Solar Slab 

I've not done the downclimb either, I have heard of several epics. I like Swain's comment on the downclimb "The descent can be done unroped, if you can solo down 5.6." Heck if you can down solo 5.6, you don't need a rope for the route either!

If you have climbed Black Orpheus, you can descend the same way as for that climb. Even if you have not, you can, but it is trickier to find. Basically you head up and west to the red rock, around a corner to where you can see the Rainbow Buttress. Then two 50m or 3 25m raps will get you the the base of the Painted Bowl, where a long downclimb puts you in the drainage for a long exercise in boulder hopping.

The first two pitches of Solar Slab are weird and runout. On p. 1, the runout before the crack is huge, and it's easy to get into terrain harder than 5.6. On p. 2, there are also some runouts and it is a bit confusing. I was thinking of going up an unprotected arete on the left but a better route is the lieback crack on the right.

Great route, particularly if accessed from Beluah's Book. You can hit the summit and then scramble over to teh finish of the solar Slab gully and scramble down that. A little shrubby, but more like 5.3 than 5.6, if memory serves me.

I'm not even gonna start a discussion about our car-to-car time on this... (snicker) ...but I will say that it's a nice cruiser line and an advanced party can still have fun simul-climbing it.

The descent for Black Orpheus (another awesome climb) is almost certainly the way to go for getting off the top of Solar Slab. The long gully descent (basically heading the opposite way from the Black Orpheus descent) is brutally long and dirty. And once you fight through all of that, you still have to rappel/downclimb the Solar Slab Gully itself. Avoid this descent at all costs!

If you compare George Bell's modern photo of Warren Teissier leading pitch 1 with the old photo of Joe Herbst leading, you'll see that the FA took a different line, farther right. The black roof by Joe's feet can be seen towards upper right of the Warren Teissier photo. That original first pitch, also about 5.6, seemed among the route's best.

P1:At the start we headed up slightly right of the crack, and headed for some slings that are below and right of the crack. Not quite as runout and there is some good gear before the slings (not as bad as it looks). Move left under the crack, then up. P3: Head up just left of the belay to some gear (can't see it from the belay), then scoot right to get into the crack. If you head up right of the belay, there is no gear until the crack. P4 is the crux.

After topping out on Johnny Vegas we found a ton of people in line for solar slab. We decided to climb a route left of solar slab called "Going Nuts 5.6." This route avoids the runnout slab of solar slab but keeps it at the same grade. P1 climb two dark steep cracks beneath the middle of the large arch. The cracks eventually separate and the crack on the right is the one you want. Once this crack ends climb left and belay using nuts and small cams in between the many plates. P2 Climb the plates up and left to avoide the arch until you reach a large bushy ledge. A quick scramble right on the ledge will put you at the bottom of P3 for the remainder of solar slab. The best part about this route is when everyone gives you the "get in line buddy" glance for solar slab and you walk right passed them and climb this excellent variation. Check the supertopo for a more detailed description. Chris M.

This is a great route, but not to be underestimated by those who are just entering the realm of multipitch routes. At well over 1000' from the start of the route proper, plus 500' of technical climbing to get to it, this is a big day for most parties.

A couple of side notes for quick parties and/or those interested:There is a fairly easy single rope descent off of Solar Slab as per Black Orpheus that does not involve going clear up to a gully as per Supertopo. As noted by George Bell, the best way down is to start the double rope raps for Black Orpheus- do the first one (35') and the second (60'), but on the second, traverse to the climbers left to a large, sloping ledge. From here, pull the rope and walk along the edge to an old, but good rap station (historical Titon here if you want to see what one looks like). Make this rappel and one more off of a tree to get back down to the Painted Bowls. From here, head for the IBM boulder, and then follow the cairns to the deck.

I did the route today and my descent time was a little over 2hrs from the summit to the car (which was on 159). This of course, assumes the parties know the way. With route finding, expect about 3hrs down. It's a beautiful walk for those who haven't done it and I highly recommend it, especially if Solar Slab is choked with parties.

