To do the North descent from Mescalito summit, follow the south descent cairns to the rap gulley. A quick 4th class move over the gulley, and you can head north a short bit of walking and meet the cairned North descent trail.

All Locations > Nevada > Southern Nevada > Red Rocks > Pine Creek Canyon > Mescalito > Dark Shadows Wall > Dark Shadows (Full) (5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c)

To do the North descent from Mescalito summit, follow the south descent cairns to the rap gulley. A quick 4th class move over the gulley, and you can head north a short bit of walking and meet the cairned North descent trail.

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This is a view of the remaining top out of Mescalito, from above the last pitch. It's no joke! There's a cairn making where to start the ascent.

Satellite view of North fork descent starting at topout of pitch 10 and ending at first rappel. Path marked is approximate.

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5.0 from 1 vote

Ham Burgaler

May 23, 2025

“To do the North descent from Mescalito summit, follow the south descent cairns to the rap gulley. A quick 4th class move over the gulley, and you can head north a short bit of walking and meet the cairned North descent trail.”

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Nearby Photos

Dark Shadows Route Overlay.

Descent options from Mescalito.

Pitch 10: a crack leads to a roof. This is the crux pitch of the upper route.

North descent photo 1 - Walk along the wall on the left until you come to the saddle and large white bowl.

North descent photo 3 - Photo taken from the top of the saddle/white bowl. Follow cairns down into the bowl which snake back the direction you came a couple times.

A satellite view of the descent according to Handren guidebook. Took us 3 hours summit to car, but only required one rappel at the very end. Budget 1 - 1.5 hrs of sunglight to find the gully (after crossing the saddle) after which a headlamp descent is OK.

North descent photo 2 - Continue along the wall until you get to the saddle/large white bowl.

new bolt & old school

Great shot of the varnished iron rock on this route.

Pitch 5. The left leaning crack above the roof.

View of the corner/Pitches 3 and 4 from the base of the route

Bring that big boy along for the ride to ensure joy on the upper pitches

Pitch 5 ends above the pillar on the left.

Pitch 9 climbs twin cracks and then heads rightward to a big ledge at the bottom of a corner with a single bolt.

This is a view of the remaining top out of Mescalito, from above the last pitch. It's no joke! There's a cairn making where to start the ascent.

To do the North descent from Mescalito summit, follow the south descent cairns to the rap gulley. A quick 4th class move over the gulley, and you can head north a short bit of walking and meet the cairned North descent trail.

Satellite view of North fork descent starting at topout of pitch 10 and ending at first rappel. Path marked is approximate.

Pitch 7 climbs cracks to a ledge below the roof.

Pitch 6 ends on the face after the leftward traverse. One bolt was missing from the anchor. I built a trad anchor in the crack below the bolt.

Above pitch 10, follow broken rock for a couple of pitches to the summit cairn of Mescalito. Lower fifth class.

North descent photo 5 - This is the final cairn we came to. This rap station raps off of the tree shown in the photo. Three raps with a 70m rope get you to the ground from here. 36.12472, -115.49886 were the gps coordinates that we got for this station.

Mike, p3

Alex, p6

Pitch 10 roof.

Old piton on Pitch 6.

Looking up Pitch 7.

Pitch 6 climbs huecos on the right side past the marked bolt.

Pitch 6 traverses left from the piton anchor. Note the pod and dirty gully above - don't climb that!

Pitch 8 passes the roof on the right side.

p1 & 2

North descent photo 4 - Keep following cairns down into the bowl.

Caption this photo:

Coming up through the tight squeeze on the descent

There is really pretty vegetation at the top!

Pitch 5 roof above above a bolt. <br>
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This is the first pitch above the 4-pitch "normal route".

Stinky and I on dark shadows.

Glue in anchors at the top of pitch 5

Starting up Pitch 10.

Starting the descent from the summit via the south side. Follow carins....

pitch 8 #OahuAlpineClub

Bolted rap station near the base of the gully descent on the south side.

Simuling past another party on pitch 7

Alex, p3

This is part of the 'tight squeeze' on the North Gulley descent. The wide angle makes it look a little worse than it is, but it is still very tight. You definitely have to lay on your side to squeeze through. We had to pass the backpacks through separate.

Soloing to the top!

Single bolt at top of Pitch 9. You can back this up with an 0.4 cam.

Looking down from belay at pitch 3 bolted anchor

We found the wrong gully!!!
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There are a set of cairns that lead down as your heading west, we thought they indicated the first gully. They don't they are for people coming up off of the south face climbs. Ignore these and stay high. Don't follow purple!!

Looking down from the top of the pitch 5.

Section of the Pitch 8 from below the roof.

Rap at the base of the gully descent on the south side. There are 2 bolted anchors. The first rappel is about 10m and the second about 25m. So you probably could do them with a single 70m, but to minimize chances of getting a rope stuck might be better to just do two rappels.

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