Inti Watana 

I highly recommend this route. The approach is a bit long (exact same approach as for Resolution Arete) but the route is worth it. It is a long one, but there is zero commitment involved as the descent is down the way you climb... The route starts in a dark, narrow gully just to the right of the start of Resolution Arete. Do not get discouraged by the first pitch, which is really bad (slippery red rock covered in moss) but not too hard. The second pitch is beautiful and it is the crux of the route: thin finger crack and face moves on very steep gray rock. The rest of the route continues straight up to the top of the buttress, following intermittent cracks and plated faces. The pro is always good and a mix of trad and bolted. All belay anchors are bomber new bolts. The climbing is not too sustained (feels like a lot of 5.9ish stuff to me), but it is of course a long route... The descent is as straightforward as they come: rap straight down to your packs. A great day! Once you've done this, you'll know the apporach already so you'll want to go back up another day for Resolution Arete.

For photos and trip reports for many other classic routes at RR, check out our web site at www.ericandlucie.com.

Kudos to Jorge and Mike for the vision and effort required to put up this route! I thought this route was stellar and would also highly recommend it. We took a rather skeletal rack and this proved a bit scary on the long "S-crack" pitch which has no bolts at all.

The top three pitches have an amazing position as the face steepens. It is possible to see the very base of the climb from the top pitch.

We continued up Res Arete for "full value" and the contrast between the routes hit us like a sledgehammer. Although lower in grade, we were thrashing up wide cracks, through bushes and freaking out at the loose rock, not to mention the death march descent down First Creek racing the setting sun.

As a historical note, when you start the route, look for the ancient bolt off to the left (it's about 10' left and slightly up from the "real" first bolt, and has an aluminum hangar). This bolt was apparently placed by Joe Herbst in the 70's during a retreat from an early attempt on the Aeolian Wall.

I agree with George that this is an amazing route. It felt like the first 7 pitches of Eagle Dance except 60% longer and with a lot more trad and commitment than Eagle Dance. Equal quality of rock and not a single poor quality pitch

The approach is long and a bit complex mainly in ensuring you find the correct gully. But I felt it was not as painful as other approaches (Oak creek canyon for instance). From the "pass" between Mount Wilson and the Pimple head up-hill on faint trails towards the left side of the rotten red buttress in front of you. When you reach the base of that buttress you will find a very well cairned approach to the gully. Resist the urge to go into the first gully you find, cairns show you that you should continue. When you reach the correct gully there are two large cairns at the base.

The climb up the gully has some 3-4th class scrambling that is not too bad but would get your attention on the downclimb. We found some rap slings in one spot.

The climb is not as "sporty" as we were led to believe in many of the descriptions we read. I think we used trad gear in three pitches for sure, maybe four, and a couple of them were 5.9. The S crack pitch is 100% trad and we were happy to use our #3 camalot and could have used a lot more gear. Although it is not as hard as it looks, the thing is pretty darn intimidating...

We linked the "roof pitch" with the next long 5.9 pitch. You need 16-17 draws for this. This combo is really cool and makes for one pumpy "full value" 5.9 lead.

Linking with Resolution Arete felt like the obvious thing to do. How can one come this far and not tag the summit? The descent via First Creek is arguably the worst trashing I have taken in my Red Rocks experience. According to Joanne Urioste, rapping into Oak Creek is a better option. Although my recollection of the Oak Creek thrashing is about as painful as the First creek one.

For gumbies like us it was a race against sunset. We wound up hiking out in the dark for a couple of hours but luckly, by then we were close to the mouth of the canyon. Full grade V (16 hrs car to car) if you ask me.

What an awesome experience!

Enjoy. WT

Rope soloed the first 7 pitch's before getting stormed off. I thought the crux was alot closer to 5.10b. The first half of the route was quite good!! i'll have to go back with a better forecast.

