By John Hogge
Oklahoma has a recently developed climbing spot called Robber's Cave. It was the perfect spot for thugs of the Old West to hang out between heists. Now it's the perfect spot for climbers to hangdog on toprope. It's a small area which I'd estimate has just under 20 climbs, not including contrived variations. However it also has a lot of great bouldering.
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"... perfect spot for thugs of the Old West to hang out."
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The rock is unique on two counts. First, it has the same sandstone with iron
layer that Hueco Tanks has. While Hueco Tanks is chalk full of huecos, Robbers Cave has few huecos and usually they are minus the iron layer which gives it the required toughness. Instead, Robbers Cave's iron layer is typically flat and broken up, resulting in lots of one inch edges to work with. Second, Robbers Cave has many sections of bare sandstone
slopers arranged in loose grid and turtle-shell patterns. Imagine those "good for you" sloper gym routes, only instead of an obvious route of 12 sloper holds, you have a wide plane full of hundreds of slopers, all nearly equally nasty. Meanwhile your feet are struggling to stick the seams between these slopers, often laid out diagonally.
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Climbers at Robbers Cave get plenty of audience since there are hordes of tourons.
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Cavers can get a taste of their sport here, but let's face it, the limelight
shines on climbers. Cavers have no audience and consequently suffer when it comes to cool points :-). Climbers at Robbers Cave get plenty of audience since there are hordes of tourons. Expect a few jerks tossing an occasional rock over the 40 foot cliff. This happened once during our trip. I was just reading in a more prestigious and overly produced magazine that helmets are gaining popularity with climbers. I was thinking maybe a reinforced Dr. Seus "Cat in the Hat" style tophat might enhance my look somewhat...
All topropes our friends set were possible with just webbing. There are no
sport routes. Supposedly chalk is forbidden.
Robbers Cave is in a park with nice camping facilities. We enjoyed two days of climbing but expect to use the area for day trips -- only 3 hours from Dallas.
On the way out, if you are really hungry eat at the Sonic because there is very
little food until well down 69/75. Otherwise, we found a great place to eat,
some Country Family Style Restaurant Where Nice Folks Eat on the west side of 69/75. We pulled in despite debating whether we were nice folks. Get the Chicken Fajita sandwich which comes with great fries. Good burgers too.
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