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One man's Castlewood: 24 years of rock climbing

Contributed by: Brendan Leonard/YourHub.com on 5/5/2007

Ask anyone who's driving north on I-25 where they would guess someone could find quality Colorado rock climbing, and chances are, they'll point west, toward the mountains.

Tom Hanson, 48, a native Minnesotan who's lived in Colorado since 1982, will tell you otherwise. He's been climbing the walls of Castlewood Canyon State Park, east of Castle Rock, since 1983.

"I don't know why I like this place so much," says Hanson, who finally moved to Castlewood Ranch with his wife, Nancy, in 2005.

In 24 years, he's climbed thousands of routes in the park, from 80-foot tall lines up the walls to shorter, more gymnastic "problems" on the boulders parked all over the canyon floor.

Hanson was the first person ever to make his way up at least 1,000 of these climbs, most prolifically in the late '80s and early '90s. He's sure he has more "first ascents" of routes in Castlewood than all other climbers combined.

"He's probably spent more time there than anyone else on the planet ... He's a big man for such a small canyon."

-Tod Anderson, Hanson's longtime climbing partner


Hanson wasn't the only person climbing at Castlewood in the late '80s and early '90s. Others were discovering the area at the same time -- Chris Drysdale, who wrote one of the first guidebooks to the area, John Bottrell, and Hanson's climbing partners Mark Johler, Scott Sills, and his climbing partner and brother Rob Hanson. Earlier climbers at Castlewood included Colorado Mountain Club members Fred Crowley, Alan Mosiman and Steve Holonich -- Mosiman and Holonich put together a guidebook to one climbing area, the Grocery Store Wall, in 1987. Hanson says he has found in the park climbing hardware dating back to the 1950s.

Bob Finch, who managed the park from 1987 to 1994, remembers Hanson, Bottrell and Drysdale as the people who developed climbing into a legitimate activity in the park.

"I tried to stay in touch with what they were doing, because I thought it was important," Finch says.

Finch, a climber himself, wrote the park's first climbing management plan during his tenure there. When Jen Marten, the current park manager, took over in December 2006, she was given Hanson's name as the contact for rock climbing in the park. This month, along with a park staff member, Hanson will co-teach a "Basics of Rock Climbing" class for park staff, and he'll eventually help revise the climbing management plan.

"To volunteer his time and experience and knowledge, that's pretty cool," Marten says. "You don't run into that too often."

Hanson, a climbing quasi-ambassador for the park, has never been employed there. He worked in the restaurant business for 25 years, running the kitchen at the Gemini Restaurant in Wheat Ridge from 1982 to 1999. His schedule allowed him to work nights and climb all day, as many as 5 days a week at Castlewood Canyon in 1987 and 1988. Hanson and five friends would head to the canyon with two ropes apiece and set up six toprope climbs along one section of wall.

Castlewood, with its short canyon walls and abundance of trees on the canyon rims, lends itself to toprope climbing -- climbers can use trees to set up an "anchor" at the top of the cliff, run their rope through the anchor and back down to the climber, minimizing the odds of a ground fall from high up.

Hanson and his partners set up the lion's share of the hundreds of toprope routes in the canyon. They also established more than 100 sport climbs, in which the climber is not roped from above, but clips the rope to bolts placed in a line up the wall as he climbs, decreasing the distance he might fall. Most of the bolts in the walls of Castlewood are Hanson's, drilled with his Bosch cordless rotary hammer drill in 1988 and 1989.

You could say he's written the book on climbing at Castlewood, because he has. His guidebook, "A Rock Climbers Guide to Castlewood Canyon Colorado," including Hanson's hand-drawn maps and cartoons and listing hundreds of colorfully-named climbs, is sold at the park visitor center.

"It's probably the most ridiculous sport on the planet, you know? It's absolutely pointless and meaningless ... you could be the best climber in the United States and probably make the same kind of living working at McDonald's. There's nothing to be really gained from it than just the intrinsic pleasure you can derive from it."

