Following on of the great chimney pitches. Thanks...
Description
This is it. THE classic red rocks route. And its just as good as everyone says it is.
Approach as for the Black Velvet wall. After climbing around the chockstone, return to the stream bed and walk another minute or two upstream. The bolts on the first pitch will be easily spotted on the left.
This route has lost some of the original seriousness now that bolted anchors have been placed all the way up. This speeds things up considerably and provides an easy retreat of needed. You'll need two ropes if you intend to rap the route.
The original description has 18 pitches. If you use the bolted belay anchors you can climb Epinephrine in 11 or 12 pitches. This description will assume that you use the bolted belays. It's hard to remember precisely how long (or how many!) pitches are on this route but I'll do my best.
Pitch 1: climb out of the creekbed past bolts to a big ledge (5.8). Continue on past a couple more bolts to a bushy ledge. (165 feet, 5.8)
Pitch 2: work up and left into a chimney, then pull out the right side and work up easier rock to the base of the big chimney that forms the right side of the Black Tower.(165 feet?, 5.7). May need some rope stretch here.
Pitch 3: The main event: chimney up a wide crack with good pro to a ledge on the right wall with bolts. (140', 5.9)
Pitch 4: Chimney up and swing left as the crack narrows. Climb easier rock to a good ledge. Belay or continue on up into a narrower chimney with a fixed nut at the base and then two bolts. The bolts can be hard to spot - you need to work away from the back of the chimney to find them. If you have enough rope you can belay at the top of the Black Tower. Otherwise belay at the top of the chimney and do a short easy pitch to the tower's top. (165', 5.9)
Pitch 5: Climb the face above the top of the tower, passing an overhang, aiming at a brushy ledge. (150', 5.8)
Pitch 6: Traverse easily right to the Elephant's Trunk. Ascend this to a ledge at its top. (80', 5.6)
Pitch 7: Climb up the crack system (some bolts) to a bolted belay at a ledge. (90', 5.8+) (can be combined with Pitch 6). The rap route goes straight down from here, avoiding pitches 5 and 6.
Pitches 8 - 10: Continue up the same crack system, stopping at the bolted belays. A short traverse right (bolt) is found on pitch 10. (400', 5.8+)
Pitch 11: Either rap the route or continue to the top of the crack. There is no rap anchor at the top of this pitch. (5.6, 120')
You're still not on top yet! Unrope and climb the slanting ramp to the right. This narrows and becomes seriously exposed - a rope will reassure the faint of heart here. Soon the scrambling eases up and you arrive at the summit.
Descent: follow cairns along the ridge leading east from the summit. There are a lot of cairns - if you miss the backtrack until you get back on the right trail. The route will eventually drop left towards Whiskey Peak at the top of Frogland.
Protection: You don't need anything bigger than a #4 camalot in the chimney pitches. A 3, 3.5, and 4 Camalot and perhaps a #11 hex, combined with the existing fixed gear, should get you up the chimney without much mental stress.
Logistics: Getting a pack through the chimney pitches is a pain - go light and bring a long sling to trail the pack when needed. The route gets almost no sun so you can go fairly light on water. Get an early start and move fast! Most of the climbing is 5.7 - 5.8. If you can avoid wasting time at the belays you should be able to get up in a day without too much effort. A competent party can easily get up in 8 hours. Figure on about 1 - 1.5 hours in descent. Don't leave gear at the base of the route if you chose to walk down - it's a long way out of the way to go back there.
If the chimney pitches were in Yosemite they would be 5.7. This isn't Steck-Salathe! 5.9 is consistant with other Vegas ratings though.
I'm glad you added this, John, as I can't recall many details from my one ascent of this route.
If you are unsure of your ability to do this route in a day, one good strategy is to start in the afternoon (when the route is empty, hopefully) and climb just the chimney pitches, then rap off. This way you will have familiarity with those chimneys and will be able to do them quickly. The climbing above the chimneys is virtually all face climbing and feels much easier even though there is still some 5.9.
All the topos show a bit of 5.9 here and there on the upper pitches but I honestly can't recall any real 5.9 climbing after the chimney. If you can get up the chimney pitches you'll have no problems with the crack above.
The descent from the top of Epinepherine is tricky. The best beta is to follow the ridge as long as possible before descending down into Black Velvet Canyon. Descend too soon and you'll be forced to rappel.
