A great, easy romp with 7 quality, consistent pitches. Start well around the left side of Rose Tower, up a gully of sorts at the base of a big corner/ramp.
P1-3: Up the obvious line. Keep an eye out for belay bolts.
P4-5: From the belay on the ledge to the left, traverse right 5 meters, follow line up and into corner. Continue up and belay on a big ledge to your right.
P6-7: Traverse right again and up into a dihedral (crux). Continue up this to the top. Scramble off the back of the tower.
A fun and relatively friendly route. The start is a little confusing to locate, I remember that you start in a dark, cool slot, and climb up the face which forms the left side of this slot. The first pitch is called runout by Swain, but it is not that bad (it is runout, but quite easy). The second pitch enters a beautiful crack system.
Up high it can get confusing, but don't forget you are aiming for a huge corner that splits the summit in half, you need to traverse right at some point to reach it. The corner itself isn't well protected but is much easier than it looks from below (not that it looks that hard). The walk off is very easy and quick for Red Rocks.
By Scott Conner From: Lyons, CO Apr 5, 2004 rating: 5.7
To find the start of this route, scramble and thrash up the gully to the left of the Rose Tower and beyond Geronimo. It's best to stash your packs just before you start to enter the gully or else you'll have to make the worst part of the approach twice. Look for the corner that George mentions and a rib of rock to the left of it that leads to a small alcove/ledge with a small tree.
This is how we did it with a 60m:
P1: Climb this rib/face up to the tree. 5.6R
P2: Climb straight up the beautiful crack about 190' to a slopey ledge on the left.
P3: Work out to the right and up on 5.5R terrain, make an improbable rightward traverse onto a perfect ledge. Small nuts and cams for the belay.
P4: Climb up and right on an unprotected face to gain the large chimney/corner system. Make some steep and wild moves up this and belay after about 150'. 5.7
P5: Continue up this another 80' to the top of the Rose Tower. 5.6
Descend northwest down some hairy slabs until you hit a gully that heads down and to the east.
Fun route. Be careful on P3 to find the traverse and stay on route. The natural line here is to continue straight up and people have gotten into trouble as the climbing is 5.10 or harder...
By Scott Conner From: Lyons, CO Apr 5, 2004 rating: 5.7
BTW- I don't remember any bolts on this climb but it's been about 4 years... Have the belays been bolted recently?
My favorite 5.7 at RR. The quickest way to go is in 4 pitches. As a previous comment mentions, it's possible to link 2 & 3 (this seems more like 200' to me - we had to take down the anchor and climb about 5' to stretch to the good ledge. Then a long traversing pitch to another huge ledge below the final corner.
We took this corner in a single 240' pitch. The first and last part of the pitch are very easy so you can completely avoid the semi-hanging belay without having to simul anything very hard.
In spite of all the "R" ratings here and in guidebooks I don't think there's anything on this route that would scare a competent 5.7 leader.
I bought a 70m rope just for use at RR, and Olive Oil was the first time I used it. It certainly eliminated some of the juggling on the 2nd/3rd and final two pitches. I combined both and turned the route into a comfortable four pitches. Combining the last two came out to 231 feet--just right. Of course, I didn't see my partner(daughter)often.
After completing the Crux Dihedral, resist the urge to climb the small roundy "boulder summit" in front of you.
The route scrambles off to its right.
Not knowing this, I climbed to the top (5.7?). Nice view, but no way down. I found an ancient, way wobbly stardrive bolt with a ratty sling. No way I was going to rap off of this...So I had to downclimb and clean my gear, by far the scariest part of the whole climb.
In May 2001, my son and I did this route with the straight up variation. It is not 5.10. He was leading the third pitch and missed the big traverse to the right. We kept going on excellent, featured rock with good pro. I reached a crack that went up through an intimidating overhang with a bail sling and a biner, and two pieces of fixed fear gear. It turned out to be about 5.7. I continued up the crack to its end and belayed on top of another little tower. Around to the right was a nice view of the huge ledge below the final chimney pitch on the regular route. A spooky looking horizontal traverse looked like it would take us back to the regular route. There was a bit of rotten rock but it was easy to avoid. Great footholds made this spectacularly exposed traverse relatively easy. There was just one hard move, no more than 5.8, up a little seam to good holds, and into the chimney.
By John J. Glime From: Salt Lake City, UT Nov 1, 2004
Definitely three stars...pitch two is wonderful. There are bolted anchors on this route in two places, to the right of the crack on pitch two and when you get to the super-sized ledge before the final dihedral. Getting to the descent gully after finishing the climb should not be trivialized. There are tricky sections to downclimb, with semi-serious consequences depending on which route you take. This really isn't a big deal with daylight, but I could see a potential problem if you topped out at dusk/dark because of crowds, with your beginner girlfriend trailing along. Use caution.
Lost a pair of madrocks at the base of Olive Oil sometime during the 1st week of April. If you find them, please E-mail me at gurlyclimber@msn.com. I'll be back this spring/summer so I'll pick them up. Thanks. Will pay for your kindness with beer.
