Mt. Hayden - South Face 

Anybody able to offer any recent info on the condition of the rap anchors on this sucker? Thanks.

Just did the route for the second time! (Previous ascent was 6.18.2005 w/ Mike, Rogil, Dave and Scott). The approach was brutal, and required us to bushwhack through thick stands of catclaw acacia. Since the fire in 2000, the undergrowth is now about 2' overhead. We wore long sleeves and leather gloves, but sustained a lot of bloody scrapes and punctures. The climb was great! There is a lot of loose rock.

Thick stands of New Mexico Locust actually. Inch long needle sharp spears, that scratch, and pierce often imbedding in the flesh. But not the grabbing, flesh ripping action of the Catclaw Acacia.

Five of us climbed the South Face on 9/20/08, finding the route an enjoyable line that had room for two parties, parallel much of the time. The rock is pretty good, protects well, and has some very fun sections. The 5.8 crux is a couple of moves over a bulge, and the topo in the Tomasi guide was pretty accurate. We saw no fixed gear other than the rap stations, though the topo has a few pins scattered here and there. We traversed the east side of the peak to reach the south end, although probably either side is ok.
As has been said repeatedly, the approach is the crux. The advice of Matt Snider should have been heeded, which was "walk out to Pt. Imperial, jump the railing on the left, and head down and left". We came back this way and shortened both the time and the bushwhacking, although we followed the guidebook suggestion on the way in. The 'railing jump' choice had no cliff bands to deal with at the bottom of the Coconino, and was much less brushy than our descent, east and north of Pt. Imperial.
Clothing: I wore leather chaps (!), overkill, but sturdy double-faced pants, leather gloves, and long-sleeved shirts, also sturdy, will help. Expect a thorny problem. From the summit we looked back at Pt. Imperial and thought it would be easier to scramble down straight towards Hayden, hit the top of the Coconino cliffs, do a couple of raps leaving fixed lines, and jug out to go home. Just a thought.
The hike out was not as savage as the descent since we shortened our time in the bush by cutting up to Pt. Imperial as described above. TET: about 11 hrs. car to car.
This is such a great formation, definitely "vale la pena". With the Grand Canyon as a backdrop, it was a surreal day. The only downer was the almost constant presence of scenic helicopter flights, sometimes two or three ships at once. And not a one of them offered us a ride back to the rim. Seriously, it was way too many noisy flights in such a sublime setting.

This comment and associated photographs contains some approach and climb details that I gathered before and during our Mt. Hayden climbing adventure on October 15, 2008. First however, I would like to thank Andrew and Jodie for providing a lot of the details which helped us to reach the summit.

Mount Hayden Approach:
As mentioned in the comments above, the approach to Mount Hayden requires long pants, long sleeve shirts, and leather gloves. The short thorny locust trees carpet the terrain from Point Imperial to the start of the ridge in the Hermit Shale formation that connects to the rim and Mount Hayden. There are no approach trails or cairns to get you to the aforementioned ridge. At best you might find some trampled brush here and there where others have thrashed through, or logs to walk on or along were the locust trees are not as dense. Yes, it is still worth it!

On our approach, I was most concerned with getting to the Point Imperial-Mt Hayden ridge, more specifically, through the Coconino formation off of Point Imperial. So the following approach beta concentrates on that section. I spent 2 hours the day before the climb hiking down to the ridge and back to make sure I knew where to go on the day of the climb. Given the following information you will not need to repeat this exercise.

We started our approach from Point Imperial as recommended by Andrew et al. First, from the parking lot at Point Imperial, you should walk out on the walkway to the end view point. From here you can look down on Mt Hayden and the ridge that connects it to Point Imperial. You cannot see much of the approach route down to the ridge but now you know what you are gunning for during the first half of the approach. If you want someone to take a picture of you on top of Mt Hayden, tape a note to the rail with such a request and they may email it to you (see Summit Photo). Now walk back towards the parking lot along the walkway until the metal railing on your right side ends. There is a gap here between the metal railing and the wood railing that continues to the parking lot. This is where you start the approach down into the steep bowl on the North side of the walkway (see Approach Picture No. 1).

Make your way down the steep bowl, avoiding a few small 5-10 ft ledges, aiming for the pinnacle of Coconino sandstone that is about 500 feet below the rim and on the right side of the bowl (see Approach Picture No. 2). Once down a hundred feet, turn around and look back up where you started and locate the big pine tree that you can use as a landmark for finding your way back to the walkway (see Approach Picture No. 3). About 200 feet above the pinnacle, follow the shallow gully to a large live fir tree left of the pinnacle (see Approach Picture No. 4, GPS: N 36 deg 16.855 min, W 111 deg 58.588 min, Elev 8249 ft). Attached to base of this tree is about 100 feet of static rope, in good condition, which you can hang on to as the gully turns into a notch and makes it way to the base of the Coconino formation. With this rope, we were able to easily “batman” down and up the three steep sections in the notch without removing our packs. The static rope ends at the base of the Coconino formation (see Approach Picture No. 5, GPS: N 36 deg 16.877 min, W 111 deg 58.564 min, Elev 8192 ft)

