This is Justin, Matt, and I atop Earth Angel Spire...
Description
Earth Angel is an awesome route that climbs what must be one of the largest sandstone towers in the United States. The first two pitches are laden with loose rock, so use caution. The last four pitches are four stars for climbing quality. This is also one of the best summits in Sedona.
Pitch 1 - Walk to the right edge of the large starting platform. Climb a short crack then wander up broken rock and ledges to a nice belay ledge next to the Chimney. (5.7 ~120') Watch for loose rock on this pitch.
Pitch 2 - Climb chimney off belay being mindful of loose rock. Belay at nice ledge on left at the top of the chimney. (5.7 ~180')
Pitch 3 - Step across chimney and climb off-width crack above. Jam, stem, off-width, and face climb past one bolt (pitch crux) to the top of this excellent pitch. Everytime this pitch starts to really become difficult a Red Rocks style face hold seemed to magically appear. Belay from a huge ledge at the top of this pitch. (5.10- ~150')
Pitch 4 - Climb the left side of a pillar up a hands to fingers crack. Belay at the top of this pillar. Some say this is the best pitch on the route. The first asensionists tunneled behind/through the pillar and climbed the right side. (5.9 ~100')
Pitch 5 - Traverse up and right to a finger crack that is not directly visible from the belay ledge. Climb up this crack and then onto the face above past an old bolt and pin. Once through the major difficulties trend up and right over large chickenheads to another huge ledge and belay. (5.10- ~140') This pitch carries some serious climbing above an old bolt and pin. Send the best lead head and face climber up on this pitch.
Pitch 6 - There are many ways to climb the final pitch ranging from 5.7 to 5.10x. The described way was our path of least resistance, but there are probably 5 or 6 different ways to climb this last pitch. Climb a moderate crack system directly off the belay ledge until an easy traverse left leads to the tower's north face. From here 5.6 face climbing takes you to one of the best summit's in Sedona. Look for the first rap anchor on the far side of the summit.
Location
Turn off of highway 89A onto Jordan Road. At the "T" junction turn left and drive past the Adobe style homes following Forest Access signs and onto the dirt road. The parking area at the end of this road has been recently renovated and the old shooting range is gone. Park, drop into the drainage on the right and turn left. Mormon Canyon is accessed by hiking up this wash. After about 30-40 minutes of hiking the wash will make a right turn (east) and the tower will come into view. From this point stay in the wash until you are almost directly under the tower. At this point follow a climbers trail with some carins up and right. Hike beyond the route's base, then double back to the starting platform. Total hiking time is 1-1.5 hours.
Descent - Rap 1 is about 110' off a multiple bolt anchor to a nice ledge. Rap 2 is about 180' off a bolt anchor to another nice ledge. Rap 3 is about 160' from yet another bolt anchor to a large ledge near the ground. Scramble left just a little to the final anchor. Rap 4 is about 80' to the ground. There is an enormous poison ivy patch growing here so if you are allergic use caution. Scramble down and right for 5-10 minutes back to your gear.
It is a good idea on the first three rappels to have the second climber down work the knot over the lip of each ledge to prevent stuck ropes.
Protection
1 set Stoppers 1 x 0 Metolius TCU (Purple)/Blue Alien 1 x 1 Metolius TCU (Blue)/Green Alien 2 x 2 Metolius TCU (Yellow)/Yellow Alien 2 x .5 Camalot 2 x .75 Camalot 2 x 1 Camalot 2 x 2 Camalot 1 x 3 Camalot 1 x 3.5 Camalot 1 x 4 and 1 x 4.5 Camalot or 2 x 4 Camalot 1 x 5 Camalot Optional Draws and Slings
Back about six years or so ago members of the Pinche Tribe did Earth Angel for a b-day outing. We had six people on the summit, and even brought the Hilti along and redid the rap anchors on the way down. That was just a long, long beautiful day from finding the start to hiking out in a dark rain. The first couple pitches are shit. A helmet wouldn't hurt here. I did get bashed up a bit from falling rock. A must do for any Sedona crazed climber.
Funny...As I was reading the description of a scary bolt, I remembered that Joe Melley and I replaced [a] key bolt[s] on this route back in '97 (at least I thought we replaced all of them). I guess we missed one!!?? Bummer!