Best to go fast and light on this route. Packs just get in the way on the chimney pitches. If you think you'll be slow, then climb it in May when the days are long and the temps are pretty reasonable in Black Velvet. The upper pitches have lots of 5.9 sections on the topo, but this part of the climb is a breeze and goes quickly.
real fun route. leave the big gear in the car since there's a couple bolts in the chimney. you'll be happy to not have to lug around big cams. the pitches after the chimmy are real fun; some real nice face climbing. the walk off is long and rocky so don't forget something to hike down in. the route finding can be tricky after the tower.
Leave the big gear in the car? Yikes! The first chimney pitch doesn't have any bolts at all, as I recall. I think most of pitch only takes #3-#4 Camalots, although maybe there are some places for smaller stuff, my memory is hazy on this. But it's not like the whole chimney section is bristling with bolts. I'd go with John's recommendation (maybe skip the hex though!), unless you are a way honed chimney climber (just came from Yosemite!).
Last time I was there (2 years ago) there was a suprising amount of fixed pro on the first chimney pitch. Pretty unusual to see fixed #4 camalots! The lower part of the pitch takes about a #2 camalot; higher up it's #3 - #3.5. And that hex is a lot lighter than a camalot - there's a great place for it near the top of the pitch! That said, aside from one placement on the next pitch you're not going to be using the big stuff anywhere else on the route.
i carried up to a #3BD and a #11 hex(the cow Bell). Not once did i wish i had more. i placed the #11 hex at one point. as i remember there was plenty of places of smaller pro and some bolts. i didn't mean to make it sound like the chimney was lined with bolts but going light will make your whole experience better.
Did this route on 3/13/04. We did it in 9 pitches without any simul-climbing. I brought a #4, #3, #2, #1, and #.5 Camalot, a blue, green, and yellow alien, and a set of nuts. Altough it is easily possible to do the climb without a #4 Camalot, I was happy to have it (although next time I do it I might not bring it, but that's only because I would have already done it). The 5.9 climbing after the chimneys is very easy. More like 5.7-5.8 climbing with one move of 5.9. Rapping the route sounds like a nightmare. There are so many chickenhead to get your rope stuck on. Better to just bring one rope and be determined to get to the top. Having said that, I wouldn't want to do the scrambling to the top in the dark or the descent in the dark. The descent is straightforward, but it takes more then one hour. There is a little fourth class downclimbing on the descent that wouldn't be fun in the dark, even if you had a headlamp.
I was back in the chimneys last week and I'd like to refine the route description somewhat. All of the fixed gear from 3 years ago was gone so no freebies in the chimney pitches now.
I think the supertopo is pretty accurate and we took the ST route through the chimneys without really knowing what it is. Here's my revised description:
End P1 at the rap anchor (5.8, 180')
End P2 at the next rap anchor (5.7, 160')
P3 goes up relatively easy cracks below the chimney and then traverses into the main part of the chimney. Head for a ledge on the right with the next rap anchor. Work out to ledges below the anchor rather than stay at the back near the end of the pitch. (5.9, 120')
P4 uses the most wide gear - a #2 and #3 camalot for sure; the #11 hex or #3.5 camalot for the more gripped leader. Pass a bolted anchor on the right and pull through a wide section by swinging out left. At a big ledge, work up and right outside of the chimney to the rap bolts on another good ledge. (5.9. 120')
P5 traverses back left to the first bolt and then on up. This avoids the 5.9 part of the pitch by the fixed nut since you don't have to burrow way the hell back into the bowels of the chimney. (5.9, 130')
I'd double the #2 camalot to make the chimneys a bit easier to protect. We never felt a #4 was needed. Place smaller gear whenever you can and save the big stuff for where it's needed.
Don't wear shorts!
Judging by the number of late night headlamp sightings a lot of people ought to have started earlier or climbed faster :-).
Regarding the "descent beta" graphic on utahphotowild.com, the diagram makes some sense but has a few problems. First, Whiskey Peak is incorrectly identified, this diagram would lead you to believe it is the highest point reached during the descent. The "Long Way Along Ridge" is probably the best piece of advice one can give, so this part is excellent.
