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Hot Pocket Climbing, 2020-present

Hot Pocket Climbing, 2020-present

Routes:

- Astropocket (5.12, 5p)
- Other routes

Region: Colorado
Elev: ~11,000 ft
Rock type: Granite
Type: 
Date(s): 2020(x1 day), 2021(x1 day), 2024(x1 day)
Partner(s): Nate Arganbright, Rob Scrivner

Climbers flock to Rocky Mountain National Park for its great climbing in a spectacular location. Over the years, regulations and crowds have begun to detract from the alpine experience. But there are still a few locations of good rock in the park that most climbers do not know about. Best to keep them that way.

On this page, I give photos from climbing at the Hot Pocket, organized by date. I've also included a trip report for Astropocket, a multipitch 5.12 I've done there. At the bottom of the page, I keep a list of the climbs (most have no names or location info) I've done at the Hot Pocket.

Photos

SOME RANDOM PHOTOS FROM CRAGGING AT THE HOT POCKET


More climbing fun!
More climbing fun!
Date: August 2, 2020 (Sun)
Partner: Nate Arganbright
Climbed: various single-pitch routes
Climbed about 5 single pitch routes ranging from 5.8 to 5.10. Excellent granite. Nate didn't want me to take photos or put the area on my website.
Exellent granite. Lots of corners.

More climbing fun!
More climbing fun!
Date: July 14, 2021 (Wed)
Partner: Rob Scrivner
Climbed: Astropocket (5.12, 5p)
After cragging on a couple of pitches and seeing what the weather looked like it was doing, we climbed Astropocket, a 5-pitch 5.12 route up a 600-foot section of the wall. Astropocket is a phenomenal route on great rock, pretty sustained at the 5.10 grade with several 5.11+/12 cruxes. Pitch difficulties (approx): 5.11+/12, 5.10+, 5.11+/12, 5.9, 5.11+/12. Rob led all of the cruxes beautifully! Thanks Rob for climbing this route with me.
Steep snow on the approach to the base of the rock. Even though it was about 100 feet of snow, it would have been nice to have crampons, but we had changed climbing plans last minute (because of weather) and did not have them with us.
A nice corner.
A nice slab.
Great rock and techy climbing on Pitch 1 of Astropocket.
Nice bolted slab on Pitch 3 of Astropocket.
Fun corner on Pitch 4 of Astropocket.
You can rap from bolted anchors with double ropes. But we brought single ropes so had to rap off a nut at one point.
Hmmm....
9. I had parked my car at Beaver Meadows Visitor Center for the day. Turns out they had planned to repave the very section where I parked, and when the paving crew arrived they were so set on completing the job that they just paved around my car! No signs had been posted in the morning about the upcoming repaving job, and a park ranger actually called me to apologize and check to see I managed to get my car out of the parking spot. I thought the whole situation was pretty hilarious and enjoyed taking some photos of my car before inching it onto the sidewalk and out of the spot without running through any fresh pavement.

More climbing fun!
More climbing fun!
Date: September 14, 2024 (Sat)
Partner: Nate Arganbright
Climbed: various single-pitch routes
5 pitches of cragging on this beautiful September Saturday. This area is not quite as secret as before, so I took some photos this time. Still have no idea what most of the route names are.
Lots of corners.
We climbed this corner as our first route of the day. About 165 feet. 5.9.
We toproped this face. 5.11.
We toproped this corner. 5.8.
A really good corner pitch. 5.10.
We toproped this featured crack. 5.11a.
Lenticulars. It was a windy day but we were sheltered in the pocket.
I want this rock on my patio.
Hiking out through beautiful golden tundra.

List of Climbs I've done at the Hot Pocket

LIST MAINLY FOR PERSONAL RECORD-KEEPING | DATES I'VE CLIMBED THERE ON SECOND TAB

Previous and Next Adventures

(August 2020: First time cragging at Hot Pocket)

The Diamond (Casual Route), CO
Mary's Bust (The Brown Palace + The Broadmoor), CO

Comments Pertaining to this Page / Trip Report

Useful beta. Updated route information. Corrections. Historical notes. Interesting facts. No fluff please.
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