When in the area, also check out the awesome Low Maintenance Dihedral 11- (a FA circa the same time). Unfortunately I have so much sand in my brain I have forgotten exactly where it is (somewhere on the right/outer side of Mormon Canyon before E.A. tower, I think)...As well as a scary 5.12 mixed route we did somewhere near Dr Rubo's (behind?).
I got beta from a couple folks before i got on earth angel and appreciated the help. this is me passing on the love. random musings, in no particular order-
approach: it wasnt clear to us where the thing was. i think the 30-40 minute estimate to the turn is a little conservative. we took the wrong drainage (add two and a half hours approach-'schwacking!! oops) so i dont know for sure, but i would venture to guess it will take most folks a deal more than 30 minutes to get to the turn. we hiked up a drainage that started with a big red rounded ledge and beelined straight up loose stuff. then hike a hundred yards left along the cliff base to the route. we looked further up the wash for another turnoff, but it seemed pretty obvious to us that we had gone too far. we saw no cairns anywhere, except for a long ways down the main wash at a hiker's trail (?) to a beautiful pass.
if you want a general idea of where you're headed, from th eparking lot, you can see a white sandstone formation peeking out from the left side of the prominent red formation up canyon. the white sandstone formation, just visible from the lot, with roofs in it. no. thats not earth angel. but the little spike of rock visible between that prominent roofed tower and the main rock is. looks a long way away. remember that you wont see earth angel, as pictured in the beta photos, until you are on the other side of that formation you could see from the parking lot.
pitching it out: several people told me several ways to climb it. i think the way mountainproject has it pitched out is definitely the most logical to my mind.
for gear, i would add a black (or purple, whatever you call the tiny one) alien, another yellow alien, and a couple screamers. the bolt (leeper recall hanger??, 3/8" unknown bolt) on the top harder pitch is kinda' unnecessary, so you shouldnt lose sleep over it the night before. if you bring up a selection of nuts and small cams you can put quite a lot of pro in the crack that the bolt is right next to. the pin is ok, but you could get a decent small offset nut right under it if you brought those. above that the pro withers out, but the climbing is far easier.
and the big gear? we brought a camalot 3, two 4s, and a 5 (new C4 sizes. the new 5 is the same size as the old 4.5). we could have done it without the second 4. we generally ended up with one at a belay, althouhg we did backclean it a couple times on various pitches. the 5 was fine, but really i didnt think it was necessary. i clipped the bolt without putting the 5 in, with other gear at my waist, and it only went in one spot above that, and kinda' tipped out. above that a 6 would really be useful, but its really face climbing and stemming, and a little chimney, not OW, and you can put gear in the back of the crack without anything big. i kinda' think that burly leaders will be fine with no OW cams. more cautious leaders might want both the 5 and the 6 (i think the 6 is more useful than the 5 on the crux pitch).
rappels. on the first rappel, give the rope a big heave-ho as it pulls free. if it piles up on the intermediate ledge, you might end up pulling one of the big blocks down on yourself, or stickin your rope. on the second to last rappel, above the sloping ledge, the second rapper should hook the rope over the step climber's left of the anchors. if you run your rope through the crack it will eat the knot and jam the rope. (i guess i was getting tired..)
and the last rappel.. there is no poison ivy down there, anywhere, that i could find.
earth angel feels like a red rocks backcountry adventure 5.9+. same moves. same rock. spicy sections. varnished plates for face holds. sandy topout. if you really love this climb, you will really love lady wilson's cleavage, community pillar, etc.
the climb is mostly in the shade.
last note: no summit register, or box, up there as of 4/26/07, as far as i can tell. next party could bring one up if they felt generous.
pitch lengths are a little generous in the description as we, as a three man team, did the route in 4 pitches, 3.5 hours car to car.
pitch 1 and pitch 2, essentially the same pitch 3 (my lead) was the hard move past bolt to enter the chimney (then 5.8 ow etc) then I continued to top of pillar as one. pitch 4 went past face crux and onto summit.
we did have a 180' rope and a shorter 165' which third man simu climbed a bit on.
Mormon Canyon
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