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WARNING
WARNING
Bouldering is dangerous. Buildering is like bouldering, but with more tetanus. The Silos is a park with public access, but climbing on the structures is questionable at best. Do so at your own risk, know your limits, be safe, and be a good steward for climbing.
The iconic Rebar Garden
Hole into the abyss
Silos complex aerial view
The "Rock"
The "Rock"
This is a complex of dilapidated walls behind the abandoned Horton & Horton gravel silos on the south side of the Buffalo Bayou trail. Many of the walls are smooth, blank, paint covered concrete, but there are a surprising number of usable features, with potential for some fun(ish) dead vert problems on faces and corners. It’s not real rock, but it sorta looks like it if you squint, and it sorta climbs like it if you don’t think about it too hard.
Aside from pulling out loose stuff and brushing, most of the “cleaning” has been done in the ground up fashion - by trying problems and breaking off at least half the stuff. As such, it involved a LOT of falling. Large features of the wall, deep holes, etc. tend to be solid but I would recommend NOT yarding on things unless you've tested it, and giving about a day after a good rain for it to dry. This is not real rock and doesn't have much integrity.
I know of at least one person climbing here before me, though I’m not sure what has been established before. Since some dude Jeff already onsighted all this stuff in his combat boots in the 80s, I’m assuming none of these are FAs, not that anyone cares. I hope that by documenting, some desperately bored Htown climbers will be tricked into climbing here, and find new (maybe even hard??) problems. Jeff, if you’re out there and you care, please spray.
The Grades and Such
The Grades and Such
I have not put any standard grades on problems as of the publishing of this page. Instead, I have labeled each problem with a V- description that captures the unique aspects of the problem. I'd be interested to hear grade suggestions though. Send any feedback to my email below.
As far as quality is concerned, nothing in this park would be likely to earn a full star on mountain project. So I've implemented a Houston H-rating scale:
h - Only do this problem under duress.
H - If you really want to, it's there I guess.
HH - It's worth doing if you're that desperate, and happen to be nearby.
HHH - Wow, if I close my eyes and go to my happy place, I could almost think this is a halfway decent boulder problem.
HTX - An H-town classic. Who would've thought? Still dogwater next to literally any real rock though.
The Season
The Season
The bearable season here is late October to early April and shrinking. Several of the sections will stay very overgrown with weeds, bushes and poison ivy in the summer until they get hacked and bagged by the city sometime in late fall usually.
Directions & Access
Directions & Access
The 2.1 acre lot that houses the Silos and Carthage Boulder is technically a public park, owned and maintained by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership nonprofit that manages many of the parks around the city. Climbing on the structures is not explicitly prohibited by any signage that I’ve seen so far, but it could be a gray area. Be careful, don't litter, maybe carry out a bag of trash with you, and hopefully folks can enjoy the area safely.
They are downtown, south side of the bayou right next to the trail. Visible from Bayou Parkview Drive and N Nagle Street. Parking is free on Freund and Nagle and usually open. Follow the 60 foot tall cylinders…
Contact Me: cordova.brennan@gmail.com
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