Start left of the first bolt, stemming out right and then heading up.  Good holds lead up to a roof with some sweet jugs to shake before bustin' up and over.  A good hold up and out right will let you get your feet up.  Crank up and mantle the top... or if you're scared, grab at the tree up and out left.  Once you're up, it's an easy reach to the anchors

Crutch Factory

Gem Hunter

Bag End

There and Back Again

Quartz Course

The Lidless Eye

King of Crutches

Spanning the Gap

Helm's Deep

Rock Hound

Tourmaline Dreams

Barefoot Boys With Shoes On

A cool start leads up to a bouldery crux between the 1st and 2nd bolt.  Face climb up through a few right facing hand holds.  Finish up on better holds to the anchors above.

A pretty fun route right up the middle of the cliff. As with many routes in this section the crux is at the bottom. Climb up a very easy slab to the base of the headwall. Make a couple challenging moves, step right to a ledge and gain some cool large quartz crystals. Easier climbing to the top.

Sitting at the left end of the main cliff, this route climbs easy holds up a nice little left facing corner to a ledge.  Get up on the ledge and your anchors will be just out left. 

  A short warm up for the crag.

This route works through a system of cracks just to the left of Spanning the Gap (5.9) up to a single bolt. You then move right to the anchors of it's neighbor. I thought that it was a full value (hardish) 5.7 to the single bolt and then climbing right added enough pump to add a grade. 

  Good move and good protection. If it was longer I would add a star for sure. 

  Instead of lugging trad gear up you could just do the route to the right, swing left to clip the directional bolt and do it on TR.

A nice little warm up at the far right end of the cliff. A little traffic might do it some good as the rock is brittle and needs to wear down to the good stuff. 

  Climb the right side of the large quartz deposit that makes up Tourmaline Dreams 5.9. Big holds on steepish interesting rock lead to the nice beefy anchors (these anchors ar poorly placed however, as the rope runs right in to a tight crack).

A cool circular cutout (the lidless eye) marks the start of this route.  Get up into the eye and work your way onto the left angling ramp.  Continue up it to the left of where your anchors are and then back right.  Heading straight up to the anchors will be slightly harder.

Very cool crux moves on a slightly underwhelming route. 

  Climb up a mossy slab, pull a mantle at the first bolt. Continue up and right on the slab until you get to the vertical bit. A surprisingly tricky/tough move gets you established on the steeper climbing where you get all good holds and it gets REALLY STEEP REALLY FAST! Hand traverse right across the roof with a swing of the legs and a throw of the hand you gain the anchors which are clipped from a jug.  

  The route can be wet.. so... yeah...

Scramble up the slab to the first bolt and continue up the ramp.  The crux  comes at the 3rd bolt where a good lip on the horizontal provides a nice undercling for you to "span the gap".  Walk feet up the textured face and move on good holds up the left angling ramp to the anchors.

Scramble up onto a ledge and clip your first two bolts.  Head up and left of the 2nd and 3rd bolts to tackle the first crux.  A good rest will let you prepare for the upper crux.  Climb left of the 5th bolt to the edge and then traverse back up and right to the anchors above.

Up the big, blocky crystals to a crux after the 2nd bolt.  The 3rd bolt is hidden from the ground but is just past some the bigger of the blocky crystals above.  Take a second to check out the black tourmaline gems above but please leave them for the next rock dancer to appreciate.   

  Some of the rock can easily flick off, so be careful if your belayer is directly below you.

An easy start leads to harder climbing following but not using much of a nice clean crack. After a hard layback/undercling move you clip the last bolt from a great jug. A crimp and a couple of strenuous moves on good holds get you up just right of the anchor. 

  A good little route. Like many of the good routes at Gem Hunter it would get a better review if it was a little longer. Well worth doing if you are up there though.

This small crag is located high up on the east side of rattlesnake mountain and can be seen from Stinson Lake Road.  A couple of routes (11b and 10d) are a secluded from the majority of the crag; the rest of the routes at this crag range from 5.7 to 10b.   

  Expect to climb in the sun.  Expect to clear out huge spiders.  Expect to have a nice climbing experience away from the typical Rumney crowds.  And oh yeah, expect a fun approach hike.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Gem Hunter