Listen to Wailing Banshees

The White Rock Crags, lying along the Rio Grande's White Rock Canyon rim below the suburban village of White Rock, are a strange group of cliffs. As climbers explored the cliffs in the 1970s and 1980s they named them as they found them. One of the first was The Overlook since an obvious fenced overlook is above the cliff. Below that is The Underlook, while down-canyon are The Old New Place, Below the Old New Place, The New New Place, and others. Below the Old New Place is one of the area's better cliffs with a good assortment of powerful sport routes and some fine cracks. "Wailing Banshees" (5.11b), the cliff's best route, ascends a perfect arete in the middle of the crag.