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!
BETA PHOTO: West face of The Pulpit as viewed from the southwe...
Description
Water Stains zig-zags its way up the middle of the west face of The Pulpit. Mike Hill's description in "Hikers & Climbers Guide to the Sandia Mountains" (1993) is okay. See "Location" for gaining the ledge at the base of the 1st pitch.
Pitch 1: Strike out mostly leftward on a 2nd or 3rd class ramp and then directly up an open book or large alcove. When the climbing eases but not too much later, trend a little right and then up. Set up a gear belay at ~30 meters of rope. I have not yet found an obvious ledge with better than adequate pro for this belay - perhaps next time.
Pitch 2: Climb slightly up while mostly traversing left to a fixed pin. Traverse down/left under the pin through the crux, and then up to a spacious ledge and bolted belay.
Pitch 3: Traverse directly to the right roughly 30 feet to a relatively new bolted anchor at your feet; these bolts are not visible back at the spacious ledge. Continue the pitch up a subtle ramp that trends rightward past a piton via balancy but not difficult face climbing. Some small pro on the ramp. Belay at a mostly live 6" diameter tree to the left.
Pitch 4: Scramble up the last pitch to the top while being careful to not send rocks down the chute that aims them at your belayer. Last ~20 feet are somewhat dirty and loose but managable with care.
Location
See Mike Hill's description. After a bit of 4th class scrambling and a tight squeeze between rock on the left and a live pine tree on the right (~8 inch dia), rack up on the ample horizontal ledge. The live pine on this ledge stands noticeably alone a bit up from the very base of The Pulpit .
Protection
Standard rack plus a few pieces for roughly 3/8 inch cracks.
The Pulpit
RSS Feed
