River Wall
6 routes · shale (Mancos Shale, with sandstone) · 7,681 ft
What's here
5.10 to 5.12, but over half of these routes are 5.11.
Counted from the 6 climbs here that carry a grade. Shown only where there are at least 5 of them — below that the shape is noise.
How well located
Position on wall known 6
No route here has its own point yet. The map pin is the crag. At the wall? Survey it: 30 seconds per route.
The order of the climbs along this wall is known from the open catalogue, so a few surveys go a long way: standing at Hantavirus, Dressed in Smoke (2 climbs, about 60 seconds) would place up to 4 more climbs between them. Survey the wall →
“Up to” because the estimate between two surveyed routes is only used when they turn out to be close enough together on the ground.
Rock, from the geologic map
Mancos Shale — shale, sandstone. Late Cretaceous, about 91 to 75 million years old.
In northwest and west-central: Intertongues complexly with units of overlying Mesaverde Group or Fm; lower part consists of a calcareous Niobrara equivalent and Frontier Sandstone and Mowry Shale Members; in areas where the Frontier and Mowry Members (Kmfm), or these and the Dakota Sandstone (Kfd) are distinguished, map unit (Km) consists of shale above Frontier Member. In Southwest: Lower part contains Juana Lopez Member (Kmj)
This is the map unit under this crag's map point, read from the 1:500,000 sheet (Horton and others, 2017, U.S. Geological Survey Data Series 1052). The point can be a few hundred metres from the rock, a cliff often stands on the line between two units, and at that scale a line on the map is about 500 m wide on the ground, so the wall itself may be the neighbouring unit. Every crag on this unit: Mancos Shale. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.
On the map since 1957
The USGS has mapped this ground since 1957. 13 historical sheets cover this crag's map point; the oldest is below.
USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item
Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Public domain, U.S. Geological Survey. The sheet shows the ground as the survey found it then, which is why a trail or road you know may be missing. Every sheet over this point, 1957 to 1982: USGS topoView.
Routes
Also within 3 km
- Roadside Boulders52 m · 15 boulder problems · 7,675 ft
- The Wall aka Breakfast Nook112 m · 9 routes · 7,718 ft
- Spider Wall154 m · 2 boulder problems · 7,858 ft
- Sanctuary268 m · 20 boulder problems · 7,974 ft
Straight line between the two crags' map points, each of which can be some way from its rock. For when this wall is full, or the sun has found it.
Photos from climbers
No photos here yet. If you're at the crag, yours would be the first.
Taken at the crag by climbers and published as they sent them. Each one's own location had to be within 0.5 km of this crag before we accepted it. See something that shouldn't be here? Use Report this photo under it and it's hidden at once. Anything else, write to us.
Conditions reported
Nothing reported recently.
Report what you see
Reports are dated and fade on their own: wet rock after 3 days, a bad bolt after a year. No names, no text.
Access & safety
The map point for this crag is on land managed by White River National Forest (federal). It lies inside national forest.
Land manager from USGS PAD-US (public domain), read 2026-09-29. It is the manager of the crag's map point, which can be a long way from the wall. What you may do on the rock is the manager's to say, not ours.
Rules for all White River National Forest land
- Rules
- The forest strongly recommends dispersed campers pack out solid human waste using an approved disposable or self-contained system rather than burying it in a cathole.
- Overnight
- Camping more than 14 days in any continuous 30-day period is prohibited, counted from the first day of occupancy. Some places allow dispersed camping only at designated sites and some run a shorter 7-day limit in summer.
Read on White River National Forest's own pages, checked 2026-09-29 by John Crawford. What they require, in full, or their own climbing page. These apply to the manager's whole holding; anything specific to this crag is above.
Nearby, from OpenStreetMap
- Mapped parking
- 223 m away (map)
Distances are a straight line from this crag's map point, which can itself be hundreds of metres off; a road may be much longer. Mapped by OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), so a toilet missing here may simply be unmapped. Parking here is what OSM has drawn nearby, not a guidebook's directions.
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