Pretty consistent climbing at the grade.  Many good rest spots. 

 All routes in Wood Canyon are new - helmets are a good idea for both belayer and climber, as the routes are still shedding a bit. There are the usual desert critters around too.

Trouble No More

Dear Jam Letter

Bee Wary

Shorty Sporty

Speed Bump

Conchoidal Arete

Scorpion's Retreat

Thought Reform

Two Face

Redonkulous

Chuckwalla FA

Born Clean

Down on the Pharm

This route was done after a letter was found that was left by a 2nd party of climbers who also discovered this crag.  The thought of keeping this crag a secret was not meant to be.     This route has a bit of a spicy, yet easy, start.  Be careful how you pull on those chockstones.

One fun roof section that acts as a speed bump on this otherwise cruiser route.   

  Route #14 on 03/07/2012 topo, south end of wall.

Mixed line going left of the arete and over the roof to the upper right facing face.  Bolts on bottom veer left with great holds to be found.  Go up the low angle face to the left facing upper half.

Fun long route.  (watch out for critters) 

all routes in Wood Canyon are new - helmets are a good idea for both belayer and climber as the routes are still shedding a bit.  

Find the last sport route, #14 on photo, and begin on broken face and cracks just right about 10' or so. Begins on easy face and ledges, goes right at the big roof to a good vertical crack left of big dihedral. Shoot straight up from there on good rock; beware of loose rock near top out.

The first line climbed at Wood Canyon and the FA found a chuckwalla 20 meters up puffed into the nice hand crack.  Follow the beautiful crack.  The rap anchors unfortunately take out the wide crack finish.

Short trad line on this fun shady face.  The line needed very minimal cleaning.  Short line, good to end the day on.     There are essentially two variations of the route.  Left variation takes the crack up to within 15 feet of the anchor and cuts back to the anchor.  The right route has great gear, sometime 10 feet apart, over a fun face and/or arete, which also go back to the anchor.  The right variation is more fun, but you should be solid at the grade and know how to place the cams/nuts.

Stout start and then easy climbing.  Start might be harder than the 5.5 - but we'll see what others think. 

all routes in Wood Canyon are new - helmets are a good idea for both belayer and climber as the routes are still shedding a bit.  

An extremely fun trad route with a couple bolts down low.  Start up the V slot and get something to go in before the 1st bolt (left).  Look for a #2 c4 placement before you climb the low angle section and head for the crack on the arete.  Pull up into the crack and enjoy.  The first FA attempt was bailed after a 1-2 ton loose block was found (now removed).

The main wall in Wood Canyon is a large, black outcrop that towers just east from the road.  The wall faces west and at its highest is roughly 30 meters.  A few sport routes exist with a few more trad and mixed routes.   The rock typically can take great gear on many routes (as tested).     The rock is a perlite flow apart of the Picket  Post Volcanic series.  Somewhat similar to a basalt flow in how it climbs.  Some routes still have loose rock and climbers, belayers, and dogs should be careful!    The first crack that was climbed here found a Chuckwalla was found 20 meters up jammed inside the crack. This is "slack" country AZ climbing, you may find bats, scorpions, etc. Deal with it.   The wall faces west and with the dark rock, it can get pretty hot.  Be respectful to the OHV, horseback riders, hunters, and other using Wood Canyon.  It generally is a secluded and quiet place.  Not much shade once the sun goes up until it goes behind the hills. 60 meter rope is OK, watch your ends.  Many routes have rappel anchors with quick links or steel lockers.  You may want to bring some quick links along on your lead.  The steel lockers are not booty; please leave them.  Top roping can be difficult on some of the climbs as you may have to extend the anchors.  Most anchors are over the edge of the cliff and not easily reached from above (you can easily build an anchor w/ gear above to setup a TR).  More potential exists for easy (<5.6) trad climbs on the south side of the wall for those willing to do the cleaning.  The ethic here is to not bolt mostly protect-able lines.     The cracks and pockets take nuts and cams well.  A single set of nuts, hexes, along with a single set of cams (maybe doubles of certain sizes, cams up to #4 c4) will be useful.     You could camp here, it's all USFS Tonto NF land.  No bee hives in the rocks, just friendly bees around.  Dog friendly if it isn't too hot. Follow the cairns to the crag.

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Routes in Wood Canyon