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All Locations > Utah > S Central Utah > San Rafael Swell > San Rafael Swel… > Window Blind Pe… > Window Blind Peak - N… (5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b)
This may not be the easiest approach. I drive a commuter car (07 Toyota Camry SE) I had to park on the main road and approach from the west. Mexican Mountain Rd was washed out and impassable. The route we took starts up the main drainage at the base of the west window blind, it becomes extremely hard, extremely steep, and extremely stressful. The hardest part of the whole ordeal was getting to the climb. There are a couple sets of anchors on the approach that I will try to point out. You may need to place gear to get passed the first set of cliff bands. I did not. I free climbed in my approach shoes and then pulled up our backpacks and belayed my partner. Most of this approach is fourth class and some of it is fifth so be prepared to free climb some crack and a lot of slab. Hiking shoes are basically a must. This is not a hike for Chacos.
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First bolt anchor on the approach. To find this, walk up the BOTTOM of drainage till you see two carin, turn in between the carin and head for the shortest section of the cliff band. I put up a small carin on the top of the cliff by the anchor. I free climbed this crack in my approach shoes, placing protection would be an excellent idea. If you don't like the hike from the bottom to the drainage to the cliff band... go home. It does not get any easier.
The hardest part of the entire experience is the approach. If you can't handle hiking about 1400' in 3ish miles... DO NOT do this climb. When I say it was HARD... i mean it was HARD!
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Jeremiah Luke
Sep 4, 2016
“This may not be the easiest approach. I drive a commuter car (07 Toyota Camry SE) I had to park on the main road and approach from the west. Mexican Mountain Rd was washed out and impassable. The route we took starts up the main drainage at the base of the west window blind, it becomes extremely hard, extremely steep, and extremely stressful. The hardest part of the whole ordeal was getting to the climb. There are a couple sets of anchors on the approach that I will try to point out. You may need to place gear to get passed the first set of cliff bands. I did not. I free climbed in my approach shoes and then pulled up our backpacks and belayed my partner. Most of this approach is fourth class and some of it is fifth so be prepared to free climb some crack and a lot of slab. Hiking shoes are basically a must. This is not a hike for Chacos. ”  

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This is the finished product of the climb. The view from the top is absolutely phenomenal. A 360 degree view of the swell from this standpoint. To access the top of the tower, walk west from the top of the climb and around onto the west face, there is a small canyon that will take you to the top, there is some fourth class hiking here, so bring approach shoes. I looked in the carin and couldn't find the summit book... bummer.
When it says that this is an adventure route, that is no joke. The rock on this route is far less than desirable. This is the trad anchor i built at the top of pitch two. I had to use two draws instead of another sling here, because pitch two ate slings like nobody's business. I also wished I had a larger piece of gear for one of the pockets, whatever works, works, right? I used a 70m rope on this route, after getting to the top of pitch two we had about 15 feet leftover.
Beginning of pitch two from the notch at the top of pitch one unrope and walk about ten feet into the notch. Begin pitch two in the most prominent crack on the face. Nut placements were pretty obvious in the middle of this pitch. Micro to hand sized cammalots seemed to work best. The top third of this pitch is the hardest part to protect, because of soft rock and few decent placements. We did pitch two and three as one pitch. The anchor at the top of pitch two are too far out of the way to be effective. So build another trad anchor at the top of the gully with the tat in it. Two slings and a large piece are nice for building this one.
Beginning Pitch one on the north rib of Window Blind Peak. Climb toward the notch on the right, set up first trad anchor. Everything on this climb is hard to protect. Soft rock and loose rock is the hardest part. (We only did two pitches)
Second bolt anchors on the approach. These are not the most useful things in the world on the hike up. On the way down, however, they are key. Once you climb the slab in the middle of the second section of cliffs (carin at the top). There is tat on a bush next to the carin, and the rap anchors are about 15 feet west of that. The rappel is kind of hard, so be ready for your backpack to pull you over.
This is the rappel from the top of the climb, it goes directly through the west window blind of the tower. I packed two 70m ropes the entire way up and used them both to rappel the entire route. However, if I did it again, I would take one single 70M rope and do two rappels. Only for the sake of weight in my backpack. If you use the first set of rap anchors you come to (larger chains, vertical bolt placement) (meaning the anchor is built with one bolt directly above the other, with a chain reaching to the bottom) you will be able to do two rappels with a 70m rope. 60m maybe... don't quote me on it. There is another set of anchors at the top of the climb just west of the rap anchors we used, I have no idea what they are for. They looked less desirable to get to.The second rap anchors look exactly like the first and sit on a good ledge.
First bolt anchor on the approach. To find this, walk up the BOTTOM of drainage till you see two carin, turn in between the carin and head for the shortest section of the cliff band. I put up a small carin on the top of the cliff by the anchor. I free climbed this crack in my approach shoes, placing protection would be an excellent idea. If you don't like the hike from the bottom to the drainage to the cliff band... go home. It does not get any easier.
This may not be the easiest approach. I drive a commuter car (07 Toyota Camry SE) I had to park on the main road and approach from the west. Mexican Mountain Rd was washed out and impassable. The route we took starts up the main drainage at the base of the west window blind, it becomes extremely hard, extremely steep, and extremely stressful. The hardest part of the whole ordeal was getting to the climb. There are a couple sets of anchors on the approach that I will try to point out. You may need to place gear to get passed the first set of cliff bands. I did not. I free climbed in my approach shoes and then pulled up our backpacks and belayed my partner. Most of this approach is fourth class and some of it is fifth so be prepared to free climb some crack and a lot of slab. Hiking shoes are basically a must. This is not a hike for Chacos.
The hardest part of the entire experience is the approach. If you can't handle hiking about 1400' in 3ish miles... DO NOT do this climb. When I say it was HARD... i mean it was HARD!
Tat in the middle of pitch two. I have no idea what is holding this stuff in, needles to say, I did not use it for protection. However brittany did use it as a hold to get up the sandy stemming section of the second pitch.
Brittany fallowing on pitch two. The notch where pitch one ends is directly below.
This is the North approach from the wash. The other North West approach appears to have several cliff bands you have to navigate through. This places you directly below the climb. Correct time is around 11 hours.
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