This is a fun route to do if you want a long, sustained trad route. Start in the huge left facing corner near the center of the south face of Rappel Rock.
Pitch 1: Climb the 5.6 squeeze chimney for 40 feet and exit into gully up to tree belay. (Many parties start up the Standard Route instead, to avoid this heinous chimney. To bypass this chimney pitch, climb the 5.5 crack just right of Black Quacker until you can traverse left back to tree belay in gully.)
Pitch 2: Continue up gully, climbing over large blocks and some vegetation. Cleaner climbing above leads past steep moves to one-bolt belay in notch.
Pitch 3: From notch, lead up and left into obvious cracks. Fun climbing for 100' to two-bolt belay.
Pitch 4: From bolt belay, climb right and up around corner. Follow easy face up to belay on chickenheads.
Pitch 5: More easy chickenhead hiking leads to summit area and tree belay.
Descent: Third class down back side of Rappel Rock to return to saddle.
Protection
60m rope; Standard rack (larger pro if you want to do the chimney first pitch?); single and double length runners for tying off chickenheads.
Although the first pitch is a sandbag at 5.6, it is not heinous. It protects very well on small to medium cams and slung chockstones; no need for large gear. This is good practice for routes in the Sierra or the Valley.
By Bobby Hanson From: Salt Lake City, UT Aug 21, 2006
Pitch 3: the cracks to the left of the dihedral are really good (except where you have to bushwhack around the tree, but other than that...).
Pitch 4 variation: also good. Greg, I liked the alpine pro (read "draped chickenhead") in your photo.
While living in Tucson, I got used to never needing a headlamp up on the summit crags. One day we came out late from the reef (north side) and found that without the lights of Tucson it's absolutely, completely dark up there on the N. side. The cool part was that there was some sort of glow in the dark fungus there that would shine a faint yellow when you stepped on it. You left a faint glowing trail of footsteps as you hiked along - never saw anything like it since then.
The hike from the top of the rock down to the base is steep and brushy. I highly recommend leaving packs at the top of the rock, bring only the gear for the climb, and wear sneakers/sandals. Pitch 1 - went up Bender Axen, move belay to tree and go down into canyon through the tree. Pitch 2 - the 1 bolt belay in notch at top of 2nd pitch was tough to find. When the climbing gets steep look up to the right to see the notch. It is not along the line you are following up the canyon. I did not use the notch and just built a belay station below the nearby tree in the crack. Pitch 3 - easy to protect and fun. ends at 2 bolt anchor. Pitch 4 - travel to the climber's right and start slinging chickenheads. I built a station off of the chickenheads at the big ledge, but traveling further would have reduced rope drag for pitch 5. Pitch 5 - continue up the continuous wall of chickenheads and top out.
Going up left on P4 is fun too. Follow the thin crack up diagonally from the 2 bolt belay. After a while you end up on giant chicken heads and you can belay from a big tree on a ledge near the top.
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