Oh, and even though it's almost June, Oak Creek is still running strong up above the fork!

My partner (Jay) and I climbed this on 9/30/2005, and we are both climbers stuck in Indiana, so take that for what it is worth. I have climbed quite a bit in Colorado (Petit Grepons, Culp Bossier, etc), and I consider Solar Slab to be a near-classic, just below the quality of other routes that I have climbed. For the record, we started mega-early, and parked at the old Oak Creek Campground. The approach (in the dark) from there was not obvious. I led the first pitch of the gully...we then essentially soloed the rest of the gully, save for the last 70' or so. The first pitch was mine...it started out very low angle, and the runout quality of it was not at all an issue. The second pitch Jay led, and it was a bit weird (to steal a few words from George Bell), but not at all bad. I had intended to link both pitch 3 and 4, but thought better of it, because pitch 4 gets a bit burly and thin (but never too insecure). Jay led the stellar crack on pitch 5 for about 190', where he set up a belay. I led pitch 6 up another 120' to bolts. All the belays were bolted, save for our pitch 5. The bolts at the end of pitch 6 were the first rappell bolts, and (for a few reasons), we decided to descend from there. Out rope got stuck on the first rappell, so I spent about an hour climbing up a 5.6-5.7 crack to free it, then I downclimbed. Thes rest of the descent was uneventful.

So, my advice is to 1. Start early. 2. Climb efficiently (ie try to simulclimb the gully). 3. Don't worry about the runout on the first pitch...it is very low angle and not at all that bad. 4. Routefinding on the ascent, and the rap route are both fairly straightforward. 5. Bring lots of water with you, and stash some at the terrace above the gully, as well as at the base of the gully.

For those looking for a bit more adventure, try going for the summit of Rainbow Mountain from Solar Slab!

From the top of Solar Slab, head north toward the red pillars. Eventually, you'll go under the little 'arch' for the single line descent off of Black Orpheus. Instead of turning left here, go straight.

One...interesting pitch leads to a nice ledge. From here, heading up and right and then following a nice ledge system to the right of an obvious crack leads to 3rd class terrain and eventually the summit.

Count on a HUGE walk-off with interesting route-finding issues (stay mostly south when in doubt), but it is an unforgettable experience that every Red Rock climber should have!

12/27/05 Beulah's book to solar slab and the walk off truck to truck 8.5 hours. walk off took 2.5 hours. done in 7 pitches. 3 for beulah's and 4 for solar slab w/simu-climbing.
walk off aint too bad. after last pitch just keep going straight up into purple and red stone approx. 500-600 feet. Locate a small landing w/fire ring and head due west or up canyon from there. it's about as high you can go and still walk along side the main wall at top. follow side walk slab that turns into a trough that turns into a large flake/chimney feature. easy scramble/down climb down this feature for approx. 600 feet will land you on a large ledge. walk across ledge to the end and scramble down to the top of a flared chimney. This is probably the crux of the walk off. Down climb chimney 20 feet (maybe 5.4). Follow trail thru bushes to last down climb section. down climb another 60 feet and your at the top of painted bowl slab.from here the IBM boulder can be spotted easily. From boulder the easiest way to creek bed is to head west or up canyon traversing across ledges to creek bed.now your just a lovely bush whack away down the creek bed to your packs. MIght sound a bit involved but I just hate multiple rappels.

By scurrying up the Solar Slab Gully and swinging leads on Solar Slab with combined pitches, we were able to complete climb from ground to ground in 4 hours and 45 minutes. We only took one rope, which sufficed, as we rapped the steep, narrow upper gully on the climber's right. A bit of easy climbing and 3rd classing to get there. Eight single rope rappels from big chock-stones, with short, intermittent down-climbing to reach the terrace. Then a few more raps down the Solar Slab Gully.