A great, fun route that just keeps pulling you up. Having descended Mt Wilson once thru First Creek Canyon we decided to forego that "pleasure" and rap the route. The rap went very smoothly (only hung the rope up once and it pulled after a bit of tugging). We did not find this climb to be as difficult as we thought it may be. We made it to the base in 90 minutes from Oak creek parking lot. Climbed it leisurely in 10 pitches, linking 9 & 10 and 11 & 12. After 10 double 60 raps (might of been able to link 3 & 2 for 9) we made it down 8 1/2 hours after we started.Grade II or maybe III if you rap. We took 16 draws, a couple extra long slings, a set of nuts and cams to a 3 camalot minus the 2 camalot and were fine. Way too much gear for all but the 'S' crack pitch which ate pro and was memorable.

Pitch 2 was stunning, and reminded me of Urioste's Black Velvet routes.

We did the first four pitches on 13 Nov, having gotten lost above the White Rot gully on the approach -- I wasn't expecting the White Rot gully (which also can involve tunneling under a chockstone) to rejoin the main gully, and didn't know to just keep following the main gully for a while longer. Once we found the monster Ponderosa pine, the rest of the approach was obvious.

There is at least one handy rap station in the White Rot gully; two short raps would make for a pretty easy descent.

There is moss on several pitches (in the middle of the Mojave desert???), but it doesn't interfere with the climbing.

With two 60m ropes, we rapped from the top of pitch two to the ground.

Went back and did the whole route. Very nice! The upper half involved a lot of bolted face climbing, and I think this is what Joanne Urioste had in mind when she said this route has the feel of "a giant sport climb." But there are plenty of trad sections too: our rack was a set of nuts, cams to 3 inches, and 15 runners.

It took us 12 1/2 hours, car-to-car.

Enjoyed the heck out of Inti Wantana. It was like climbing chrimson chrysalis, but with a pitch of prince of darkness on p2, and didn't see anybody all day. dont let the approach scare you off. 'ain't bad.

the urioste supplement is a bit liberal with rope lengths. using my ropes, p5 is 95', p6 is 110'. the s-crack is long. p8 is 105'. rappelling p5 and 6 together is friendly with two 60s (but tie knots in the ends!). p4 and p3 might rappel together on 60m rope stretch, but you might be left hanging a few feet above the anchor. didn't try this one. you could link 3/4 and 5/6 on teh way up with a few yards of simul.

choice beta: take the crux when swinging leads. this lines you up for the only two plush belay ledges. (but consider extending your anchor under the roof, or risk broken head when leader pops a foothold on p10)

on 4/19/06, the first two pitches were in the shade (cold!) at 9:30am (shaded by res arete formation) and the upper pitches went into the shade by 1:00.

I though the crux pitch was far more interesting and challenging than anything on Prince of Darkness. I usually find 5.10 pretty soft at Red Rocks but the crux on this was no gimee and much harder than any other pitch on the route. It was also very cold as it was in the shade and very windy.

I disagree about the previous poster with the approach. We got a little lost because the directions that I have seen everywhere are unnecessarily confusing. Even knowing the way now it is still very tiring with alot of loose stuff and alot of 4th class which tends to beat you up with a full pack. Plus there is no way I would want to do that descent in the dark, very good way to get hurt or worse. If you climb long routes at Red Rocks on a regular basis maybe it isn't so bad, but I would much rather do that horrible approach to Levitation than this one, although this one is a little shorter. I still can't see doing it in much less than 2 hours unless you are sprinting.

Great route and easy to rap with no real place to hangup a rope. We actually rapped the final 7 pitches in less than 45 minutes. After the first pitch(not fun) the rest of the route is great.

Using a 70m rope you can link 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, 8&9, and 10&11. If you want to do this (not hard at all) bring 20 draws. We topped out via. Res. Arete, and then rappel Dogma (17 total). This is a VERY bad idea. Res. was fine, but walk off. It's a lot faster.

