Cave Valley Climbing

This is a page for people who love climbing at the auburn quarry/cliffs to share photos, experiences, routes, conditions as well as to have discussions about the quarry. Even if you dont climb like the page and enjoy the amazing photos and stories!



Nestled along the fork of the American River in the beautiful Sierra foothills lies this Sport Climbing destination called the Auburn Cliffs. Climbing here is heavily featured limestone with single and multi-pitch climbing routes ranging from 5.6 to 5.13 with potential for soooo much more!
History
Technical rock climbing has been practiced in the Old Limestone Quarry located in the ASRA since the late 1980’s. The original climbers established approximately seven rock climbing routes, which required some amount of fixed protection; pitons and protection bolts. From all accounts, early climbers were not discouraged or refused recreational opportunities at this time. Early climbers included Dale Christenson, Eric Kohl, Kirk Arens, and the Hatchet Brothers. On November 18th, 1998, Kirk and friends were practicing rope jumping on an elaborate rigging system. Kirk misjudged the length of his rope jump and was killed in the resultant impact. From this point forward till 2003, climbers were discouraged from using the Auburn SRA for technical rock climbing, but it was not technically illegal to climb there. In 2004, the ASRA created a memorandum banning technical climbing which was in effect until October 2012, where through the hard work of CRAGS (Climbing Resource Advocates for Greater Sacramento), the Access Fund, and local climbers the ban was lifted and climbing could legally resume in the Quarry. Climbers in the early 2000’s started re-exploring the area for rock climbing routes and currently there are almost fifty established routes within the Auburn State Recreation Area. These routes cater to climbers of all levels from easy, moderate, and hard levels of climbing.

Getting There
Highway 80 to Auburn.
Exit Elm Ave (exit 119c), and stay left at the fork.
Turn left on Elm.
.2 miles later, left on El Dorado St (also Hwy 49).
Turn right to stay on highway 49, head down the hill and cross the bridge towards Cool (there's a sign.)
About a 1/4 mile later, park in the street or in the paid lot on the left (it's hard to see, but it's a VERY wide pull in)

From the parking lot (I advise bringing a bike!!!): Walk about 1 1/2 miles down the main trail (which heads more or less East out of the lot) way above the creek. You'll come to a large fort-like structure with a very wide trail heading straight up a steepish hill right of the main trail, which ends up taking you to the right of the fort. Walk another 150 yards to the FIRST fork, and go right. Follow this still wide (though often quite leaf-covered) trail trough another bend to the left, and you'll pop out at the entrance to the climbing area, with Scale Wall right in front of you.

(cited from MountainProject.com)