A wild campusing start, then mostly offwidth and chimney to the top. The summit is well worth the grunt. All day shade.
Pitch 1) 10' 5.9 Walk along the limestone ledge until it cliffs out at the base of a big offwidth. Set up a belay and campus across to a ledge at the base of a big chimney.
Pitch 2) 80' 5.9 Go up the chimney. A #6 Camalot is helpful until you have to leave it behind. The chimney above is very runout, but secure. Belay with gear on a nice ledge atop the pillar.
Pitch 3) 80' 5.9+ Up the huecoed offwidth with a bolt to a small ledge, then traverse left to the next crack system. Just before it becomes a chimney there is a hard offwidth move. Save a #5 or #6 Camalot for the top of this pitch. Belay in the chimney from 2 bad bolts.
Pitch 4) 30' 5.8 Face climb up the higher summit (the one in front of you). A little run out.
Descent: 200' from the summit to your packs. One of the bolts is bad, but the other one is good.
Location
Park at Marg's Draw Trailhead. Follow the trail east until it intersects with the real Marg's Draw trail at a 4-way intersection with a sign. Go right for 100' along the main trail, then turn left on a small hiker's trail. Follow this as it crosses a few small washes until it reaches a very large area of slick rock. Continue walking straight until you pick the trail back up on the south side of the slickrock. Follow this trail into the big wash (Marg's Draw). Go left up the main wash for about 1/2 mile until it becomes brush-choked. At this point another wash comes in from the left, and you can see the striking splitter of Fisher King. Follow this side wash north until Screaming Besingi and Firecat come into view on the right. Scramble up the gully on the north side of Firecat to start the route. GPS: 34,51.379 N 111,44.222 W
Protection
2 each to #3, 1 #4, 1 #5, 1 #6 Camalot (new sizes).
The traverse was no problem but OW third pitch was one mother of a 5.9! 5.9d for sure. And I wish I would have read the description here more carefully. In Bloom's guide, it simply says "Rappel South Face". We tried this with a single rope, and I realized about 60' above the limestone band on the S face that I wasn't going to make it. Had to TR most of the second pitch of 'Do a Little Dance" back to the anchor, then had a bit of an epic rappeling the N face. This can be done with a single rope, but it did involve rappeling off a single bolt on the last rap (albeit a brand new solid 1/2" by 4")
RSS Feed
Slideshow
