Myopic

Viking Soared

Cragmire

Head in the McLeods

Solar E-clips

Crack Of Dawn

Brighter Side Of Darkness

Blink

Aurora No Boreals

Angus' Kong

Sun Dialed

North American Free Trad Agreement

Turn The Other Cheek

Blinded by the Light

Ain't no Sunshine When it's Gone

Tallest Man On Earth

Krymptonite

Across To Bear

See the Light

Hashbrowns

The Wedge Of Delight

Solar Flare

Euro-lite

Black Hole

Hardboiled

Fun With Dick And Bob

Sun Stoked

Rehearsal of Fortune

Filet Of Sol

Red Dwarf

Magnetopause

Sun Demon

Hebrew Hammer

Northern Tights

Sunny Side Up

Chromosphere

Solar Sis-stem

Lein On Me

White Dwarf

English Breakfast Crack

Ra's Arete

Sun Baked (No Longer Exists)

Solar Wind

Sol Survivor

This route left us uninspired for two months due to it's short length and the other routes we were looking at doing.  It turns out to be really fun climbing on overhanging rock with good holds.  A perfect warm-up for harder routes if done a few times in a row.

Hard moves up short crack with good pro get you to another short section of crack.  From the ledge follow bolts left on to fun overhanging face.  Originally lead by Jim Scott but he stayed right and climbed easy rock to top with no pro after the cracks.  Much more fun to do with the bolts on the steep face.

Dihedral, to crack, to wide but not unpleasant crack to classic Mt lemmon face climbing across the headwall to the final crux moves. This route is on the upper tier of rocks called the Heliosphere.  Follow trail at the base of the first wall you reach (The Griddle) up and left to a cairn.  Contour east or right following more cairns. Where you start going up the hill turn back west gradually gaining altitude until you reach the left side of another couple of crags. (200 ft.)  Head up the gully to base of cliff.  Walk left under an oak tree.  This slightly overhanging  route starts in the short orange dihedral with a bolt.

Hard start up cracks and seams lead to tricky face.

Solar E-clips is located in the middle of the Sunburst Crag and climbs a major weakness. The line starts in a dihedral under a roof.  There are some interesting moves into a open groove.  The top is exceptional with steep pocket (yes, pocket) pulls.  This thing took some clean up, but it is fairly sweet in its current state.  8 or so bolts. Sparky speaks the truth.

In your face crack with one bolt. Traverse in from left on top of scary, but solid, blocks or climb straight over them.   If you cut left at top of first crack instead of right to the bolt, the route is 5.10.    Both variations have chains at top.

Hard start traverses into seam and crack  Stick clip the first bolt or have good spotters.  To reach this route and Angus Kong 10- Start at The Griddle and hike left and up about 150 feet to cairn.  The route is on the short cliff about 40 feet right above you.

This rout starts by climbing a crack that it is best  not to get into.  From ledge climb up buttress.

Approach by taking trail left from the first wall encountered (The Griddle).  At the first cairn you can see the route just 40 feet above you.  It is a short crack corner leading to a slight bulge with a bolt. It is left of a reddish buttress with a bolted crack seam (Brighter Side Of Darkness 12-)to the right.

Sun Dialed is a stout little sport climb.  High value. It is the 4-bolt route located 50 feet to the right of Crack of Dawn, the crack above the the large square blocks.

The crux is moving off the bottom block into the crack.  Right now there are no chains, but these will be added.  Exit right and use the chains to the right.

Crack to face.  The climbing is better than the climbs appearance.

Intriguing face climbing on small but good edges, with a balancy crux and a big pull over the final bulge.

This is a variation finish to Hashbrowns.  A cool committing move with nice air lead to a big jug then a hard traverse and pumpy gear placements.  Stays on you even when it looks like it should be over.  Pro is good but a little shallow small and spooky.  A failure of the gear on the traverse could lead to a swing into a ramp.  Long slings on the last bolt and the first gear placements really help with the rope drag. We did this route after toproping it once, so although we didn't have the gear completely dialed we did have a clue and that helps.  This would be a proud onsight and I base the rating on that.  If it was a clip up I would probably call it an 11+.  Will change it if needed as more folks climb it. Rock is a little chossy in places but should clean up with some work and traffic. D. Merin did the lower half using sparse gear placements and 4 ft. runners to reduce drag and make the whole thing trad.

Around the corner to the left of Red Dwarf.  The first route you come to is The Wedge 5.10.  The second is Krymptonite.  Start up crack in short left facing dihedral with a hand sized cam or walk around to the top of the pillar and start clipping bolts.

This route was done in the interest of having more moderate routes and because there are some fun cracks at the end of it that can't be reached if you don't climb 5.11.  This route is on The Griddle and involves a lot of traversing to the left.  Start at the base of the big left leaning dihedral.  Clip the first three Fixe bolts of Sunny Side Up .  Use a long runner at the 3rd bolt (unpainted). Now head left to another unpainted bolt.   A tricky move gets you to a crack that can be climbed to the top or keep on moving left to the cracks.  Continue up these to chains then belay your partner.  Rap off.  If you want to practice multi pitch there is a great crack where you could set up a belay 15 feet past the 4th bolt.  This also alleviates rope drag especially if you go straight up from there.

Hard face moves past bolts lead to fun crack climbing to a roof. Pull roof, way fun!!, past 2 bolts to chains.

