This route climbs just to the right of the left arete on the West Face of  Surprising Crag.  It starts up a large lieback flake to a crux pulling the lip.  The second bolt is hard to clip.  After the crux, there is a short hard section to much easier climbing to the anchor, which is up and right.  The left anchor is for

Pocket Fisherman

.

Curve of Binding Energy

North Crack

Surprise, Surprise

Northwest Passage

Mercy Drilling

Amber

Pocket Fisherman

Wise Crack

The Other One

Shakedown Street

Impeachara

Furious Howard Brown

Space Goats

American Beauty

This is another line with a crux down low.  Move in from the left, clip, find the crux, decipher, and continue on easier terrain to the top.  The clock ticks a bit at the crux.

Per D'Antonio's Boulder Canyon guidebook, this is the deep crack in the dihedral, just right of

Mercy Drilling

.

Either smush into the crack or do dihedral moves.

The crux was edging left onto the face at the end to reach the anchors for

Mercy Drilling

. Moving out is committing. Overall, there are good rests & several "what next?" spots for a 5.8 leader.

Follow a short hand crack (on the wider side) that ends below an offwidth overlap. Make your moves to get established above, top out, and traverse over to the new anchor above

Northwest Passage

. There's not a lot of obligatory OW, but it does present a unique option for the area.

Northwest Passage ascends the short, wide corner to the left of

Wise Crack

. Wiggle up the offwith, hands, and finger crack to the top. This protects pretty well and is fun for a 5.8 trad leader.

Walk off down the gully. Be careful of loose blocks at the top of this one. It is a really fun, moderate trad route and will get better with more ascents.

This is located on the West Face (Cracks of Surprise Wall) around the corner from the South Face of Surprising Crag. This is the first route left of the chimney (5.8+).

This would be a great route... if only it hadn't been bolted, and if only someone hadn't drilled a mono pocket (denied by Mark Rolofson below) in the crux. Why bolt a perfectly protectable crack?

The mono makes for an interesting balancy move out of the crack, and then head back up and into the crack.

As it stands, this is a 12a. Without the mono, it would be considerably harder.

The climbing up to the 1st bolt is the most heads up and the reason for the PG-13 rating.

Once at the first bolt, the rock quality improves dramatically and is good for the remainder of the climb. Most folks will probably find the crux around the 2nd bolt.

This is the farthest left route on the west face of Surprising Crag.  Climb a couple easy moves, clip the first bolt, and follow easy ground to a ledge.  Clip the second bolt, then start up into the dihedral.  Odd jams and lieback moves take you past three move bolts and into broken rock.  one more bolt above finishes off the route.  Generally unremarkable.  Good views give it a star, though.

The Other One fires up the prow of the Surprising Crag. It's the rightmost route on the West Face, just around the arete left of Choss Temple Pilots.

Jug haul to a good stance and high clip just before the crux. A clean, left-facing corner leading to a crisp edge and a pair of friction pads kicks up an interesting crux. Dust it with a high step. A slab to the anchors finishes the thing.

This has good rock and fun moves, and none of the holds appeared to be manufactured.

This route ascends the bulging north face using the arete.  A moderate start leads past 2 bolts to a ledge.  Continue up the arete using handholds on the edge of the right side of the arete with your body & feet on the left.  The first holds are good. Then the holds are small, sharp, painful crimpers.  The crux at the last two bolts moves up the face & then left to end at a juggy horizontal break.  Traverse right up the break. A very short corner leads to the anchor.

Ascend the left side of the north face. Begin in the same place as

Mercy Drilling

, but before its 1st bolt, step right onto the north face & the 1st bolt of Impeachara. I avoid the blocky ledge to the right to be safe. Continue up moderate climbing (5.9) to a good ledge, to lay down on, at the 6th bolt. A .10a move leads to a good jug & the last bolt.

Above here, the face turns to an overhang. The crux is getting to jugs at the lip of overhang & just above the anchor. Pulling onto the summit will earn you bonus points. This crux involves a long reach off an undercling hold. It is definitely height-dependent.

I bolted this line in August 2015, climbed it to the undercling, & grabbed the anchor. I had injured my left shoulder in July 2015, & that prevented me from working this powerful crux finish. Up to the crux, it's a great warm-up. After watching the video link below, I returned & sent the route. Even though powerful, it's more about discovering the subtle beta.

youtube.com/watch?v=QXUlhT3…

This route starts under a roof right in front of a tree on the West Face of Surprising Crag.  There is one bolt getting to the roof, and one bolt on the roof.  Turn the roof on jugs, then continue up the face passing three distinct hard sections with no hands rests in between.  The climbing is great, and would get three stars if the route did not have all the no hands rests.  Basically four boulder problems in a row.  The last hard section can be skipped by going left and using the bolts on

Space Goats

.  Sport Park gets a lot of bad press, but this is a great, all natural route.

A few bulge moves bring you under a short roof. Reach out and over the roof to a good rest before the crux. Move through power crux off good sidepulls. Easier slabbed out climbing will take you to the anchors. Minor slab crux closer to the top with some good laybacks.

Located on Sport Park's Surprising Crag (west side), American Beauty ascends a vertical wall for roughly 60/70 feet.  The climbing involves clean rock on mostly lay back flakes until one is faced with the final crux moves. It's not exactly certain whether the first ascenionist intended for the line to go straight up or utilize the crack to the left to get established on the well-protected crux.  Either way, a balancy set of moves to a better holds up high makes for a great climb.  Probably more like 12b -- the guidebook gives it 12c.

Description

Protection

Routes in West Face