The most troublesome part is the finish, which seems to indicate that you will be coming back towards the base of the climb, under the Black Velvet Wall (can the descent be done in this manner?). It is much easier to head straight for the parking lot, passing nowhere near the base of the climb.
Anyway the best advice is to go all the way to the top of Black Velvet Peak, and then travel "Long Way Along Ridge", farther than you think, before dropping off to the left and then heading more or less towards your car, not the base of the route. All of this should be pretty well cairned by now, but you can still get screwed by leaving the ridge too soon.
The topo is pretty much exactly how I remember it. But, unlike George, I wanted to descend back to the base of the Black Velvet Wall and NOT to the parking lot. As George stated the thing to remember is to head along that ridge for a long ways - pretty much to the end of it. The rest of the way is very well-cairned: from the end of the ridge you descend sharply to the left down to a saddle (which I believe is formed by the buttress that Frogland goes up) and slabs. At this point, if you're going back into the canyon, you turn left and go down a steep, tricky gully (I assume that George would have turned right at this point and gone down the other side of the saddle?).
Try not to forget your climbing shoes on the summit of Whiskey Peak as my poor, poor partner did. Of course, now he has the descent wired =)
By Bill Gibbs From: Andover, Ks. Apr 20, 2004 rating: 5.9
Oh yes! Josh is right...Having to retrieve climbing shoes from the top sucked...but now I hold guide status for the descent.
Yeah, Josh, if you head right (east) at that saddle it's an easy 10-15 minute walk to the parking lot. I've not gone the other way, thanks for clearing this up! It is worth not leaving anything at the base because of this fact.
climbed epinephrine sunday. we used the original pitch by pitch beta peterson posted. in retrospect, if i were to climb her again, id do the following for best rope-drag/linking-speed, referring to peterson's route description:
w/ 60m rope:p1 up past bolts past ledge to anchors. p2 up again, see description, etc etcp3 first chimney pitch, great protection, you can walk cams up with you and feel completely safe.p4 the not as well protected chimney pitch. and if youre a wuss like me, and stay burrowed in the depths of the crack so you can pretend to place pro, you need a lot of long runners, or you end up with heinous rope drag. like i did. and if you try to break for the anchor at the top-right of the tower, you wont make it with a 60. we had to simulclimb for 20 feet, which i hated with tricep-straining rope drag and not a small degree of griptitude. next time, id stay out of the squeeze-depths, clip the bolts that are hard to find, on both sides of the chimney, and break for the second anchor you come across.p5 would be a short chimney to the anchor at the top-right of the tower, IIRC, and a short clamber left to the anchor at the top of the black tower.p6 link three swain pitches, i think. climb up, pull a little overhang, bear right, and climb up the elephant trunk crack until you hit an anchor. p7- link two pitches following the crack. despite the fact that this crack woul take gear every two feet, you actually clip bolts every eight feet except fro the last 20 feet of the pitch. i have no idea why.p8- link two more pitches, following the crack. end below the roof.p9- short pitch. pull over the roof on the right, admire the deep rope-grooves from decades of climbing, and belay right there to avoid bad rope drag.p10- 5.6 straight up takes you to the ramp system.
ramps- well, you could unrope, i guess. there are a few moves of 5th class, and a few 4th class places where if you slipped on the gravel, or popped a hold, you'd end up in the drainage. if you stay roped, there are three or four 'pitches' of no-pro speedy travel.
descent- basically, from the pine trees at the top of the climb, hike away from teh canyon towards the big peak with big cairns on top. then follow the ridge left for a long ways. when the cairns dissapears, run around in small circles until you find the descent drops off left. follows cairns to a big slab. cairns here must have been washed/rocked off. look below, and youll see them again. cairns all the way from the peak to the main trail for the parking lot. if you dont see any, youre off. thats the best advice, i think.
there appears to be a bolt missing from what i assume was an anchor above the 5.9 roof high on teh climb, below the last bit of (5.6?) climbing. there was one good bolt with an SMC hanger, one big bolt hole, and one 1/4" bolt with no hanger. you can still build an anchor with bomber nuts a few feet back, and tying off the bolt, and/or or the chickenhead above, but i thought it might be worth mentioning.
also, the sole bolt above that anchor (on the next pitch) has a nut, but is missing the hanger. its a 3/8" bolt next to a 1/4" bolt with no hanger, or just chopped, cant remember.