This route is on The Griddle which is the first formation you reach when hiking up to Sun Spot Crags.  It has three distinct cruxes.  Start on rocks at base of low angle left leaning corner with pale SMC hangers.  After first SMC hanger on the old route Hardboiled 5.9- clip a Fixe bolt on the right face.  Follow left leaning ramps to tricky bulge.  Climb steep face and after clipping a chain draw pull on to  overhanging headwall and head to the anchors.  The two run out sections were not bolted to maintain the integrity of the existing route Hard Boiled 5.9- which stays left of the chimney until you can hand traverse an angling crack into the chimney above  the bulge.

Getting on to the ledge after the layback is a bit awkward and I think it is the crux.

Solar Flare is a very good, albeit short, route on perfect rock that nearly justifies the approach by itself.  Originally a fully bolted sport route, Solar Flare has been revised to be a full on traditional route.  The route was chopped by the FA after reconsidering the placements, recognizing the lack of quality gear routes on the mountain, and a community vote.

A sport variation to See the Light.  Clip first two bolts on Lean on Me then bust left to roof.    Avoids 5.11 face moves on See the Light and the need for gear. 

  A good warm up climb.

Calling this a chimney does it no justice.  It is more of a crack corner system with good pro.  You only do about 5 feet chimneying on the entire climb.  From the top of the chockstone climb straight up to crack in headwall (5.9-) or move right and up then back left to crack(5.7).

Start from rocky ledge and climb left-facing dihedral with pale SMC hangers. (New style and safe) Climb past third or fourth bolt before traversing right with good gear to the chimney.  If you traverse at the bolt you will have a harder but well protected bulge to surmount.

Boulder up crack or bring a hand sized cam to protect the first 10 feet.

Two starts to this route. the left is 11+ the right is the 5.11. Hard start with a couple of more steep hard sections. Better than you think it will be and the middle crux is a head scratcher.

The opening moves are hard as well as the last steep crack section.  It is a hard crack on Mt. Lemmon and that is cool.  JSt, and Erik Murdock put in the anchors and 1st bolt.  Many have top-roped it from the anchors on English Breakfast Crack.  Last week I cleaned up most of the choss on the route.  I figured out the pro and racked it in order before I lead it.  Onsighting this will take some endurance and quick gear placements.

Steep warm up for the harder routes on Heliosphere.   Climb right to steep face and ledge.  Thin moves left off ledge lead to chains on Sol Survivor.

Short left angling crack 5.12 leads to a big ledge and total recovery. Move back right and clip one of two bolts (for top-roping crack) then head up steep face 5.11 to anchors.  These double bolts can be reached by climbing around the left side of the formation to the previously mentioned ledge.  You can hang draws on these to TR the crack.  Take some small cams for directionals.  You can also hike to top of crag tie off an oak work out to the front of the formation and single line rap to chains.  You then have to have someone untie the rope so you can set up the TR.  Or you can lead it.

This photo shows a climber on Filet of Sol.  Magnetopause is an overhanging blunt arete.  It starts just left of Cragmire.  The top of both of those climbs is left of the climber where a large ledge can be seen on the left skyline.  After a pause to shake out it is tricky but way more fun to move back right and finish the top moves of the arete.

Short but fun climbing up the right-arching layback seam.  Moves onto ledge at the top of seam are harder than you think.

Short powerful route with good moves.  If we could have come up with 10 bouldering pads we would have made it a highball.  Just kidding!

Fun, fingery, technical climbing up slightly overhanging face.  Several cruxes increasing in difficulty make this a solid little line.

 Note:  The name, a tribute to the play on words of the climb to the right, did certainly involve a Canadian in spandex.

Fun Warm up, a bit harder than it looks.   Climb slab to steep section then up to bulge. Pull through bulge on jug to slabby finish.

Approach the same as Filet of Sol.  Moderate trad climbing with good pro to a short safe crux section.

Engaging climbing up the obvious sharp corner, then onto a few fun face moves to the chains.

Start the same as Euro-lite but head right around roof.  Hard start then the rest of the route eases off but not too much.

Tricky moves right into hanging corner lead to steep face climbing above.

5.8+/10+ This route has been set up so you can do the 5.8+ crack then lower off from chains or go through the bolted 5.10 upper headwall and lower off. This splitter crack starts on the right side of the formation now being called The Griddle. It is around the corner and can't be seen when looking at the wall itself. A short slightly grungy section leads to a ledge. A few dihedral moves get you to about 25 feet of great finger crack. If you climb past the first chains you will be on the 5.10 upper headwall.

Climb easy rock to ledge, 10 feet left of Sun Demon.     Pull onto arete and crank to top. Gets harder the higher you get.

THIS ROUTE NO LONGER EXISTS.  DO NOT CLIMB.

  Another much needed 5.10 at the Sun Spots.  Two  cruxes makes this route interesting.   Climb slab to steep bit with good holds, then left to steeper arete with good holds.

Sustained, devious, and pumpy.  Doesn't let up till your done.

Shares chains with Filet of Sol.    Climb slab left to blunt arete.

The Sun Spot Crags are a sunny, winter climbing area that's visible from the Molino Campground as a low, south-facing cliff band.  There are more than 20 routes to do from 5.7 to 5.12. There was only one route, bolted by Strassman, on the crag until December 2005. Some of the other lines, including chimneys, have been climbed/toproped in the past. Rock quality is variable although all the routes are surprisingly good. Solar Flare, the farthest route to the west, is on great rock and is top notch by Lemmon standards. Bring a standard rack for a few excellent cracks and mixed routes. Routes were cleaned although there may be some residual crustiness on a few. If you are looking for a low, sunny crag with warm temps, this place is a worthwhile alternative to the Ruins or Club Med.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in Sun Spot Crags