This route has access issues. Please read the note available on the Navajolands page.
Todd Gordon racking up. Photo: Todd Gordon collect...
Description
Pitch one; 5.9 and 5.10 chimney and crack climbing, ending with a squeeze chimney to a ledge. There is a rest on the left , just before the crux section. Pitch two; 5.9 chimney to 5.10 hands ,some aid, and 4 bolts for protection too along the way to another ledge. A short manky looking bolt ladder to the summit.
Location
East of the small town of Sawmill, which is North of Fort Defiance and Gallup, New Mexico. Eric's Desert Rock has a detailed description of how to get to these spires.
Protection
Standard desert rack. Maybe some pins...(sorry, I can't remember....)
By toddgordon From: Joshua Tree, California May 5, 2007
I was on this spire with Doug Smith in March of 1984. We rated it 5.10, A1. We did the climb on a very cold and windy day. This is the climb that Chuck Pratt, in his View of Dead Horse Point story, says that while his partner was climbing the chimney section of this route (maybe it was T M Herbert?), that he could hear his ribs cracking as he ascended the chimney......I don't remember much of this climb, but I do remember that at one of the belays, Layton Kor scratched his initials into the rock!...politically incorrect now-a-days, but probably a cool thing to do back in the 1960s. Layton Kor RULES! We, unfortunately, did NOT summit, but did make it very close to the summit....top of pitch 2, and it looked like just a short bolt ladder to the top. We were running out of time, we were freezing, and we were afraid of the bad bolts and we also heard there was no anchor on top;.....that was enough for us....This spire is really beautiful, and you can drive very close to the spire. Too bad this climb is illegal to do; maybe someday it will be legal to climb. I climbed it illegally, while I was living and working for the Department of the Interior on the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Cleopatra's Needle Area
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