By Mike Morley Administrator From: Oakland, CA Jul 6, 2004
I heard that a rap line has been added recently. Anyone have details?
By Scott Conner From: Lyons, CO Sep 9, 2004 rating: 5.9
Just got back from a hot RR trip. We did Epi on Sept. 3, my wife's birthday. I guess someone has to play devil's advocate and give this 2 stars, but it ain't gonna be me. 10 stars! A very fun adventure and an all day excercise in efficiency. This time of year (late summer) is perfect for this route. The crowds are thinner and the days are longer. Get a later start and plan to be on the black tower by noon. The upper wall goes into the shade around noon leaving almost 8 hours to finish the climb and descend.
I don't recall any 5.9 climbing above the chimneys either. Lots of 5.6 - 5.7 and some 5.8.
On the approach, someone has fixed a rope on the wall in the gully (where you are forced to exit the streambed to the left) making it easy to batman up and stay in the streambed. Enjoy it while it lasts.
The very last belay is indeed missing a bolt, so I just climbed past it and built a belay about 25-30 feet passed it. The descent is pretty straight forward once you remeber to go to Whiskey Peak by hiking across the saddle on the back of the Black Velvet Tower.
just a short trip report: not to spray so don't get your panties in a bunch. Just one of the best days for me in Red Rocks.Jay and myself have been guiding for a while in red rocks (jay alot longer than me) but we both haven't done the mighty Epinephine. We always just we waiting to guide it. One day (i forget now) we decide to go for it. I pick Jay up in Blue Diamond and told him the news. I had to be home in like 6 hours for my sons birthday. We just laughed. we are at the trail head by 7 ish. As we are racking up these I ask these two guys what they were doing, they said frogland andI told the Epinephine. THe poor guy looked at our rack (only like 4-6 nuts, 8 draws, 3 tcus, and like 3 other cams I think) and they told us to make sure we bring headlamps. and jay says no need he has to be back by noon! They looked confused as did I. I mean 18 pitches right? 5.9 chimneys? We start to run. We hit the base and I am tired, time for a Camel, nothing makes the lungs feel better than sucking on a non filter. I look at Jay and asked where his climbing shoes are and he said he was going to do it in his approach shoes. Huh? I am going to simul with you in approach shoes? Oh well. I was really getting into this speed climbing thing with some wall routes in Zion and in the valley so I was siked. I lead all the way to the chimneys in one pitch (takin the 5.8 way) and only placed like 4 or 5 pieces. I was yelling a Jay to hurry, and we were up 5 pitches in under 20 minutes, I felt like we were running. Jays lead 2 chimney pitches as one in his approach shoes and only placed like 5 pieces. I started the next block of two. I wanted to stop to place pro so many times but it just seemed like it would take forever, I I just clipped the bolts. We hit the black tower in less than an hour of climbing. We were stoked. After a short smoke break Jay go me to the base of the Trunk where I took over and we simuled for a ways. jay took over right before the last roof and we simuled all the way to the top. I remember thinking how come Jay was climbing so fast, but when I turned the lip of the roof he didn't even stop to place pro. The rope was snug at my harness and I couldn't keep up, this guys an animal. we hit the top and just simuled our way out. (its not over till the end for sure) We hit the top and just yelled. I think we did the route in 2-3 hours. (no clock) As we started the decent (no idea where to go) we just laughed and yelled, triped and fell, but had the best time. As we neared the start of Froglands we could see the guys , and we gave a yell, and ran to the car. I thought I was late for sure, but much to our amazment it was still way before noon. (I want to say like 10:45 but I don't remember) so with plenty of time we drove back to Blue Diamond and drank some beers and just really sat back and thought about what just happeded. All of a sudded I sat up and yelled "I JUST CLIMBED EPINEPHINE" jay and I still talk about it, it was one of my best days in red rocks, we had the time of our lives. Thanks for reading, now go have an adventure! Kurt "Burt" Arend
Has anyone tried to attempt Texas Hold'em? This is one impressive looking line. If so post up some beta.
By Danny Inman From: Westminster Oct 10, 2006 rating: 5.9
One of the most memorable climbing adventures I have ever done. This climb is perfect. Doing the descent in the dark is ill advised unless there is a guided party just ahead of you such that you can follow their headlamps the whole way down.
