Lower Devil’s East is the large group of towers visible when looking east across Lower Devil’s Canyon. For many years there was rumored to be only one route in this area, it was established prior to 1992 and had seen few, if any, subsequent ascents. Late in 2008 Marcy Makarewicz and Geir Hundal started exploring this area, and were pleasantly surprised at the number of quality routes to be found.
The ethic in this area is traditional. Routes are protected with gear as much as possible and bolts have been kept to a minimum. Most of the newly established routes are on narrow tower faces; in such areas we intentionally avoided crowding routes by keeping a general rule of one route per face.
Rack: If you’re climbing in LDE, bring your rack. All of the climbs to date protect primarily or entirely with gear. Doubles of small cams and a full set of stoppers are needed for most of the routes. Check the individual route descriptions for further information.
Belays: All of the routes are equipped to be topped out, and most require that you do.
Descents: One of the best parts about climbing in LDE is that most of the formations have independent summits. Most of the rappels require two ropes. Bolted rappel anchors with quicklinks and carabiners have been installed on most of the summits (see photo). Bring along an extra leaver biner or two to replace these carabiners if they have become worn. (The carabiners on the anchors are intended to make descent easy and are not booty - please leave them in place!).
Rappel anchor in LDE Submitted By: Marcy on Nov 24, 2009
Getting There
Driving Directions: (same as for Lower Devil's Canyon) From Superior, AZ head east on US 60 for about 10 minutes. Turn right on Magma Mine road and continue 1.5 miles. Turn left on the dirt road. Follow this road for 2 miles. For 2WD vehicles, park here on the right side of the road, otherwise continue .2 miles and up over two hills and start down a steep hill. Just before a sharp right hand turn the road briefly splits into two lanes. If you have low clearance 4WD, park off the road here on the left. EDIT - the road quality of the previous section varies with weather and use. Use your own judgment when proceeding in anything but moderate to high clearance 4wd! With high clearance 4wd, head down the hill to a windmill (~.5 miles) and continue on the road until it ends at the top of a rough hill (another .3 miles). The top of Lower Devil’s Canyon is a 2 minute walk east. To continue to LDE, follow the approach directions below.
Approach: LDE is plainly visible across the canyon from the Glitter Box area. Locate Entrance Tower using the overview map; it stands out in front of the other towers. You’ll be heading toward this tower. From the top of Lower Devil's Canyon, follow the trail east and downhill through a short rock gully. Head downhill on the trail that forms at the bottom of the gully. After a minute or two the trail curves to the right and drops into a steep wash. The wash is easy to negotiate and leads to the bottom of the canyon in a few minutes. Cross the stream and head 50 feet downstream to a bunch of cairns and a trail leading uphill. Follow the trail uphill toward Entrance Tower. A second trail intersects the approach trail just before Entrance Tower; this one travels north & south along the spires. It takes about 20 minutes to approach from Lower Devil’s Canyon.
The Classics
Mountain Project's determination of some of the classic, most popular, highest rated routes for Lower Devil's East (LDE):
Centipede corner is the beautiful, right-leaning crack and corner system on the west face of the Lunchbox. It is among the best routes in LDE. It is protected entirely by gear (except, of course, for the rap anchors.)This climb has multiple cruxes, the first of which is protected by small gear and is near the start of the climb. The gear is solid but spaced out just enough to keep your attention. A 60m rope is just long enough to rap the rout...[more]Browse More Classics in AZ
The road out to Lower Devil's Canyon has been graded between the big hill and the Hackberry parking pullout and is now passable by passenger cars!!! Obviously, this will change with rain and use, therefore, use your own judgement when driving in. The last section of road between the Hackberry pullout and the road termination is improved but still requires high clearance 4wd.
Once in this file, simply click on the file you want and select "open" from the window that appears. Follow the prompts from there and the road will display in Google Earth on your computer.
Good job and nice addition you two. I like soooo many have gazed across the creek at those towers but was too lazy to go check them out (although I know of those who have).
Story had it when the road was closed that there was a way to get up top the east plateau and hike over to Lower Devils Canyon. Geir, you see anything like that on Google Earth?
Thanks, Susan. It has been a really great experience! The main trail up and the north-south trail parallel to the canyon are free from catclaw. Some of the trails up to individual formations need bit of work; we're just waiting for some cooler temperatures.
We're excited about the new routes and will post them as soon as the weather cools and we can finish clearing trails to them.
Update 8/09: Susan - we checked out part of the road leading to the east plateau and it is passable for at least part of the way with high clearance 4wd. (We explored about the first two miles.) However, it would be very slow going as the road is rough and long.
This area is soooo awesome -- was terrific to get a "sneak peak" and I'm totally psyched to explore these new route you both have worked so hard on. Very, very, very impressive and such a gorgeous area to add to the already stunning Lower Devil's. And, your trail and road work is all truly yeoman's duty -- above and beyond.
Big big thanks to Geir and Marcy for putting up these amazing climbs! The climbing is amazing and the scenery is down right inspiring. Thanks again guys I can't wait to come out and climb LDE again.
To make descents safe and convenient, most of the rappel anchors in LDE have been updated to bolts have quick links and carabiners attached (see the photo above). This eliminates the need to thread the ropes and simplifies descent. Eric Rhicard and Jim Scott have been using this anchor style on Mount Lemmon for several years and it has worked very well.
NOTE: the carabiners are part of the anchor, not booty. Please leave them in place. If they are removed the quick links will be in the wrong orientation; this will twist the ropes and make the rappels difficult to pull.
Since the carabiners are only being used for rappels, we expect them to last for many years. When they eventually become worn, it will be necessary to replace them. Bring along an old carabiner or two to use in the event a replacement is required.
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