Jug Haul

Face (left of Freeway)

Slot Machine

Freeway

Eye of the Tiger

Scantily Trad

Feline Antics

Sacrum-blue

Dihedral

Corona Alley

The Floating Air Biscuit

Honey Pot

Joint Therapy

Bulge to Groove

Sweet Petite

Turning Point

Smokin' John (submitted as Roof Rack)

Lou Reed

Deflator-Mouse

Chimney

The Dirty Boulevard

Face

Big Dreams

Quarantine-age Mutant COVID Crushers

The Pit of Despair

Groper

Remote (chance of) Learning

This fissure appears grungy and uninviting from afar.  However, once you get on it, you'll find better climbing and probably the most moderate climbing at the crag.

Chimney the obvious fissure between

Honey Pot

and

Jug Haul

.  Use the left wall for terrific hand holds.  Occasionally, you will use the right wall for stems or back steps.  About 3/5's the way up, you may reach in deep into the chimney and find right hand sidepull under the deep, black lichen.  Finish up to the anchors for

Honey Pot

to the left (better) or

Jug Haul

to the right.

This fissure needs a better cleaning than bare hands can do in spots; however, it's likely that moisture will replenish the vegetation quickly.

There is another small, fairly clean face on which to play if you are looking for a bit more climbing during your visit to Mill Creek Crag.  After you climb

Freeway

, you can do a top rope with a bit of swing potential on the face around the arete to the left.  There is a balancy, barn door potential crux low and a thinnish move up higher just before the ledge.  You can continue up the 5.10 face below the anchors (past the Bugaboo pin) to top out.

One final thing, the dihedral to the left may be leadable.

Slot Machine climbs through the obvious slot in the middle of the wall and just a few feet up the ramp. The climbing is mostly juggy and not difficult. The crux comes in getting past the second clip and standing up to make the third. The rock is largely excellent throughout, and while it was brushed extensively, some lichen still remains. This will clean up well with use, but it may be a good idea to carry a small brush nonetheless.

You have many options from the chain anchors. The dihedral crack is a 5.7 to 5.8 lead on gear. The top rope has numerous possibilities with variations for the top pitch with 5.11 bouldering.

There is a crack on the top more vertical wall that has an old pin in it for the belayer. The crack goes 5.10 with small gear.

Climb up the triangular rust-colored face on excellent granite. Movement on Eye of the Tiger is cool, and the route is well-protected. The climbing gets progressively more difficult approaching the crux roof. Sequencing through the roof took some time to figure out but was kick to solve.

Begin just right of the fully trad route called

Roof Rack

, which is the roof and corner system. Scantily Trad should be obvious with its five bolts leading to a headwall crack. The rock on ST is excellent. Hard and continuously devious climbing begins at clip two and remains complex and powerful until halfway through the crack above. While there are hard sequences at each bolt but # 1, getting to and past bolts 3 and 4 sets up a long and complex crux. Having the draws in place saves some major pump. ST gets full southwest sun after 1:00pm and is climbable well past sunset.

Feline Antics climbs over several small overlaps on largely fine, clean granite. Climb it like a cat on its surfit of good holds. The crux comes in getting past the first clip, but each overlap has its own little trick. It is a good warm-up for the harder routes on MCC.

Sacrum-blue is French for "pain in the ass". This fine new addition to the Mill Creek Crag tackles some pumpy bulges on fairly good holds. While the crux is the bulge at mid height, the bouldery moves to get to it will make you earn the send if you're climbing the grade. With a tricky finish, it's not quite over till you clip the chains. Finding the good holds is the trick to firing the line, otherwise you'll be saying "sacre bleu!"

There is a dihedral to the left of

Face

that sort of begs to be climbed.  It doesn't offer too much protection, however, for a lead.  Lichen on some keys holds suggest it hasn't been climbed in a while, if ever, prior to today.

Start below a subtle, right-facing dihedral.  Make a left foot step up to a smear with a low hold to gain a key left hand hold.  Continue up using subtler movements.  About 30 feet up, you could go right or left.  Going left gains some nice features and the ledge left of the big boulder just leaning against the rock.  Tread lightly here.  There is a red Alien-sized slot just above the boulder.  Move back right and continue on either the right-facing, obtuse dihedral of

Freeway

or the 5.10 face past the pin on

Freeway's 10 variation

.

Corona Alley is yet another great line on good stone that was somehow passed up in the initial wave of development. It's a great moderate counterpart to its neighbor

Dirty Boulevard

.

