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!
Description
Start in the center of the gray face. Start up the center of the face (5.9) to reach a crack system (look for a small cam placement about 10' up. Soon you'll reach a right arching crack- follow this up and right to 2 pitons (optional hanging belay at the pitons, or before starting the diagonal crack). A 5.10+ move or two with dishes and poor handholds leads to a slot large enough for a fist size cam. From here, about 15' of unprotected 5.10 face allows you to reach the next place for pro (both guides say there is a bolt here- but we didn't see one- don't count on it being there). The climb eases and you'll soon reach a right-leaning ledge; follow this for 15', then climb unprotected 5.9 face to a 2-bolt anchor.
Rappel the route with 2 ropes. Anchors at top of Irish Creme are about 120' to a ledge. It is possible to descend using a single 60m rope by easy down-climbing in a wide chimney.
Fun exciting climbing with just enough need to climb above gear to get your attention. Quality.
Location
This climb is about 80' left of Black Velvet on a smooth gray face set back a little. It's just left of a broken left facing corner left of Lowenbrau Light. Look for a right arching crack- this feature is 1/3 of the way up the climb.
Protection
1 to 2 sets cams (with doubles in the hand sizes), 1 set nuts. A 2 bolt anchor is at the top.
The FA was by Karl Kiser and Matt Monagle in the early 1980s (probably 82). We did the entire pitch from the ground although one could belay at the start of the right traversing crack to reduce rope drag.
Southern Comfort Wall
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