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Rabbit Ears Slabs
New Mexico
> Las Cruces Area…
> Organ Mountains
> Rabbit Ears Area
Access Issue: Power drilling is prohibited in the Organ Mountains Wilderness.
Details
Description
Another one of the "easily accessible" walls, this wall offers a smattering of decent routes on 1-3 pitch slabby terrain. It's north-west aspect means that there is a chance that it is in the shade longer, and may provide cooler summer climbing.
The bottom is broken up into two-main slab sections, bordered by prominent gullys. After about 200 meters, the cliffs become more broken-up and eventually become 3rd-4th class scrambling up the flank of the Rabbit Ears Massive.
Getting There
Approach from the Topp Hut rd. Take the trail into Rabbit Ear canyon. The Rabbit Ear Slabs are the first series of large slabs on the right, directly across from Lambda and before The Citadel. A short but thorny bushwhack takes you to the base of the slabs.
[Hide Photo] Rabbit Ears Slabs as seen from approach.
[Hide Photo] Starting up the path from the gully / wash.
[Hide Photo] View of the slabs from the bottom of the canyon.
[Hide Photo] Topo showing basic lines on Rabbit Ears Slab. Charlie Cundiff put in the dashed lines, I added the blue lines. Neither of us knew the names for most of these lines.
[Hide Comment] I had originally posted this area as "Barb's Buttress". I think Charlie Cundiff may have called it that and the name stuck in my head. Barb was the wife of one of the old-timer Organ mtn climbers and I thought the formation was named for her because she was often taken to this area. Ingraham's guide describes these slabs in his section on the Rabbit Ears Massif as a good area to train your alpine skills, as it has a forgiving approach (at least by Organ mts standards)
I haven't found any concrete information on these climbs yet, or had the chance to question some of the more experienced locals about this crag, and am posting some routes here without full knowledge of established route-names and ratings (I am simply dubbing the routes for now). Please correct me if you know more about the routes in this area.
Jan 30, 2008
[Hide Comment] The area downhill from the Citadel Gully to the walk off descent of Bucky Blue is generally known as the Rabbit Ears Slabs. Your reference to Barb relates to her love of this climb not the name of the formation. There are about six climbs in the area absent any new climbs.
Mar 14, 2008
[Hide Comment] Thanks for the clarification Karl. I still think Barb's Buttress has a better ring to it than Rabbit Ears Slabs. Do you have any information on the routes here? I'd love to hear it.
Mar 14, 2008
[Hide Comment] This wall stayed in the shade until ~10am (Late May). It remained cool until around noon, at which point it was baking hot and not as fun.
May 30, 2010
[Hide Comment] I couldn't help but notice a bunch of new bolted routes on the far left side of the Rabbit Ears Slabs today. I top-roped the leftmost of these and had a great time on the upper thin slab section. It's tempting to post beta on unknown sport routes such as these (e.g. mountainproject.com/route/1…), but I'd rather give credit where it's due for putting up good routes. Please message me if you are the route developer.
Jul 7, 2019
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Clinton, TN
I haven't found any concrete information on these climbs yet, or had the chance to question some of the more experienced locals about this crag, and am posting some routes here without full knowledge of established route-names and ratings (I am simply dubbing the routes for now). Please correct me if you know more about the routes in this area. Jan 30, 2008
Clinton, TN
Clinton, TN
Las Cruces, NM