I attempted Epinephrine last week; got off route (???) on the 3rd pitch (which from reading the comments above, sounds hard to do). After pulling the 2nd pitch chimney, I followed the face up and left to a pair of bolts with yellow webbing/American death triangle. From there I 4th classed up, saw 2 bolts on the face up and right, went for them, broke a hold, took a digger (40ish ft.) onto the ledge by the belay and rapped due to injury/sense that I was lucky to still be breathing. If you can imagine, it's killing me to find out where the 3rd pitch starts because it sounds hard to miss (big, obvious chimney) but something tells me I missed it. Please send an email/leave a message. llliiil@yahoo.com
On April 17th 2007, the ASCA replaced 7 pro bolts on Epinephrine. All were 3/8" x 2 1/4" stainless 5 piece. They were placed as follows (per Supertopo pitches):
Pitch 6 (First pitch off the tower): Two protection bolts.
Pitch 7 (First pitch off Elephant's Trunk): Two protection bolts
Pitch 8 (Next pitch): Three protection bolts (the first two and the fourth). The remaining protection bolt is an okay 3/8" bolt.
Thanks to Greg Barnes and the ASCA for the effort!
John is too nice, he helped hand-drill several of the holes!
Also, the 5th (last) pro bolt on that second pitch off the Elephant's Trunk (right below the anchor) is an old 1/4" Urioste bolt which is missing its hanger. THere is a good small nut placement nearby, and we didn't have enough bolts to replace it.
By EricH From: Flagstaff, AZ Apr 16, 2008 rating: 5.9
What a climb! Just a note: The last pitch (before the ramp to the summit) is missing bolt hangers... a trad anchor is easily set up with two #3 and a #4 camalot.
Peter, It was great to meet you and Brian in the chimney!
By FC John From: Fort Collins, CO Apr 30, 2008 rating: 5.9+
Holy Smokes! This climb delivers a little bit of something for everyone! Leave the #4 camalot at home, you don't need it. The chimney pitches were just the price of admission for the unbelievable upper pitches.
Do not underestimate the descent.... We did car to car in 12 hours and I'm confident that we spent 3 hours of that on the descent.
~Team Gold Bond
By Matt McMurray From: Castle Rock, CO May 19, 2008 rating: 5.9
My partner and I had a good time. We had the route to ourselves so we climbed extra slow. =) I would also recommend bringing a #4 to move up the third pitch chimney with unless you are proficient/confident. Be careful where you place it though... I was walking it up without really looking and got mine stuck for 45 minutes while I worked it out. LAME! The chimney crux was tight/harder for me than expected (6'2" 190). The upper pitches are great face climbing. We simulclimbed the ramp placing a lifesaver piece every 50 feet or so. It took us 14hrs car to car, including f-ing around on my stuck placement, taking in the views at belays, snacks and pictures at the top, and taking our time hiking back. It wasn't fast but it was memorable.
FYI on the descent: From the true summit it took us 30 minutes hiking at a casual pace to walk the ridge before heading down. There were a couple cairned spots that 'looked' like where to head down, but DON"T TAKE THEM! The descent took 1hr 45min stopping occasionally to rest our sore toes. =)
We did this climb on Sunday, July 6 (record temps for vegas, I think) and took 10L of h20 with us. Opted for carrying a pack (forever after referred as the "F'N"!!!pack) and a bottle or 2 on our harnesses. We had a blast and if you're intersted there could still be a #5 cam on the 3rd chimney pitch. After 1/2 hr, we couldn't get it out. My biggest concern was that we'd need it for higher up and thankfully didn't BUT I AM GLAD WE HAD THE BIGGER GEAR. Never climbed a 5.9 chimney before (and could hardly believe the comment that this would be 5.7 in Yosemite) so I guess we gotta practice somemore. dEspite that we did well though slowly and did end up bivying on a ledge several ramps down from the top. Though not cozy it was spectacular...Vegas sparkled like a jewel at night and gorgeous sunrise in the am. Turned out to be just another great part of the climb of this amzing climb. dOWNSIde was that we had drank all but a cup and a half of water by the time we bivied and had to save it for the descent out the next day. Thank god for gas station chips and gatorade at the end. Thanks to all the people who offered advice on how much water to carry and how during the summer months plus when to start. It was everything and MORE!!!!!
Black Velvet Wall
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