Stickclip the high first bolt (or clip it on the way down from

Dirty Boulevard

), and climb straight up to a slabby crux. While one could go way over left to the arete to avoid the crux because of the bolt spacing, a fall here would be bad, and you would be robbing yourself of good climbing. The slab is followed by some roofs that are easier than they look, and the route finishes on a cool headwall.

Some may consider this a little sporty compared to some other routes here, but the bolts are where you need them.

This is yet another awesome moderate addition to an already great crag. A slightly harder and more sustained line than

Joint Therapy

to the left, The Floating Air Biscuit begins with a fun and bouldery crux for the first three bolts, which leads to more good climbing up a clean headwall trending right and finishes at the partially shared anchor of

Honey Pot

(three total bolts so the two routes can be utilized independently).

Taking the crux directly up the bolt-line (the way God intended it) is more fun and harder than 5.10a (probably 5.10b); however, a true weenie can go way off the bolt line and escape the well-protected rad sequence and deprive themselves of enlightenment and self-righteousness. The choice is yours.

There are many options to make this climb, rate from a 9 to a 10c depending on which variation you climb.

Good cam placements are available, but be prepared for 9+ difficulty for a trad lead.

Joint Therapy begins with the

Groper

start but instead of angling right to the

Honey Pot

chains fires straight up to an anchor 30 feet left of the

HP

chains. Harald had proposed putting this route in a year ago with the intent of coming out through the small roof system left of

Honey Pot

. Shortly later he was sidelined by a knee replacement surgery that put him out of commission altogether. JT consists of nearly perfect rock throughout, is largely quite moderate, and may provide Harald with an opportunity for some rock rehab. While JT uses the

Groper

start, I did not find anything that seemed to come in at 5.10.

This is another line on which to play to extend your visit to Mill Creek Crag.  It catches your eye as you stand below

Freeway

and ask yourself if this is doable.  Yes, it is, but protecting it on lead safely is not as clear, since some of the features you would use for your hands might be the same ones you'd use for your pro.

Start up similarly as for

Freeway

, but veer left under the bulge utilizing nice underclings.  The chunk of rock on the corner/arete that you may use wiggles, but it didn't come out easily.  Pull out to the left of the arete, move up to a stance.  Small cams could be set in the groove.  Continue up to the left of the groove up a few feet, then move right into the groove and up to the ledge.  From the ledge, you can finish on the balancy 5.10 double cracks to the anchors.

With apologies to Harald and Diane, this fully bolted route turned out to be an excellent addition to the Mill Creek Crag. Start at the base of an incipient seam on porcelain white, bullet hard, granite. Climbing on this gently overhanging wall is continuous and interesting throughout. Difficulties ease back to 5.11 after the fourth clip, but a hard move lurks right at the anchor. The crux climbing is in the first four clips, and two options exist. One can chase the seam directly (hard) or power out right to a right-facing dihedral (better and a couple of letter grades easier). I thought that the climbing on Sweet Petite was superb, a real kick to solve, and well worth the effort.

NB: We jumped on SP at the end of June on a very hot day, and the start felt much harder than when we climbed it earlier in the year. Clearly, the good friction obtained in cooler weather makes a big difference on this fine grained granite.

Turning Points climbs on more excellent Dumont granite.

Start off a small block adjacent to a small, left-facing dihedral. Diagonal leftward to gain a wide ledge at mid-point. Shake out and and power over two consecutive roof systems. While no move seemed harder than 5.11c, the pump at the end seemed to place it in the 5.11+ range. Turning Point has some really not-to-miss fun climbing.

Start  at the right of

Jug Haul

, follow the bottom, left-trending dihedral up an obvious open seam. Work up to the roof and follow the crack under and on the side of the roof. There are no anchors. Secure yourself with gear, and move right to the set of anchor on the next climb to rap or lower.

It's always momentous to loose one of our iconoclasts, and Lou Reed died in October 2013 after 40 years in the RR business. While I was never a great fan of his group the Velvet Underground, I loved Lou Reed. LR, the route, takes a very steep course through the roof system via mostly 5.11 climbing before a very hard boulder crux getting past bolt 5. A cam placement is very nice in the small roof above bolt 6. Things stay solid at 5.11 above bolt 6 and deliver a final big move at the last bolt (5.10+). LR is very continuous and does not let up until you get to the chains. The rock is largely excellent top to bottom.

Start about 20 feet to the right of

Freeway

on the left side of a large, slightly-detached block. Pull up onto the top of the block. The crux is to get from this stance over the bulge until you are established in the dihedral. Stem up to another stance below the small arete, place some pro, reach up onto the face left of the arete to clip a bolt, then choose your path to the top: swing left onto the face for an easier out, stay right in the dihedral for a little more work. There's an easy stance to reach the two-bolt anchor.

