Knife Edge 

I have always approached this route from below, leaving a car at the tram terminal and driving to the trail head that is on the dirt road that continues past the right turn that goes to the La Luz trailhead. I believe this approach is shorter, it is definitely all on a pretty good trail, though you do need to drive two cars and purchase a tram ticket back down.

I agree that the best approach is from below, up the Piedra Lisa trail to the Rincon. Descending Chimney Canyon is probably the fastest unless you down-climb the Knife-Edge. Favorite run/scramble in the Sandias!

Anyone leave a piece of gear at the W in the last 2 weeks? I have it if you want it back...
(May 11)
And again - more gear left at the W... (June 30)
What's up with that?

Marc, Going down the ramp instead of Chimney Canyon sounds enticing. How is the terrain between the base of Procrastination and the highest well-defined part of the Fletcher Trail? Last year I went down the descent you suggest as far as the base of Procrastination - cool and adventurous (thanks for whoever put up the fixed rope!). This year, I've been up much of the well-defined part of the Fletcher trail until cutting off to head up to the S Route - very good trail that far. I just have not connected those two sections.

Very few parties rope up for the knife edge. I'm one of them...
A few years back a buddy and I did it in Jan. or Feb. just for fun. You generally stay on the north side of the ridge, but since it was iced up, we had to stay on the south. There's a second "crux" near the top where the ridge steepens and it's a little trickier if you have to go to the south, as we did. Anyhoo, I pulled down on a big ol' block and it was fine. Behind me, my partner did the same and he was left holding an 80lb block of granite. Just before he fell. If we hadn't been roped up, he would be dead.
Just a cautionary tale about the Knife Edge. Have fun, be safe. But I doubt you have to keep leaving your gear behind...

Bill, the terrain from procrastination down to the good part of the fletcher trail is OK a little scrambly in places and maybe a little trashing through the bush but not bad. Someone cleared the trail fairly well 2-3 years back with saw and pruners probably in order to haul big wall gear to the base. The trail up to the base of Procrasty was great then. A party was also hard at work last winter trying to finish a new route before the closure, so the trail was probably good as of late Feb this year. Personally I'm a big fan of using the tram to get down and some sort of car shuttle like Lee mentions. Civilized.

Thanks, John. Sounds like the conditions depend some on the current activity level. I'll give it a go one of these days.

An informational note about descending the Knife Edge: Of course there are the merits of free-soloing. I have also been down this twice with folks not up for that. We hung a fully stretched-out 60 meter rope to get nearly down to The W and then another rope as a "hand line" across The W. When incorporating this into a descent of the Knife Edge, it can take several hours to get to all the way down depending of course on the experience level of individuals. Hill's guide lists the Knife Edge as 11 "pitches".

Did this over Christmas vacation in 1970 or thereabouts with Leland Davis and Clay Goldberg. Decided that it really was cold when we realized that snot froze immediately on our gloves. Exciting part was that there was a herd of mountain sheep (now extinct I believe in the Sandias) ahead of us and the alpha ram was not happy. We were roped up and I was going over the only tricky part (it was full of snow) and the ram made a mock charge (and I dropped about 10 feet - I wasn't drawing to his bluff as he sure looked big). We dropped down the canyon to the south of the Needle to get back to the car. A lot of snow actually made the descent fairly easy.

Next time I do this, I will definitely shuttle, tram, or take the ramp down by the shield. From car up the ridge, across to La Luz, and down makes for one long day.

My favorite approach is to park at the Piedra Lisa Trailhead as mentioned by Lee. Then I climb the Knife Edge, walk north to the crest house and have a yummy burger. This gets you fueled for the cruise on down La Luz. But then again I like hiking...

The burger sounds like a good idea...to fuel for the casual walk over to the tram, that way I don't even need to carry food. Of course maybe I'm just craving american food right now.

I do this solo at least once a year. Can't imagine a year going by without making the pilgrimmage.
I park at the Piedra Lisa lot and walk up the knife edge, continue up through the limestone band,then take the north crest trail to the TV towers and come down chimney canyon. There's a beautiful rest spot on top of the limestone band just before you hit the North Crest trail, another on the grassy aspen knoll as you start down (just above muralla grande and chimney canyon), and another couple at the bottom of Chimney Canyon near the base of muralla grande/Warpy Moople.
No rope needed on the knife edge if it's not icy and you drop a few feet down the north (left) side of the ridge crest at the "W," and continue to hug the north side of the crest after the "W." If you go up the south (right) side of the "W" as described by Orlando, you'll experience the excitement of having your ass hang out over hundreds of feet of air, and if you veer off too far in that direction after the "W" you may end up having to reverse some 5.6/5.7 moves in a very scary/exposed dihedral.

I'm driving through ABQ on my way to Moab in March and hoping to do this if it's not covered in snow. I'm from the southeast so I'm not sure what to expect. Will it be?

It is likely that the route will be clear or that you will be able to climb around any snow on route with out too much difficulty. The real issue is that if you plan on going to the crest and taking the tram back down, there will be snow up there in the trees. As far as coming back down along the "approach" to the routes on the main wall, it seems as though part of that is tree covered as well before the rappels. It is hard to know though what things will be like in March at this point. The forest service might have updates on the condition of the Crest Trail, and if they say that is clear you should be good.

Steven VanSickle - Intriguing approach for a top-to-top ascent of the Knife Edge. I'll have to try it some time. What I like about Piedra Lisa-Chimney Canyon though (or La Luz, or tram descent) is it gives the whole project a mountaineering feel....

For that mountaineering feeling, I've come to enjoy ...

• up Piedra Lisa trail and Rincon to the base of the Knife Edge;

• up the Knife Edge;

• down the SE rap route / ledge system (Photo) with its rap / hand lines /etc.;

• down the Ramp at the base of the southerly half of The Shield;

• and then a bit of exposed and unprotected 4th class traverse to hit the well-maintained Fletcher Trail back to the cars.

Bill - your post reminds me of my first time on the Knife Edge in December 1975. Party of four roping through a rime-encrusted W to finish with a rappel & traverse to the Ramp right at sunset (that comes no later than 6 PM in winter), descending by headlamp & somehow winding up on the Movie Trail ...

'Such is youth' - Herman Melville.

On the plus side this does put you right back at your car. That last bit of trail/road slogging (if you didn't leave a vehicle) can get a bit tedious....

I agree, that road seems unbelievably long on the return trip. And great story by the way; reminds me of one or two as well. :-)