Arid Piles

Arid Piles-Southwest Face. Photo by Blitzo.

Description 

The Arid Piles is a relatively large formation located at the southern end of the Lost Horse area and west of The Real Hidden Valley. Most of the routes were established in the 80's in bold style by an assortment of talented climbers including J. Bachar, A. Bartlett, C. Cole, M. Cranor, D. Evans, T. Gilje, M. Gingery, T. Gordon, D. Hensel, V. Kodas, M. Lechlinski, D. Nakahira, A. Nelson, R. Raffa, R. Raker, R. Vogel, J. Woodward, J. Yablonski, & T. Yaniro. Two classics in the area are 29 Palms (5.11d), a stemming and palming testpiece and The Acid Crack (5.12d), an overhanging thin crack.

Getting There 

This area is easy to access from The Real Hidden Valley parking lot. Walk west past the Houser Buttress, Zombie Woof Rock, and Miles of Piles Rock on a climber's access trail to The southern end of the Lost Horse area.

The Classics

Featured Route For Arid Piles

29 Palms 5.11d  CA : Joshua Tree National Park : ... : Arid Piles

This climb is on the northwest face of the Arid Piles formation. Approach from the northeast end and enter the 29 Palms Corridor. Scrambling over boulders within the corridor leads to the base of the route.Difficult lieback / jam moves reach the very steep left facing corner with a seam in the middle. Extremely technical and challenging palming and stemming moves go over a bulge to a lower angle section with a finger sized crack. Near the top the...[more]   Browse More Classics in CA

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Arid Piles-Northwest Face. Photo by Blitzo.	BETA PHOTO: Arid Piles	BETA PHOTO: Bouldering along the trail to Arid Piles
Arid Piles from the north. Photo by Blitzo.	Natural arch near the Arid Piles, JTNP.	BETA PHOTO: Arid Piles (NW Face), Joshua Tree NP.