Rap from here, or hop up on the large, sunny ledge and take

Upper Freeway

to its bolted anchor (gear required).

Richard Wright has also TR'd the left-wall crack/arete variation just after the crux. That version would use the three bolts we added but would need more and/or different gear. It's quite a bit harder than the stem version.

The Dirty Boulevard starts in the route

Dihedral

, and after 20 feet shifts leftward to an arête, passes through a small roof, and finishes on a sharp arête below the chains. While TDB was named for an old Lou Reed tune, it was very dirty when first run on TR. I would concur with Leo that the initial dihedral had seen little or no action prior to their ascent. In fact, much of the dihedral itself was still choked with vegetation that was removed and the corner brushed. But for the opening 20 feet, every effort was made to keep TDB fully independent of

Dihedral

. Nonetheless, they do share the opening moves. The rock quality on TDB is largely excellent and well featured throughout.

There is a slab face to the right of

Freeway

that gives you yet another line to climb during your visit to Mill Creek Crag.  It was mentioned somewhere in Harald's writeup.  To flesh it out, we'll list it as a separate entry.

Climb up just to the right of

Freeway

, and move up the face connecting discontinuous features with small gear.  From the ledge, you can continue up to the left in the shallow, right-facing corner or go up the double crack system with the old Bugaboo pin.  Note, the rock further to the right of the pin looks less difficulty, but it is fairly licheny.

BD climbs on largely excellent granite that one wishes would go on and on. The route stops at the mid-point ledge, and with a few cams one could, in principal, climb to the top of the crag. Climbing above the ledge did not seem worthwhile. A brief crux comes between the first and second clip. BD might be better described as a 5.9 climb with a short 5.10 crux.

After eyeballing this line for years, I finally got around to bolting it with all social distancing going around. A harder version of its neighbor

Feline Antics

, I can't believe Richard or Harald passed this one up as it is a real quality and obvious line.

Stickclip the high first bolt (or clip it on the way down from

Feline Antics

), and power up on starting moves that are harder than they look. Get a good rest at the overhang, and fire the crux with a pretty hard sequence. Head up and left on good movement past bolts with a final thought provoking move to gain the last bolt.

I really wanted to call this one 5.11-, but once I figured out the beta I thought the moves were in the upper 5.10 range. I guess we'll see what the consensus comes to. Regardless, what it lacks in height it makes up with a pump in your arms and a smile on your face.

The POD was intended as a warm up for the harder routes at the Mill Creek Crag. It is a sub-vertical slab that begins on thin edges and ends on huge holds. The rock quality is good throughout. One can catch a little caving experience on The POD as well. When lowering off the anchor, just squeeze through the slot on the right at the base. It takes you into a large cave feature that can be ascended on top rope as a chimney. If you get down but cannot get out, the cave can be accessed from the base of the crag for an easy escape.

This is a little toprope problem that turns out to be fun. Natural protection opportunities are scant, so in keeping with the posted desires for the crag, it's a top rope. Some might consider this a variation of

Honey Pot

, but it climbs quite differently.

About 20-25 feet left of

Honey Pot

, there are some wavy water streaks. The easiest start has you pulling on a wedged block (hopefully it will not move). Pull aboard and grope your way upward. Each time when you need a good hold, one seems to appear. Angle gradually towards the anchors of

Honey Pot

. Smile.

Apparently, this has now been bolted by two different lines. Perhaps, think of this as a link-up retrospectively. At the time, there was a sentiment expressed that the crag should not get bolted. We respected that.

This route personifies my experiences with the 2020/2021 COVID school year. This fun line has two different style cruxes and is pretty sustained except for the ledge at half height. It starts with a steep and powerful crux boulder problem for the first 3 bolts and then switches over right to the deceptively steep headwall after the ledge. Off the ledge, engage in another technical crux, and fight the pump up the head wall to the anchors.

This route is hard to grade due to the different styles of the cruxes. A short and strong climber may think it's closer to 5.11b, whereas a tall and technical climber may consider it 5.11c (or harder), which is why I put it at 5.11b/c.

*Developer's note: I'll be the first to admit that I botched the bolting on sections of the route. I never fully worked out the moves at the cruxes prior to bolting it. For example, after giving it a go, I quickly noticed the ankle-breaking potential off the ledge, so I added another bolt to protect the leader (it is sport climbing after all). So, you can enjoy very well-protected cruxes on this super fun and super safe route.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Mill Creek Crag