Hello All,

I'd like to combine this route with the Resolution Arete.
Can anyone tell me how you transition from Inti Watana to the RA?
How do you make the transition, and which pitch do you end up on after finishing IW?

Thanks for any info,
kyle

Kyle, the final anchor on Inti is just below the end of pitch 14 on RA as shown on my topo
I should probably add this info on my topo regarding where Inti comes in.

Just do a short scrambling pitch to reach the start of RA pitch 15. Or, I remember continuing and doing most of pitch 15, belaying where it says "Walk left 15m" on my topo.

Thanks for the info, George.
The topo is great!

kyle

Possibly the best moderate long route in the park. Totally awesome climbing and exposure. Thanks for putting it up gang!

I wouldn't finish up the res. Do the res before this route cuz ytou might not want to do it after doing this one. Then you'd be sad.

This is a fantastic route. Thanks to the FA's for the work it took to put this thing together for the rest of us to enjoy!!!

For it's grade as good as any of the Red Rocks classics. The 5.10 version of crimson, levitation or dark shadows. We climbed it on 10/28 and after much piecing together of beta here's my 2 cents.

Approach/Descent-Check out www.ericandlucie.com there's a great overview picture and description of the approach. I would do this approach rather than the one to Levitation any day. The hike to the Wilson Pimple is flat and once you start up it's shorter with way less exposure. The traverse to the left is easy to find and there are maybe two or three 4th class bits in the White Rot gully and that's it, no more peril. You cross over into the main gully AFTER going under and then back on top of a HUGE chockstone.

KEY BETA!!! On the descent CONTINUE DOWN the main gully DON'T go back into the White Rot gully. The main gully is a MUCH better/casual descent more of the same boulder hoping. We made one short 50' repel (could be downclimded) just below the point where you come over from the White Rot gully on the approach and another (130') at the very obvious end of the gully. Both from easily accessed good trees.

The 1st pitch is now very clean and great, in no way did it detract from the route.

We took 15 draws and a single BD rack .3 thru #3 with a green and red C3 and every other nut. Neither of us are particularly bold or great climbers (inti went in good style, levitation 29 we "got up")and we both thought this to be perfect as several pitches including the S pitch are long and need gear and pitch 10 needs 13 draws.

My partner payed very close attention and here's the low down on what can be rapped together with 60m ropes no shenanigans or downcliming.

12 and 11
10 and 9
6 and 5
4 and 3
2 and 1

Maybe bring a wrench, some of the new nuts could use a turn or two.

A must do!!! Enjoy.

Got back on this route sunday 11/11 after only getting through pitch 7 last year since we got lost on the approach which took us 4 hours last time, YIKES! It probably was also slower last year since we did the climb right after doing Epi.

Anyway this year while the approach was no walk in the park it took us 2 hours and there was no getting lost. There were 4 of us so we climb in twos with a single 70M each. I wound up linking the first two pitches for a great, long 200 foot pitch with the best climbing at the very end. I also agree that the first pitch is cleaning up a bit. While it will never be anywhere near the highlight of the route it is now much cleaning and more enjoyable. We climbed everything else as single pitch until were reached the roof/bulge at the start of pitch 9, where we linked 9/10 and then 11/12. If linking 9/10 you may want to use slings instead of draws in a few spots to cut down on the drag a bit. The 11/12 linkup was alot of fun on steep rock, but I'm not sure where the 10c was as the last pitch is much easier than the pitch 2 crux. Either way a great route where the climbing goes incredibly fast after pitch 2. We did the route in 6 hours. It took 4 of us about 1 1/2 hours to rap the route.

It was allot of fun to have 4 of us up on the wall at the same time and only took us a little longer with the rapping.

Anyone who can lead hard 5.10 on bolts and is competent with gear should have a blast on this one.

Looking for the next challenge on Mt. Wilson. Has anyone out there done either Dogma or Woman of Mountain Dreams?

