Location. From I.70 entrance drive 1.8 miles to pull off on right a few yards north of a prominent wash that crosses the road.The chocolate stripped peak is easily visible from here. Follow the wash until the slot canyon below DBC is reached. Enter the slot canyon on its left side. After two scrambling sections the canyon flattens and leads to the foot of the large chocolate slab. A double anchor is located about 70' up the slab,reached by easy scramble on the right. About 35 mins walk from pull off. P1)From the double anchors head up towards the white rock on the edge. Continue to double anchors. 2 pro bolts.190'.5.7+R P2).Continue up the junction of the chocolate and white rock to anchors on a large ledge.3 pro bolts 2 cams. 180'. 5.7+R .RAP from the anchors 80'down to the right of the ledge to reach anchors at the start of P3. P3).Climb diagonally up right passing a hollow flake(new pro bolt above flake) to another pro bolt and then up right to anchors . 100' 5.9-R. P4)Easy slab up into the great red trough to some large boulders.200'5.0 P5)Straight up the big scoop to visible anchors above two small bushes. 200' 5.3. P6)Follow the excellent chocolate rock band via a flake, the first bolt is at 30'. To anchors . 2 pro bolts. 200' 5.6R. P7)Another nice pitch up the chocolate band to anchors . 2 pro bolts . 200' 5.6R. P8)Straight up easy slab to anchors . 1 pro bolt . 200' 5.3R. P9 . More easy slab to Summit anchors. 200' 5.2R.. Scramble up left to small cairn and register....... Descent. One can rap to the top of pitch 3 then a 200' rap into the descent canyon. OR 4th class slabs to the south .A little difficult to find. Description as follows:-Walk south from the finish of the climb down a ridge then couple of boulder moves up a red step,continue until passed a step across a gap then start descending slabs and shallow grooves.Start trending left(N)to a large clean slab with two long grooved cracks . Slide these continue down through bushes,then move left by a prominent flake .From here leftwards down many slabs and groove scrambles to the start to the start slot canyon.About one hour.
Protection
Friends One of each .5 to 21/2 A few quick draws, slings . Two 9mm x 200' ropes
Excellent job by Paul & Layne on this. It's fun, mostly easy, runout, and fairly adventurous... and what views! Wowza, purty dang fun! DBC seems to be the best looking and most prominent line of all the Reef climbs. If approaching from the East on I-70, you can see DBC before you even get to Green River.
The hike in is cool with some short narrows in the bottom of the approach canyon. After recent rains you may even have a couple of wades here though the pools should only be waste deep max. The route has been bolted well. Even though you may only encounter 1 bolt per pitch (or none), most of the climbing is pretty moderate. Natural pro is rare so the runout nature will keep your attention. Doing the 100'+ runouts on 5.6 or so keeps things interesting during your cardio workout on the slabs.
Please, do not add any more bolts on this climb. At the time of this writing all the belay/rap stations are nice double bolt anchors placed in the best solid rock available. Most anchors are right at 200'. Note that the webbing on these will need to be replaced soon as they are already aging.... bring extra and remove the old stuff. It doesn't take long out there in the desert for webbing to fry. So, no hammer or drill necessary on DBC.
For pro, there aint much. I placed a 1.5 & 2 Tricam and #1 Camalot in the flake about 15' below the crux on pitch 3. The Tricams seemed more bomber than a cam in this flake with the rock quality. Still, if you blew the crux moves, whether or not those pieces would hold is a bit questionable. (When we were there the rock was still a little moist from recent heavy rains.) If they did fail, you will be going past and onto the belay anchors. Kind of exciting as this is the steepest part of the whole climb. To me the crux moves felt like 5.9 and pretty "R"ish. Although following, Kat walked it making it look more like 5.8. Maybe it just felt harder on lead with the potential consequences... The only other piece of pro placed on this was a #2 Camalot on pitch 5.
From the looks of the summit register this was the 4th ascent of DBC (10/23/04). Pauls route description is a good one... Enjoy!
Rappel webbing appeared in fine shape as of March 15th. Approach was dry. Paul's description, and rack suggestions seemed about perfect (ratings seem pretty subjective on these slabs, except the final pitches are lower angled). Pitch 6 was my favorite. Worth scrambling to the higher west summit for the best lunch spot. The climbing is swell, and the views are as well.
By John J. Glime From: Salt Lake City, UT Oct 23, 2005
Fantastic line. The rock on the first two pitches and on the fifth pitch is pretty sketchy... I kept thinking that the route name was given because if you stay on the chocolate rock "death" awaits. Either way, it is a great day out... thanks Paul and Layne. For the record, we were forced to wade through two waist deep potholes on the approach. But it adds to the ambiance... enjoy.
Eastern Reef Slabs
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