Upper Upper Chaos Climbing

This digital Upper Upper Chaos climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Upper Upper Chaos days smoother, safer, and more dialed.

A number of boulders were dramatically affected in 2022 by a massive landslide that occured in Upper Upper Chaos. 
Upper Upper Chaos is the area that exists on or very near to the second prominent bench of rock, 0.5 mile above Lake Haiyaha. The Sphinx is a prominent overhanging boulder on the ridge right at the edge of the second bench which serves as an easy-to-find marker for the beginning of Upper Upper Chaos. This area was first explored by Jim Belcer, Paul Otis, and Jon Linhart in 2003. They discovered and climbed Full Chaos, as well as the Pine Marten Bou... Show more

This digital Upper Upper Chaos climbing guidebook gives you GPS navigation, verified topos, and beta for hundreds of climbs. Explore classics and hidden gems with offline access to maps, directions, and beta videos. Whether it's your first visit or fiftieth, KAYA makes your Upper Upper Chaos days smoother, safer, and more dialed. A number of boulders were dramatically affected in 2022 by a massive landslide that occured in Upper Upper Chaos. Upper Upper Chaos is the area that exists on or very near to the second prominent bench of rock, 0.5 mile above Lake Haiyaha. The Sphinx is a prominent overhanging boulder on the ridge right at the edge of the second bench which serves as an easy-to-find marker for the beginning of Upper Upper Chaos. This area was first explored by Jim Belcer, Paul Otis, and Jon Linhart in 2003. They discovered and climbed Full Chaos, as well as the Pine Marten Boulder near the pond at one of the most gorgeous spots in the canyon. Between 2004 and 2011, Jamie Emerson found, cleaned and tried a number of the classic lines in the area, including The Ice Cave (The Shining), Lonely Mountain, The Wheel of Chaos, Dirty 30, Roundhouse, The Wolves of Heaven, and The Zombie Apocalypse Cave. The area saw sporadic development from other climbers toward the later part of that time frame, as Ryan Silven and Blake Rutherford added several classics, but it wasn't until 2012 when development picked up steam. Emerson introduced Jimmy Webb and Daniel Woods to the Wheel of Chaos; inspired, Webb and Woods went full speed ahead. In the last few years, it has become one of the most premier boulderfields in all of Colorado. Many more projects await. The last sector of Upper Upper Chaos to see development is the Pond Sector. Beyond that, the rock turns to granite. Griffth Whiteside has added a number of relevant new boulders in this area. When the last scattered problems of Upper Upper Chaos get climbed, Chaos Canyon will be completely developed. Water is available either from the permanent snowfield on the south side of the canyon, or at the pond, which also sits in a bowl on the south side of the canyon. From the Dead Bear Meadow (the meadow at the west end of the Dead Bear Sector), look for a large, year-round snowfield that runs up the left side of the valley. This nearly permanent snowfield is a key landmark for finding many of the problems in Upper Upper Chaos. To access Full Chaos, Neverland, The Abyss and The Pond sector, walk up the snowfield for roughly 150 yards.