You really don't need all that much gear. The the harder pitches are all bolted. Many say that you need large cams for the S Crack pitch, but there is plenty other gear. We went light and had not problems. Single set of cams up the #1 Camalot(red) and a single set of wires should be more than enough. Even if this is pushing you limit the majority of gear pitches are not very hard and there really isn't any required gear for a particular spot. If you are solid at the grade then this an excellent climb to go light and fast on.

OK. First off the route is not as good as many claim, in my opinion. It is very contrived in places, poorly bolted, anesthetically in the middle of a random wall, and just plain seems not worth the trouble.

The guidebook I have (Roxanna Brock's) gives first ascent credit to 5 different people. I think that the widely varying bolting skills, ethics, and overall visions of such a large group ruined what could have been a much better route. You find runouts between bolts on challenging terrain, but on easier sections, you can literally back-clean your draws if you want. Some pitches have bolts next to great, and obvious gear placements, while others have hardly any bolts at all. It seems like the first ascentionists couldn't decide if they were making a sport climb, or a trad climb...now I do understand the whole mixed style of many long Red Rocks routes, but this one seemed very inconsistent, confusing and really distracting. I found myself wondering what in the heck the FAs were thinking instead of enjoying the exposure and movement of the route.

Anyway, here's some facts from our ascent:

We did the route on 3/23/08. Total approach from the car to the base took us 1hr 50min. My partner and I are both reasonably fit, but I am much stronger on 3/4th class terrain. I eventually had to carry her backpack on all the steeper sections of the gully. I'm not saying this to brag, but to provide an example. Even while carrying two backpacks in 30% of the gully, I made it to the base w/in 2 hours. VERY possible.

Approach instructions: Follow the most traveled jeep road from parking area to where the road turns right and heads past Wilson's Pimple. From here, look for the best looking gully, remember which one it is, then head towards it, erring to the right. You should see cairns once you get close to the cliffs. Head up the narrow, leftmost gully (the one that looked the best from afar...) follow cairns, tunnel under a giant chockstone, and follow more cairns. You'll eventually hit a gigantic Ponderosa, head directly up a cleaner gully above the tree, tunnel through another chockstone (one it's left side) and then look on the right wall for bolts.

We got to the base at 9:20am and were a bit cold in the shade. We didn't hit any sun until the 4th pitch, but stayed in the sun until the 7th pitch or so...by then it was definitely warm enough to climb in the shade.

You can link pitches 1&2, 8&9, and 11&12 (we had a 65m rope.) I bet you could link others, but that's what we did.

When rapping we followed "cdec's" info from above which is as follows:

"My partner payed very close attention and here's the low down on what can be rapped together with 60m ropes no shenanigans or downclimbing.


12 and 11
10 and 9
6 and 5
4 and 3
2 and 1"

I can say that 4&3 were VERY close. I had to reach down to clip my sling into the anchor so that I wouldn't rap off the end. Our rap line we brought was an 8.6mm 60m. We could have gotten another 12in or so if we had tied the rappel joining knot closer to the ends, but our tag line had a small core shot that we wanted above the knot.

We descended in the dark, which was not too bad. all in all the gully is pretty straight forward, but kinda technical in spots. You can easily pass bags to one another if needed on steeper sections. We opted to rappel the steepest section that is near the mouth of the gully. I did a Dulfersitz, which worked great, and my partner used a harness and rap device.

If it's dark, just spy Wilson's Pimple, silhouetted against the sky and head directly for it. You will hit the road eventually. Take it right, back to your car.

We took 1 each blue alien through red alien, 1 each #.5 Camelot through #3 Camelot, 6 nuts, and 18 quickdraws for linking pitches. I would suggest leaving the #3 and even the #2 behind. You can get good smaller gear on the S Crack pitch no prob.

All in all a poorly engineered route, on a ho-hum buttress, but the view of the Horseshoe wall from the top can't be beat.