By Bobby Hanson From: Salt Lake City, UT Jun 21, 2005 rating: 5.7
The tree at the top of the first pitch is no longer in existence.
A quick note for folks considering this route. As of Feb 4th, 2006, there are no bolts on this route. Natural anchors are available, but some creativity at belays may be required.
By sqwirll From: Seattle, WA May 1, 2006 rating: 5.7
We climbed this route with a 70m rope and did it in 4 pitches. Pitch 1 was really easy with 1 5.7 move to the alcove. We combined pitches 2 & 3 to the top of a pedestal after the crack joins back up with the corner (225 feet). Our third pitch climbed up easy terrain to the big ledge below the dihedral/chimney. Pitch 4 went up to the top of the dihedral/chimney. We soloed the last little 20 foot step up and right (very easy). The descent is very straight forward and I didn't think there was anything sketchy about it.
By Danny Inman From: Westminster Nov 27, 2006 rating: 5.7 R
P2 and P4 are what make this route great. the P2 crack is nice with great exposure, while the P4 dihedral is immense and super exposed.
A great trad route. There are currently NO bolts on this route. Can be done in four pitches with a 60m rope with comfortable belay stances. The fifth pitch is a short scramble to the top from the belay at the dead snag at the top of the dihedral. The down climb to the top of the walk off gully has a few fourth class moves.
Brandt, Cho and I did this route yesterday. The Weather was absolutly PERFECT. And the CLIMB was GREAT!!! and a total BLAST!!!... Easy, and a "CRUISE"...
the VIEW was unbelievable as ALWAYS at RR...
the CORNER was super COOL!!!...
What a KICK!!!...
I will say though that for the rating, it seems "SOFT"... but so the HELL what!!!... it was WELL WORTH IT...
a "BUSY" route in that there were at least five parties. Four of them being a party of three, as were we. Get there EARLY!!! We were the first at the gate and the first on the route. If you WANT PEACE and QUIET(???) on a CRUISING ROUTE, it WON'T be this one, at this time of year. It's "Big Time" popular and rightfully so...
An alternative to waiting for the loop road to open is to park at the donkey trail. Drive past where the loop road comes out, look for a donkey crossing sign on the right. Just after the donkey sign look for a faint pull-off and small place you can weave through the fence.
This approach adds a mile or so onto the approach but you can get the alpine start and also won't be at risk for a late exit pass. Overall it takes maybe 15 minutes longer to reach the crag even though your walking longer because of the time it takes to drive around the loop to the trailhead.
By Brandt Allen From: Joshua Tree, Cal Oct 25, 2007
I suppose if, LIKE LOCKER, you freeload your way up as the third man on every pitch, contributing next to nothing in getting up the route, it might feel soft for the grade. Those who lead and clean the climb will probably feel that the second and last pitches are indeed fairly rated at 5.7.
Nice romp. Second pitch is a gem, but definitely run it together with the 3rd.
From the pedestal atop the 3rd I (following the sun) stepped left and climbed that corner. This pitch was almost as good as the final pitch, with the exception of a couple small bushes and not being quite the length. At the top of this pitch step left around a big chock stone, (there were yellow jackets in a hueco up right) and up onto a beautiful (sunny) belay ledge.
A short 30 meter 5.4 pitch takes you straight up to a easy foot traverse and right around the corner. Slither down the sidewalk and you can belay off a couple bomber wireds on a nice triangle ledge, in the corner below the final dihedral.
The descent is pretty casual.
-leave packs at mouth of canyon -Run pitches 2 + 3 together -get an early enough start to take in the 'Canola cracks' on the descent
Super fun route and a must do. Finding the start was a bit confusing as the scramble up the gully takes no obvious trail. Basically just stay as close as you can to the wall on your right. You will eventually come to a kind of rocky opening with a nice belay alcove. It seemed like pretty much a dead end after that. On the wall beside you is some faded chalk writing about bolts and rappelling or something. There is a "ugly" looking kind of cave to your right and to the left of that is a ramp pitch. The guide book says this pitch is run out but I was able to get two good pieces (a tri cam and an alien) just below the initial crux bulge move. After that, pretty much a romp.
Pitch two. Amazing crack that is pretty straightforward but will probably manage to catch your attention in a couple of places. Not for the aspiring 5.7 leader.
One note. We decided to take our packs up with us to avoid having to come back and retrieve them. Good idea until the final pitch where it really narrows in the chimney. Lots of subsequent grunting and expletives and certainly added to the adventure and difficulty of the pitch, but it all worked out and is doable. Just something to consider
Bring your headlamps! The descent gully would be a nightmare without one.
By Jason Halladay From: Los Alamos, NM Dec 5, 2008 rating: 5.7
Indeed there are no bolted belays on this route but it was unnecessarily lame of someone to graffiti the rock at the base of the route with a rock or chalk with the messages "Walk off" and "No bolts" or whatever it said.
The belay at the top of the fifth pitch on the big ledge before the big corner was a bit tricky to setup. A BD 4 at your feet would work well but we didn't carry anything that big. A wobbly 3 and slung chickenhead worked OK.
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