Shangri-la is on the far left of this photo. Phot...
Description
pitch 1, starting in saddle between Rabbit/Bear climb 110' pitch of 5.10a with a move of A.0, or a couple moves of aid to make the climbing about 5.8 C.1. pitch 2, 100', 5.7+ climbing ends at good ledge with two bolts pitch 3, 5.9+ LB, 70' ends at ledge just left of the 3rd pitch. pitch 4, The hardest climbing I've ever done, it felt like 5.12+X- but essentially is a scree slope in a chimney with stacked rocks that only connect to one side of wall! (Bjornstad said of this pitch, "a long gully/chimney (very rotten) was climbed")- I think the correct term was swam. Watch for rope drag. pitch 5 40', is gravy and leads to middle of summit.
Location
near the outer boundary of the Tribal Park. Rock Climbing is illegal here. Shangri-La looks like a rectangular block stood on its end.
Protection
standard desert rack, hammer + hexes helpful on pitch 3.
By toddgordon From: Joshua Tree, California May 21, 2007
I climbed this route with Dave Evans in the Early 80's.....We had a blast. On pitches one and two, I pulled out about 6 or more pitons which someone left behind;....with my fingers. The last pitch , we found, to be very loose and dangerous, and about 5.6. We found No anchors on the summit, so I rapped off of Daves body weight, placed a few pieces on the way down, and Dave down-climbed the whole pitch;....knocking hundreds of pounds of rock flying down the chimney;...I was huddled behind some rocks, trying not to get hit by any missles. We knocked so much rock off while we climbed and descended, that at times , the formation looked like a factory with a smokestack going strong....(Here's how WE broke down the pitches and found the climbing...Just another reporter's opinion;...probably ball-park for us, anyways....On these sort of climbs...we free, French-free, and hop in our aiders , and then change back again;....and that's all in a few feet!)Pitch one we found as A2 and 5.9.Pitch 2 we went around the left side of a roof (5.10a), then cut left (FP) to a bolted belay. Pitch 3; up a 5.9 squeeze. Pitch 4 ; 5.6 chimney loose/dangerous. There; two different descriptions;....all to confuse you more! Guess there's only ONE way to figure out what the pitches REALLY are...... that's right;...go do the climb!...(Oh wait;...too bad it's presently illegal....)...Maybe someday.....It's a great adventure;...legal or not. When we climbed the route, we had no information about the climb;...didn't even know it's name or if it had been climbed before;.....We went over wondering if the thing had ever been climbed;....on pitch one, when we saw all the pitons;...we know someone had been up the thing....later , I heard it was called Castle Butte...and when I talked later to Eric, he said it was called Shangri-la.
modified a bit, reviewing notes/topo I missed pitch 3, but can't find hard section on pitch 2.
raps were: chimney anchor?? to top 3, essentially downclimb w/ rope 'anchor' top 3 to top 2, 70' top 2 to top 1, 100' top 1 to ground 110'.
I attempted '93 w/ Laidlaw and Dougherty- it was Doug L who bailed on Chimney pitch and later saw why, then completed in April '94 w/ Travis Coldsmith, Pat Andrews, and Tim Dolan
Still the scariest desert pitch for me because if you blew it, you would follow the rocks out and past the belay ledge and the "pieces" (hammered in hexes) kept the rope to one side or another and thats about it.
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