Ice Cave Walls
43 routes · limestone (Leadville Limestone) · 6,969 ft
What's here
5.7 to 5.13, mostly around 5.11.
Counted from the 43 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 43
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 The Bumble Bee, Road To Nowhere, Bloodhound (3 climbs, about 90 seconds on Lower Ice Caves) would place up to 11 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.
The guidebook for this area
Rifle: A Climber's Guide - Darek Krol - 4th ed. - 2021 every crag it covers
The book has the topos, the descriptions and the local knowledge this page can't. Buying it helps support the people who know the crag best.
Rock, from the geologic map
Leadville Limestone, Gilman Sandstone, Dyer Dolomite, and Parting Fm (Leadville Limestone, Gilman Sandstone, Dyer Dolomite, Parting Formation) — limestone, sandstone, dolostone, minor shale, quartzite. Paleozoic, about 383 to 357 million years old.
Parting Fm: quartzite and shale.
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. The rock named at the top of this page comes from the public geology of this area; this card is the map's answer. Every crag on this unit: Leadville Limestone, Gilman Sandstone, Dyer Dolomite, and Parting Fm. Geology data: Macrostrat (CC BY 4.0), serving USGS and Colorado Geological Survey maps.
On the map since 1906
The USGS has mapped this ground since 1906. 19 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
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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, 1906 to 1981: USGS topoView.
Photographs near this crag
Taken within 1.5 km of this crag's map point and published under a licence that lets us show them, from Wikimedia Commons. The coordinates say where the camera was, not what it was pointed at, so some of these will be the creek or the trail rather than the rock.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
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Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Wikimedia Commons · CC BY · the record · placed by its coordinates
Report this item
Hidden as soon as you tell us, everywhere it appears, before anyone reviews it.
Routes
Funny Face, The
- 1 Costello 5.11a
- 2 Carlin 5.10a
- 3 Martin & Lewis 5.9
- 4 Sellers 5.10a/b
- 5 Pryor 5.10a
- 6 Rickles 5.8-
- 7 Borat 5.11b
- 8 Woody 5.11d
- 9 Fallon 5.9
- 10 Rogen 5.10d
Lower Ice Caves
- 1 The Bumble Bee 5.10a
- 2 Smell The Coffee 5.11
- 3 Good Moanin' 5.11b
- 4 Wake Up Call 5.10b
- 5 Continental Call 5.10a
- 6 Continental Breakfast 5.10b
- 7 Mel's Diner 5.11a
- 8 Starbuck's Coffee 5.11c
- 9 Snooze Control 5.11c
- 10 Local Talent 5.11c
- 11 Plastic Prince 5.11c
- 12 Leather Queen 5.11b
- 13 Road To Nowhere 5.11a/b
- 14 Bloodhound 5.12c
Middle Ice Caves (CHUD area)
- 1 Crud aka Unknown near Chud 5.12b
- 2 Monster Magnet 5.13a
- 3 Chud 5.12c/d
Middle Ice Caves (Potato Routes)
- 1 Vortex aka Fat Slags 5.9
- 2 Merry Maids 5.10a
- 3 Spuds in Space 5.8+
- 4 Hot Potato 5.9+
- 5 Do The Mashed Potato aka Acquitted 5.7
- 6 Small Fry 5.10b/c
Upper Ice Caves (Feline area)
- 1 Dirty Looks 5.10c/d
- 2 Dirty White Boy 5.8+
- 3 Dirty White Boy Extension 5.11b
- 4 Lovin' You is a Dirty Job 5.10b
- 5 Rachel's Route 5.7
- 6 Irish Blood 5.10a
- 7 Deutsches Blut 5.11b
- 8 Butte Nougat 5.11a
- 9 Ledged Assault 5.11c/d
- 10 Feline 5.11b
Also within 3 km
- The Wall of Life77 m · 3 routes · 7,003 ft
- The Wasteland91 m · 19 routes · 6,934 ft
- Religious Wall126 m · 3 routes · 7,014 ft
- The Nappy Dugout128 m · 19 routes · 6,956 ft
- The Sanctuary172 m · 6 routes · 6,988 ft
- Lower Tier209 m · 13 routes · 6,980 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 City of Rifle (local government), in Rifle Mountain Park. It lies inside local park.
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 Rifle Mountain Park land
- Fees
- $10 day pass per vehicle, the same for residents and non-residents. Annual passes are $20 for Rifle residents, $60 for Garfield County residents and $200 for others.
- Climbing permit
- New bolted routes go through a permitting process that involves the Rifle Climbers Coalition. Nothing is stated as required to climb existing routes.
- Overnight
- Camping $30 a night including a day pass, or $20 with a valid annual pass. 14-day limit, designated areas only. Quiet hours 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
- Dogs
- Dogs must be on a leash at all times, and owners must pick up and dispose of waste.
Read on Rifle Mountain Park'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
- Campsite
- Rifle Mountain Park, 2,472 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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