Traverse to the right along the base of the Coconino formation, generally staying close to the wall for easier travel. As you walk around the base, you will eventually leave it for better terrain. We did so at GPS: N 36 deg 16.757 min, W 111 deg 58.436 min, Elev 8025 ft. Continue the traverse/bushwhack until you can hike down to the ridge connecting Hayden and the rim (GPS: N 36 deg 16.704 min, W 111 deg 58.310 min, Elev 7845 ft ). It is easy walking from here to the base of Mount Hayden along the top of the ridge. When you get to Mount Hayden, hike up the talus slope to the NE corner of the tower wall. We found a faint trail that we followed up to the wall. Once at the tower wall it is an easy traverse left along and around the tower to the SE side where the climbing route begins. Retrace your path on the return trip. The key points to getting back to Imperial Point are finding the static rope at the base of the Coconino formation and keeping an eye on and heading towards the landmark pine tree at the walkway once above the static rope. It took us 1.5 hours to reach the climb from Point Imperial. It took us about 2.5 hours to make the return trip.

Climb Beta:
The SE face of Mount Hayden has two obvious crack systems that can be climbed and the rappel route. The “Grand Canyon Summits Select” by Aron Tomsai provides a route topo and description for the Original route (5.7-5.8) which is the crack system on the right (See SE Face photo). The left crack system is also shown on Tomsai’s topo but no route description is provided. We climbed this crack system by mistake because we had an old Mountain Project beta photo that identified this crack as the Original route. Tomsai’s topo drawing is accurate enough to resolve which crack system to climb, had I bothered to consult it, but hey, a picture is worth a thousands words right! In this case, the picture yielded a thousand wrong words. Nonetheless it was a pleasant crack system to climb and looks less brushy than the original route. On this alternate route you climb past the last rappel station (on climbers left) and up a wide crack (5.9) before climbing up and right to arrive at the final pitch of the Original route. The final pitch of the Original route is mostly a third or fourth class scramble up and left. When you get to the summit block you traverse left around it until you reach a short dihedral (5.5) that gets you to the top (expect some rope drag here). We did not have the large cams required to protect the wide crack on the alternate route and ended up running it out (not recommended). If you climb that crack I would suggest the following Camalots to protect the wide section: 1 #3, 2 #4’s, and 1 or 2 #5’s. Given the extra weight, it would probably be better just to climb the Original route instead.

Rappel Beta:
You need two ropes to rappel off of Mount Hayden. There are three rappel stations on the SE face that will get you back to the base of the climb. The first two stations have bolts with webbing slings and rap rings. The final rappel station is a set of webbing loops around a block with rap rings. There are bolts at this rap station but they are not used. The first rappel station can be found by looking over the SE edge of the top of the tower (see Looking at first rap station photo). While you cannot see the second rappel station from the first it is down and left (climber’s right) of your position and you probably used it as a belay anchor for the final pitch. The third rappel station is visible from the second rappel station down and slightly right (climber’s left). Throwing the rope from the first two rappels stations can be problematic as there are small trees that you can decorate with your ropes as we so aptly demonstrated. The final rappel station has a clean toss back to the dirt.

This climb was a great adventure with a spectacular summit! Enjoy.
--Mark

After the 1.5 hour drive from Home, We started at 5am. I left 1 liter in the car and took 3 liters with me. We followed the Egan's advice and found it 95% right on the money. I added a Google Earth image to highlight the "trail" from the Parking lot. Here's my approach beta;
Head down to the view point favoring the lefthand railing. At the bottom of the cement stairs, hop the left metal railing, look down and you'll see the landmark tower in the Coconino formation. Work your way right staying high on the ridge keeping the draw on your left. If you drop down into the draw early, you will be greeted with the WORST of the bushwacking. LEATHER GLOVES, CARHARTT's, and OLD THICK HARD SHELL are the way to go. A light colored rock outcrop on the ridge marked with a rock caren marks the last point to drop into the gully. Once in the gully bottom, wallow till you get to the fixed line. Cashe another liter at the bottom for the hike out, leaving 2 liters for the climb and most of the day. As of 2009 season the fixed line looked great and I'd think its ok for 2010 too. If its not good you can still do the class 3 gully with out it. Its more of a hand railing anyway.
Once at the bottom of the gully, work right and stay next to the cliff base for the least bush. After you get to the Hermit Shale, your home free.
We climbed the Alternate Route on the Left and found the opening 10 foot section of P1 to be 5.9+ to a pin followed by 5.8. P2 wandered up and right over blocks, and I placed 2 pieces of gear. P3 is were you earn your 5.9 OW wings in a 3 foot wide flairing chimney that heads up for 60+ feet. The leader (Mr. Lean) girthhitched a chock stone in the back of the flair. I'm too thick to get back there and clean it. (Think slot canyon) I had to get creative.
We topped out just below the top rap achors. Good times on the summit.
The best thing that could happen to this tower is for someone to rap bolt some rap anchors every 30 meters down the North face. The advantages to doing this would be, rapping in the shade, a team could do the tower with one 60 meter rope, and it would create less traffic on the South Face. Also I noticed many newer rap stations poping up in bushes on the South face. I think a dedicated rap route independant of the climbing routes would be a good idea.