I climbed this route with Killer Killis and never lacked for conversation:)
1st pitch goes up a right-facing flake with a bolt about 20 feet above the top of the flake. Three bolts in all. 150ft
2nd pitch goes straight up following numerous bolts. Be careful some hollow flakes but you can pick your way safely. 160ft
3rd pitch follow corner to a left-facing corner. 130ft
4th pitch goes straight up to a finger crack. Near the top take the crack on right 30 feet to bolted anchor, will be on your left on the dihedral. 160ft
5th pitch up to a ledge with some large bushes. 150ft
6th pitch fly up easy terrain to the top of summit. 120ft
All anchors are bolted with the exception of the summit. There you'll find a cordelette around a tree with fixed nuts. Rappel using two 55 M ropes.
This climb took us 4 hours to ascend and descend. The approach took us 3 hours in and 3 hours out. The approach is tricky and requires high exposed scrambling. We saw and got very near a herd of Big Horn Sheep which got spooked and scrambled away above us creating an avalanche of rock. BE CAREFUL!
Location
Approach as Black Velvet Canyon taking first dirt road on left to head towards Mud Springs Canyon. Park and head into canyon going for vegetated break in cliff band on right side. Look for cairns to avoid B W 4 (the bushwhack sys.)Go up and right and then back left on ledges then down slabs to top of water fall slabs. From there take the right larger gully up to a point where you can scramble up steep slabs to ledges. Go up and right and then back left to get to base of climb along a ramp. Look for right-facing flake of first pitch. Climb starts off a window-box-like bench. You can scramble down the same way or scramble down right to same large gully you came up before, but further in. You'll encounter large boulder hopping with one requiring a rappel. (fixed sling). There are numerous cairns; thanks to Killis for pointing the way.
Protection
Standard rack up to #3 Camalot with doubles from .5" to 2" Camalots. Small gear required for thin cracks also. We found ballnutz useful.
I think that a couple of details might help out on the approach -- I cairned as heavily as I could while attempting to keep up with Mountain Goat Mike, but with the length of the hike in, every bit of beta you have will make life easier.
When parking, you have the option of the Black Velvet lot or follow the less-traveled high-clearance 2WD road towards the Windy Peak parking -- take a left before you come to the fence that marks the turn towards BV and head towards Mud Springs Canyon (SuperTopo book photos helped us here). We chose the latter. If coming from BV, STAY LOW!. Walk left, following the usual sorta-trail until you hit the entrance to MSC. Using either approach, they merge here, dropping into a wash that avoids the worst scrub oak. Follow the wash, exiting as you pass under attractive varnished cliffs on your right not far from where the canyon opens up. Follow a good, obvious red dirt trail that leads to an obvious break in the soft pink cliffs (Chinle formation). Climb up and follow ramps right, following intermittent cairns to a short boulder problem easiest to pass on the left (vegetation crushed down). Cairns begin in earnest as you cut left under a "turtle head" formation on the main varnished cliff wall (tan-brown rock) and dodge cacti until a large bowl opens up in front of you, necessitating a sharp right turn through a narrow constriction that descends, following closely to the canyon wall on your right. There is an attractive gully system on the left when you reach sets of double cairns on a large flat terrace -- DON'T TAKE IT. Stay in the broad but bushy wash on the right, following cairns for several hundred more yards.
When the canyon narrows to about 20ft wide and the walls look steeper, be on the lookout for a cream-colored right-facing corner on your left side that looks chossy. This is your shortcut -- Mike and I put several large cairns there, and it is a really nice alternative to the 5th class boulder problems just ahead. You'll know that you passed this corner if you hit anything taller than you that looks like a grunt to climb. We rap-descended the "boulder problems" on the way back down, and it was the slowest we moved all day. Better to climb and descend the 4th-class corner -- waay easier than it looks. Once at the top of the corner, head straight right, turn the corner, and look for the climbs just above you.
If going up the boulder problems, machete your way through oak bushes, scrambling quite a bit with the occasional 5th-class move thrown in for good measure. Good luck, hope the cairns help! If you use the wash going in and don't get lost, a sub-3 hour time is entirely possible, but plan on 3-4 hours for your first time out there.
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