GC7V3QP Wizards Gate
Type: Traditional | Size: Small | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Libertarian Lad @ | Hide Date: 07/23/2018 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N40° 18.212 W105° 31.778 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0

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This cache is at the intersection of the Twin Sisters hiking trail and the ‘climber’s trail’ to the Wizards Gate climbing area.  The cache is about 70 feet up from the Twin Sisters hiking trail.  Wizards Gate has numerous hard climbs, with ratings starting from 5.9 and going up from there.

 

Taking the climber’s trail up to the base of the climbs is a steep challenging hike with some rock scrambling.  Worth it to see the climbing wall, but quite the exertion.

 

The ‘development’ of the Wizards Gate climbing area began in earnest in 2009.  ‘Development’ means establishing new climbing routes, and putting in bolts in the rock that provide safety anchors.  Bolted routes are considered sport climbing as opposed to traditional (trad) climbing where you put in protection as you go.  The bolted routes at Wizards Gate are difficult routes, but safer, with less gear to haul up the climb.

 

Jonathan Siegrist, known as JSTAR, and his dad Bob, have largely been responsible for developing this climbing area, establishing new routes, placing bolts, etc.  Jonathan is one of the top American climbers and has climbed and established very difficult routes all over the world.  Bob has climbed for 45 years and continues to get better!

 

Climbers use a 5.0 to 5.15 scoring system for rating the difficulty of climbs.  Sixteen rating levels seems sufficient, but that is not enough!  Starting at a rating of 5.10, routes can be subdivided into as many as 4 subcategories, like 5.11a, 5.12b, 5.13c, etc.  So in reality there are more than 30 ratings for climbing route difficulty.

Additional Waypoints

P07V3QP - Nearest parking (on gravel road)
N 40° 18.206 W 105° 32.186
You can drive up this gravel road a short distance and if there are any spots, this will be the closest you can get to the trailhead.
P17V3QP - Parking lot alongside Route 7
N 40° 18.395 W 105° 32.218
If there are no parking spots on the gravel road, you can park here.
R07V3QP - The climbing wall (well beyond the cache itself).
N 40° 18.127 W 105° 31.481
If you follow the climber's trail, you end up at the base of the climbing wall. Tough steep hike to get there!

09/24/2018 By MidwestNomad
So many possible spots!

09/04/2018 By EstesLynne
BugRanger and I came up here for this one today, thinking that it would be a relatively quick find. Maybe it should have been, but we kept looking past it--maybe we misinterpreted the hint. Our GPSrs also kept leading us to a promising location about 20 feet away, but after putting hands deep into holes and shining a lot of light into said holes from our iPhones, we finally gave up on that location. At last, BR spotted it and victory was ours.

At least the approach/parking road only had a few cars on it, not parked out to Highway 7 as it is in high season, so we didn't have too far to walk on our approach to the trail. I know this trail very well indeed, except for the climbing part of it; I'm too old and arthritic to be a climber now. I've long ago lost track of how many times I've hiked up Twin Sisters over the years, even back when the trailhead was near the Enos Mills cabin to the south. I can see The Crags from my front window, in fact. So thanks for putting a new cache in what I consider home territory!

09/04/2018 By BugRanger
Under rock that not really overhead. This one took a while. About 20 ft from GZ with a full Garmin. TFTC

07/28/2018 By Lelunka
co FTF together with mip007 found on our amazing trip. Tftc

07/28/2018 By mip007
#FTF together w/ Lelunka.

TFTC. Great place. Far from the crowds and thus much nicer hiking fun.

07/27/2018 By BlueRajah
Published