Desire is a classic Lemmon route. The route follows the face and arete of the middle of Nurd Rock. With a 60 meter rope, it should be done as one pitch. Someone replaced the bolts with solid ones and placed two bolts at the mid-belay (which does not need to be used). The route used to have a gear belay there before 60 meter ropes were standard.
This route has it all. Delicate, slabby face climbing gets you started. The first bolt is high. A couple pieces of pro and you are climbing steep, rounded holds up a striking arete to a ledge. Then steep climbing out left takes you up the final headwall into a dihedral to the finish. The pin above the two bolt belay has been replaced with a good bolt.
Falling at certain spots on this climb is out of the question although a couple 40 footers have been logged and legend has it that a certain prolific Tucson climber botched the first clip and took the grounder.
Protection
8 or 9 bolts and a handful of small to medium nuts and cams.
By Christian From: Tucson, Az Nov 17, 2007 rating: 5.10c R
Botching the second clip is also almost a guaranteed grounder..If you fall on the runouts on the arete you better hope you fall into one of the really wide parts of "Great Expectations" (to the climber's left) without hitting the other side of the chimney.
Gear for first pitch = Blue Alien through 0.5 Camalot + sling for horn + 5 bolts in about 120 feet of climbing. My partner who led the 50 foot second pitch didn't use any gear on it, just the bolts. Cold shuts for both belays.
I was about ready to cry for my mommy on this route :-)
You can't tell from the highway but Nurd is an imposing and large piece of rock!
Nurd Rock
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