edges inside and would make a proud face climb if it wasn't hidden in the cave, but then it likely would have roasted in the Hayman Fire and would have suffered the same flaky fate as the boulders outside. There is probably enough space inside to face climb without scraping the wall behind you, but a fall from the top would chop you on the detached flake below.

This is a route for the Vedauwoo fans. This absolutely stellar squeeze chimney starts all the way in the back of the cave. Jump start into an invert, and embrace the wideness. Yup, that's right, jump start! From here, worm your way inverted through the roof, pivot, squeeze your way up, and cop a good rest. Above this, it's easy chimneying with a little tough squeeze for the bigger folk near the top. It can and should be done as a boulder problem as well, and I think it is much better this way.... This is one of the best offwidths in the South Platte. The grade is very body size-dependent, favoring people with a smaller chest size.

Pillow Talk is another offwidth/squeeze for Whiskey Rocks. Climb easy ground, then do a little squeeze boulder problem to a rest, then finish the route to the top!

The first 40-foot and crux section of

Sleep

can be bypassed by stepping across from a big boulder. The step across is kinda spooky and height-dependent, so don't fall there.

An offwidth-y start leads to some chimneying and then full body bridging at the top! This is harder if you are shorter. It has a super fun finish. There are some small, loose bits of rock in spots on this one, but it will clean up with more ascents.

Intoxication is a really nice, long, roof-crack boulder problem that goes from squeeze chimney to hands, which slowly flare into nothingness. It has an awkward, perplexing finish and is very grovelly. This will be a classic when it cleans up.

To make a Montana Margarita, take a Montucky Cold Snack, remove the top with a can opener, and add some tequila and lime. Enjoy!

This is a good boulder problem with mostly hands.

This is a great overhanging, splitter handcrack boulder problem! Sit start for extra mileage. Heady up top.

This takes the right exit of the same boulder as "

Barley Made It

".... Start on the splitter handcrack to fingercrack, and then head right to do some funky, cruxy, ultra-flared hands and finger-barring trickery until you can get a really nice handjam at the lip, then flip around over the lip using leg bars and maybe some kneebar tricks, and top out. There is really cool movement on this one! It might be a sandbag, or even soft if you can figure out how to chimney the first crux.

Start on hands/fists, then invert, pivot, and top out. The topout is pretty dirty and hard to clean unfortunately, and there's a large boulder in the way of the beginning of this problem making it shorter. Otherwise, it would be pretty awesome.

This climbs a splitter OW to a squeeze. The rock quality is good, but the route is nothing special. Getting off the ground is the crux.

There are 2 ways to start this: one way is to do the direct start which is a low angle offwidth. The better way is to do a right-angling splitter finger crack. Either way, you end up in a squeeze chimney that narrows down into a more difficult offwidth crux. This is a good route to prepare yourself for the more difficult OW routes in the area.

To toprope this one, you can walk around the back

This thing is a SWEET fingercrack roof. Start with one hand underclinging the wide slot with your feet in that same slot and one hand in the fingercrack. Make some hard moves to gain the handcrack, campus until you can regain feet in the crack, and top out from there. A lower start could potentially be added making it much harder. People with smaller hands will find that they get better fingerlocks in the roof. The two boulders on either side of the roof crack are considered "off".

Start on "

Gouda Company

," but after the second bolt, start using the arete to stem, and move over into "

Whiskey Business

". It is really cool but a bit unnerving to start the stem and move into the chimney. Finish on "

Whiskey Business

".

Whiskey Crack is a classic Vedauwoo-esque offwidth and the namesake of the crag! It was the first roped climb to go up in the "Sleep" Area.... Climb the gently overhanging offwidth with a few hand/fist jams and okay footholds on the face. This is probably harder for those with smaller hands.

You can toprope this climb by going through the "Sleep" cave and scrambling up to the base of a shorter, easier OW.

A highball is not only a tall boulder but also a classic mixed drink. Climb the slabby face/arete, and top out. Don't fall, because there is a leg breaking boulder right underneath the climb.

Gouda Company has nice, featured slab climbing that shares an anchor with "

Whiskey Business

".... Top out, and reach over to the shared anchors. If you cannot reach these, simply walk off. A

fall clipping the second bolt would not be advised.

Fine Cheese Club Initiation ascends a nice, less-than-vertical handcrack with a friendly topout. It is a very Gouda climb for beginner crack climbers..., but it is kinda dirty and a little sharp. You'll be very fondue of it.

Cheddar Business Bureau is a really awesome short chimney that is protectable with finger-sized pieces! Chimney-size is kind of an awkward in between one where you can't quite feel solid, but there are finger cracks traversing the face you can get a good foot on. The crux is near the top.

Start all the way back in the cave, and then work your way back out using chimney and squeeze technique. I guess it could be easier if you stay outside the squeeze, but it would be R/X rated this way.... The crack begins to narrow as you continue upward. This is a very cool climb and VERY overhung for 5.9!

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Whiskey Rocks North