WOW! This is one of the best routes in Red Rock canyon. With varied climbing on very good rock this route mixes in some of the best Red Rock has to offer. A must do.
Pitch 1: Begin by heading up slabby face holds. Look for a line of holds leading right to the obvious flake. The traverse right to the flake is 5.9 and has no protection. Once you gain the flake good gear is had. Follow the system of flakes up and right. After a wider section of the flake traverse directly right on a finger/hand rail(top of a flake). This is the crux. Continue up and left to the fixed anchor. 5.10a, 135ft.
Pitch 2: Climb left off the belay to a fixed(and pretty good) Knifeblade. Climb past this and into the left facing corner with a stem box on the left forming a channel. Continue up this channel, where you will encounter the crux. Follow the crack system up until you reach the fixed anchor. 5.10a/b, 125ft.
Pitch 3: Climb up the left facing corner above. Liebacking and jamming will see you through. The rock on this pitch is incredible and the climbing is 5 stars. Belay at the fixed anchor on a sloping ledge. 5.10a, 100ft.
Pitch 4: Climb up and right into the corner. Climb the corner until you can step left to a perfect finger crack on the steep varnished wall. Do not step over to early it will be obvious. Climb the finger crack in perfect varnished rock. At the top of the finger crack abit of face climbing will lead you up then back right into the corner and 2 drilled angles. Alternately you can continue up the corner. Supposedly this is a bit easier, however there is a big white block you must climb around that is suspect. Another 5 star pitch. 5.10b, 100ft.
Pitch 5: The Offwidth. Continue climbing the left facing corner that has now become wide. Climb several crux's including a thin one guarding the belay. Stop at the fixed anchor. This is the end of the route. 5.10d, 100ft.
Descent: Rappel the route with 2 ropes, 1, 70M will not work.
Location
This is the obvious left facing corner capped with an arching roof. The route starts at the low point of the wall.
Protection
Set and a half of nuts, small and medium nuts are key. 1 Set from Green Alien to #6 Camalot. If you want to sew up the OW bring extra big gear.
Every pitch is stellar on this one. However I realise that alot of folks out there don't like/ are scared of Offwidth's. However if you skip the last pitch you haven't really climbed the route have you? So! I suggest that anyone climbing only the first 4 pitchs(which are Awesome, did I say that yet?) has climbed a variation to the route.
This variation has a name....Adventure yuppies.
Plus they will miss one more great pitch. The blue collar pitch!
Josh, I agree, this route is superb. I can't believe it's been overlooked for so long. Rare for Red Rock, this is a crack climbing route with five sustained pitches, and a blue collar finish that'll tell the men from the boys!
this route has several good stories with it, esp considering how few ascents it has seen over the years. here's one from recent years:
a couple of guides were climbing this route a few years ago. the day went swimmingly until their arrival at the base of the wide pitch. apparently the leader didn't know how to wiggle up chimneys, so instead she went out on the face to try unprotected .11ish slabbin'. her fall ended with a badly broken leg (femur, i think?) and a helicopter ride out of pine creek.
as a testament to how rarely this route gets done, their bail gear was still in situ 2-3 years later. this is a shame b/c this route is quite good and deserves more traffic.
finally, a note about the 'offwidth.' don't let it scare you off. like pretty much every rr route, it doesn't really require crack skills. its wide enough with plenty of face holds to allow a couple wiggle moves and its over. no worries; it would be more like 5.8 a lot of places. and if they haven't been removed yet, there are a couple of bolts on the pitch mistakenly added by a party who thought they were making an fa a few years ago.
beny, I agree with you to a point concerning the last pitch. However I did use multiple Chicken wings, a couple of arm bars, one stack(which isn't the only move there), mixed with alittle squeeze chimneying. But due to some key foot holds stemming keeps the grade around 5.10+....in true Red Rock form!
simply amazing route- probably the best 5.10 route i've done in RR- outstanding.
the only big question for me is the empty bolt holes next to every belay and the total mank (except the last two belays) that comprise the anchors. luckily they can all be backed up, but its obvious that someone was going to replace the bad bolts with good ones on this route at some point. regardless, if you're going up this thing, bring some tat- two or three belays could use replacement webbing.
despite all that, this route is an absolute classic. exceptional and varied on spectacular rock and very remote!
one thing- i'd bring two big cams (#6's) and one #5 (c4) to augment the single rack suggested. this will allow the leader to be very well protected on the cruxy last pitch...
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