-Tom Hanson, on rock climbing


What drew Hanson to Castlewood Canyon, in a state with so many other obvious places to climb?

"I kind of like the adventure of it," he says. "When I came out here, such a small percentage of the rock had been climbed, that every time you turned a corner, there was a first ascent."

The weather was another factor. Hanson has Raynaud's disease, a circulation condition that leaves his fingers completely numb when he climbs in cold temperatures. During the winter, large parts of Castlewood Canyon's walls face south, catching the sun's rays.

"I've been there on days when it's 35 degrees, but it's calm and the sun is shining, and I'm climbing in shorts and shirtless and getting a tan," Hanson says. "It truly feels like it's 70 degrees right against the cliff wall."

"Tom Hanson is one of my absolute idols in Castlewood climbing, and if it weren't for (him), I'm not sure climbing in this neck of the woods would be what it is."

-Kevin Jenkins, on MountainProject.com, Feb. 28, 2006


Hanson's favorite place to climb isn't the most popular in Colorado, and sees far less traffic than Boulder's Boulder Canyon, Eldorado Canyon, or the weekend crowds at Golden's North Table Mountain. But he thinks that's changing.

"I think it's really destined to become a much more popular climbing area than it is right now," he says. "I think it's still relatively undiscovered, although people are learning about it."

And if you're in Castlewood Canyon on a weekend day or a Wednesday afternoon, you might just run into him. He's getting back out climbing more, after not having much time to devote to the sport for the past 5 years.

"I'm trying to pull myself out of my 'over-the-hill has-been' status, and trying to become a player again," he says. "At 48 years old, it's kind of tough. It doesn't come as naturally anymore. I need to work at it quite a bit harder."

Although he says his bolder days may be behind him, Hanson remains the best source of information for this sleeper climbing area.

"Hanson knows Castlewood like no one else does," says Ben Panter, one of his newest climbing partners. "He could walk the canyon with a blindfold on."

If you go

Castlewood Canyon State Park is five miles south of Franktown on Colorado 83. Park hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The daily parks pass costs $5.
Stop at the visitor center for information about technical rock climbing before you climb. The installation of additional bolts or fixed hardware is prohibited without a special use permit. Please stay on designated climbers' trails.
For more information, call 303-688-5242.


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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
Submitted By: Diana Hutcherson
posted on 7/13/2007 @ 1:02:15 PM
(Not Rated)
Nice story. Can't believe I came across this. I've been married to Chris Drysdale for 15 years. Our first outdoor outing was a trip to Castlewood Canyon in the summer of 1989. I tried climbing for the first time that day and have been doing it with Chris (Drag) ever since. He absolutely loves the place and like Tom feels like it's his second home. Though we live east of Denver now, we still return to climb in CWC several times a year. Chris intends on teaching our 2 grandsons how to climb there. Thanks for sharing. Diana
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Submitted By: Michael Rule
posted on 5/9/2007 @ 9:28:22 PM
Rated Story
This is pretty cool, I have been going there for about as long; thoght obviously not as often. Always wanted to try rock climbing, had no idea guyz were doing it in Castlewood. How does a tired ol' tree guy (who nonetheless has hung on a few ropes in his time), get signed up??
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Submitted By: Brendan Leonard
posted on 5/7/2007 @ 9:52:14 AM
(Not Rated)
You're absolutely right, D -- although I was trying to focus the story on Tom, since he's still the local guy. I've edited the sixth paragraph to reflect the earlier history at Castlewood. Thanks for reading.
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Submitted By: D Lewis
posted on 5/7/2007 @ 7:22:05 AM
Rated Story
It's too bad this article didn't even mention the true pioneer climbers at Castlewood Canyon -- the people establishing routes there in the 70s and early 80s. Chances are very good that Hanson began climbing there because of a guidebook put together by people like Alan Mosiman, Steve Holonitch, and Charlie Winger. When they began climbing at Castlewood, if they rarely spotted any other climbers there. Mosiman in particular was the person who introduced climbing to this area.
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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
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