Paintings Wall, Grotto Canyon

Lat/Lon: 51.08330°N / 115.2667°W- CLICK FOR TOPO MAP
Paintings Wall is the second wall on the left as you near the fork at the
Headwall in Grotto Canyon. It is thusly named due to the petroglyphs (photos). They
are hard to spot unless you are familiar with where to look. They appear to have been
sprayed with some sort of preservative and of course like all petroglyphs are pretty
damn neat.

The south Paintings Wall gets decent afternoon sun in the summer. Paintings Wall
features 25 routes of which only 1 requires gear (Artful Dodger). All the routes are
single pitch and can be rappelled with one 60 meter rope. Paintings Wall is broken
up into two sections, south and north. The south section features the more moderate
routes, mostly 5.10-5.11 and north section has slightly more difficult routes.

From where you parked, trek north up hill to the mouth of Grotto Canyon. Enter the
canyon by following the creek bed as it winds into the steep walls. The trail moves
back and forth from each bank. Hemingway Wall is the first climbing wall on your left.
It is buffered on the left by a swatch of mature trees. A myriad of short trails meander
in and about allowing you to clearly scope out this wall. Continue north towards the
canyon headwall (fork). Before you reach the headwall the canyon bends slightly
east. The Paintings Wall is on your left. The Peanut which features one route is in
between Hemmingway and Paintings Wall.

Paintings Wall has some of the same over-polished issues as Hemmingway Wall. I
prefer to climb deeper in Grotto Canyon, but always seem to stop for Art of the
Ancients, a 5.9 just left of the petroglyphs, 5 bolts to anchor, classic polished
beginning, but not so bad higher up.

Paintings Wall South

Blaster- 5.10a
Blindside- 5.10c
Scavenger- 5.9
Ok Corral- 5.8
Art of the Ancients- 5.9/ 5 bolts to anchor; challenging start on polished
ground, then much more entertaining (recommend)
Retrospective- 5.10a/ 5 bolts to same anchor as Art of Ancients; same
polished start, then turn right, another fine route on Paintings Wall
(recommend)
Left to Chance- 5.10c/ Photo
Cultural Imperative- 5.11b
Artful Dodger- 5.10a/ Gear to 1.5”
Peter Pan- 5.11a
Sidewinder- 5.11b

Paintings Wall North

Hellen Damnation- 5.11d
Tower of Pisa- 5.11c
Tour de Force- 5.12a
Tour de Pump- 5.11b
Jugthuggery- 5.10a
Fly by Nigh- 5.11c
Project
Walk Don’t Run- 5.11b
Rush- 5.11b
Project
Layaway Plan- 5.10c
Watusi Wedding- 5.10a
Jesus Drives a Cadillac- 5.10b (a good one for the “C4C” crowd)

Essential Gear
The routes on Hemingway Wall only require a single 60 meter rope for rappels. If you
are not going deeper into Grotto Canyon, there is little use for trad gear. The few trad
routes throughout the first section are not worth it. The rock is pretty solid
throughout Grotto relative to the Canadian Rockies, but of course a helmet is always
advisable. Sport Climbs in the Canadian Rockies is the book you need. You might
get by without it if Dr. Topo has everything you need in terms of which routes you want
to do. As of 2006, Dr. Topo did not have the better routes farther into Grotto Canyon.