Note:As of 2/18/06, Solar Slab has water trickling down climbing path and the upper,steep gully has snow and ice for about half the way down, so if planning on rapping the upper gully anytime soon, be careful. The winds were brutal when we were on the upper pitches and blew me over twice while hiking up the low angle slabs higher up. Due to the high wind gusts, we had to literally crawl on our hands and knees (How humiliating!) as we 3rd classed our way over to the gully.The steep, narrow gully on climber's right provided great wind escape though.
It was snowing on our hike out.

For those who wish to descend Solar Slab via the Gullies climber's right of the route, the first gully -- the West Descent Gully -- is significantly easier and safer than the right gully -- the East Descent Gully. However, you should expect to leave cordellette or sling material as people don't often change out the anchors in either of these gullies very often.

It should be noted that the drawing in the Brock guide takes one to the East Gully. Ignore this and use the West Gully.

Jason

In my opinion, both of the gullies right of Solar Slab should be avoided- there is absolutely no reason to use them as they are not quicker, safer, or easily accessed from any of the SS routes compared to the Black Orpheus descent or the SS rappels.

The best option, in my opinion, is to do the BO double rope descent with a single line- details for this are on the Black Orpheus route page courtesy of George Bell. This descent takes about 60-90 minutes (to the base of SS) and is one of the more beautiful descents you can do in Red Rock.

I think that the canyon to the climbers right can't be missed! It is one cool little canyon. I on-sight soloed the route in 04/03 in 47 minutes bottom (ground not ledge) to top (summit) It is a wonderful route with very classic climbing and the descent was amazing. I downclimbed the whole descent (onsight) with nothing harder the 5.5 or so. Then down to the ledge and down climb the gully route for a time of 1 hour 47 minutes ground to ground and 3 hours and 22 minutes car to car (parked on the highway not the loop) and I smoke so I really suck at the running thing. HA! Great day it is amazing how such a crappy day can end so well.
Kurt

Definitely a classic and one of the high points of my first trip to Red Rock! Doing Johnny Vegas and Solar Slab was a really full day; we were on the rock around 7 a.m., started SS about 10 and were back on the ground close to 7 p.m. This was a good reality check for my partner, who had been planning to lead Epinephrine, which now seems like an Everest expedition in comparison. It was our longest sustained multi-pitch climb ever.

The climbing was great and exposed and had its challenges despite the 5.6 grade. P2 was the only place I felt any stress on lead; my partner found P3 and P4 (which he linked) to be a little tricky. P5 and P6 were probably my favorite lead; we linked these by simulclimbing for maybe 20' or so, which I think is a good option to keep things flowing.

The rap on SS went off without a hitch, but our ropes got snagged twice rapping Johnny Vegas, so be aware.

JL

We climbed the route in 5 pitches using a 70M rope, including the final pitch. Basically stretch the first pitch to the second anchor, above the left angling chimney sort of thing. Then just keep stretching the rope from there. We didn't simul-climb at all doing it this way, but it still kept us moving pretty fast.

Also, thanks to Jason and Ting Ting (if you ever see this! - sorry for the spelling of your name Ting Ting), for sharing their rope to simul-rap. We only brought our one rope and didn't have the luxury of reading the Mountain Proj beta on the descent, so this was a really nice gesture. On that note, it seems like we could have possibly rappelled the route proper with our one single 70M. Has anyone ever done this?

I checked yesterday whether you could rappel with a single 70m- and the answer is.....not really. Someone chopped the upper handcrack anchor down to a single bolt (as it should be) and removed the tat off the boulder above- minus those two things, you cannot rap with a single 70m. From the base of the handcrack, a single 70m will get you down, but you'll have to leave some tat partway down 2 to get to 1 (maybe), and then you'll have to downclimb the easy slab at the base.

I just wanted to extend a BIG THANK YOU to whoever took some major time out of their day and reslung every rap station on Solar Slab in addition to maintaining the single rope descent and cairning out the descent down oak creek (discreetly, i might add)- the general condition of the trail and climb has been greatly improved. Thanks!

I'm unclear. can I rap solar slab and solar slab gully with my meter 70m rope or not?

you cannot rappel solar slab with a single 70m.