This area is closed from March 15 - June 30 for nesting peregrine falcons.
Tom Lind took this photo as I'm sorting out the ro...
Description
Steel Crazy starts up the face near the left end of the Fortress. Look for the well-bolted line just left of a large corner.
Pitch 1: Pumpy climbing up and over small overhang (crux?)to easier climbing above. Continue up easier terrain, slightly runout to sloping ledge. Scary, thin moves up steep face past more bolts lead to small sea of chickenheads. Follow these to two-bolt belay on huge ledge.
Pitch 2: From the belay ledge, Steel Crazy follows the right of two bolted lines. Fun 5.9 climbing on well-bolted (over-bolted?) face straight up for 100 feet. More chickenheads lead to another two bolt belay.
Pitch 3: Continue straight up over sustained climbing to chickenheaded face. Easier climbing leads to 40 foot runout onto sloping ledge just left of large chimney. At the shrubs, step across chimney (scary) to two bolt belay on right hand side.
Pitch 4: Easy climbing for 60' to belay on top.
Descent: If you are unfortunate enough to have return to your gear at the base, you can double-rope rap the route (not recommended).
Otherwise, walk off the backside of the Fortress, following the long narrow ridge that leads north back toward the saddleRequires potentially scary scrambling.
Protection
60 m rope, 20 quickdraws, biners and webbing for belay stations.
My partner and I tried rapping this route with a single 60m rope and wound up having to reach down to clip anchors while hanging on the end of the rope. Then the rope didn't reach the next anchors so we had to wrap a rock fin with some webbing and lower off that. Then the rope got stuck and I had to reclimb the pitch to free it. All this while the sun was setting and our fingers were getting numb. Walk off the route or bring another rope to double-rope rap.
Warning! The last time I climbed this, one of the hangers on the two bolt belay at the top of the second pitch is missing. Bring a hanger and a wrench (or a small stopper for the bolt). Many heartfelt thanks to the jerk that decided stealing that $3 hanger was more valuable than the safety of my party. This is fun route. It has some long runouts on easy ground, so a good lead head is a must on pitches 1 and 3. The forth pitch, while short and easy, is also quite a head game in a strong wind. Communication is difficult, especially with any wind.
By Steve Pulver From: Tucson, AZ May 22, 2006 rating: 5.9
That hanger was missing when I did the route, June of last year. I had put a comment on the tucsonclimbers.org website, for some reason the comment didn't transfer over to mountainproject. (I don't care for hanging belays off a single bolt either)
Hey Vince I found the skeleton of a climber with just shoes and a chalk bag and it had one finger though a hanger. I used the hanger on a new route in the Stronghold but I will give it to you if you want to put it back. Not a bad idea to carry a hanger and not in you chalk bag.
By Jerry Cagle From: Tucson, AZ Jul 26, 2006 rating: 5.9+ PG13
I haven't seen it myself, but I was told yesterday by a reliable source that the missing bolt hanger has been replaced.
The Fortress
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