Welcome to the New Mexico section of Mountain Project!
The contributions that are made to this site are greatly appreciated; this site is made up of an awesome community of users that make the site what it is.
Although there is very little information regarding “rules” for submitting climbing areas and routes to this site, the New Mexico Administers all agree that the following guidelines may be helpful to truly make this site go “Beyond the Guidebook”.
1) Don’t be a jerk (this one states the obvious). 2) Route and area submissions should truly be helpful to those out climbing. Before posting, you should have some first hand experience actually climbing the route. This always results in a much more useful description. 3) Please, please, please… Don’t copy route descriptions directly out of guidebooks, online publications, etc. This is plagiarism! Remember, BEYOND the guidebook! 4) Please use the spell check and make an effort to use correct grammar.
Again, the Mountainproject community truly appreciates the efforts taken to make good route descriptions. If you feel that a route or area description is not up to standard, a brief email to one of the area admins for suggestions on improvement will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for taking the time to make the New Mexico section of Mountain Project quality! We look forward to seeing you out there!
Mike Anderson on-sighting the ultra-classic Cochit...
Description
This is regarded by many as the best route at Cochiti Mesa. Slightly overhanging, with excellent rock, and deep, positive pockets, its hard to argue with that assessment. Due to the overhanging nature, this line is much more pumpy than most Cochiti routes, and the ability to quickly identify the best sequence is critical.
There are two ways to climb this route, which accounts for the split grade. However, the various area guidebooks disagree on which way is harder. The route begins by climbing the Dreamscape dihedral, and then traversing right to the arete at either the first or second bolt of Shadowdancer. The original Matt Samet guide stated that the lower traverse was more difficult, yet the error-ridden Falcon Guide claims the higher traverse is the more difficult variation.
Location
Shadowdancer is the next arete/prow to the right of The Prow. However, the route actually begins in the dihedral crack (a route called Dreamscape) immediately to the left of the arete. Climb up Dreamscape until level with either the first or second bolt, and traverse right.
Protection
Bolts. Bring either a stick clip or gear for the first section of Dreamscape.
I'm curious what others have to say, but I've done this route a couple of times, and I never noticed any manufactured holds. The chipped holds I've noticed at Cochiti are all really obvious (new Age Nightmare, Olympian Wall rtes). If any of the holds on this are chipped, the chipper did an excellent job of disguising their work.
I agree that many of the pockets at Cochiti seem "too good to be true". However, a lot of the easier routes here also have these "too good to be true" pockets. I think its doubtful somebody would put in the effort to chip and artfully disguise their handywork on a 2 star 5.10. So if the easier routes have these unbelievable-but-probably-natural-holds, why can't some of the hard routes have them too?
Definitely awesome face and arete moves on cool rock! Dreamscape is a cool crack line, too, with a brief and bouldery start...An even better (maybe the best) finger crack for the area is Let It Bleed, which is a tad harder and more sustained. I don't even know if it is at all accessible anymore. It was sketchy when I did it 12 years ago. Oh yeah...Fainting Imam is hard and trad and good too!
South Cliffband
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