Curt riding the bull on top of Black Orpheus.

All Locations > Nevada > Southern Nevada > Red Rocks > (12) Oak Creek… > Black Orpheus A… > Black Orpheus (5.9+ 5c 17 VI 17 E1 5a)

Curt riding the bull on top of Black Orpheus.

ID 5200288 ·

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Launching up into the crack and corner of pitch 8 (SuperTopo). December 31, 2009.

Black Orpheus

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4.4 from 12 votes

Eric Krantz

Dec 7, 2005

“Curt riding the bull on top of Black Orpheus.”

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Nearby Photos

Launching up into the crack and corner of pitch 8 (SuperTopo). December 31, 2009.

Curt riding the bull on top of Black Orpheus.

Black Orpheus

Looking up at Black Orpheus

Mo on P10 just before the "5.6" lieback

The "cool little arch" (from Supertopo descent beta) you pass through if you are doing the single rope rappel descent.

first single and double rope raps on the Chicken Lips descent

Richard at the massive dihedral. Photo by Xavier Wasiak (rope gun). Xavier led all pitches that day, often faster than Richard could follow them.

The infamous IBM Boulder on the descent (approx 8 feet in diameter).

Cool exposure just before the thin hands crack

annotated route

Approaching the handcrack

Sparsely protected slab. 5.5?

Brett pulls down on the Black Orpheus crux section.

Andrei Zippy on the 5.9 money pitch of Black Orpheus

A variation to the bottom section of Black Orpheus. See comments under the route description.

Twin cracks on Pitch 9 of Black Orpheus.

Pitch 1 of Black Orpheus.

Mo leading P8

Under the huge triangular roof-- almost done with the middle section.

Fore-shortened view of all of the Black Orpheus route. December 2009.

Xavier Wasiak leading the first pitch

another view of Painted Bowl

Andrei Zippy on the start of P3 or top of 2nd pitch depending on how you do it.

Pitch 11 of Black Orpheus. To the top!

Pitch 8 of Black Orpheus, where the fun really begins.

Steve leading the sweet 5.9 pitch.

This was the crux if I remember - here's Bruce pulling around the corner and up out of the chimney. These were taken March or April 2004. We took the Solar gully descent (I think - 2nd gully on the right) - it was wilder and spicier than the climbing but beautiful!

The "5.6" corner on Pitch 10 of Black Orpheus.

Stone Wells relaxin' all cool at the pitch 5 belay according to MP.

P11

Mo leading P2

The second rappel (if you are doing single rope rappels) on the descent into Painted Bowl.

Final Approach with Route Marked out - Climbed Nov. 2009 with Jan Roestel

second single rope rap on the Chicken Lips descent (anchor is at the top of the chimney)

Climbing past P1 anchors - Climbed Nov. 2009 with Jan Roestel

Aaron heads for the final layback

Aaron Wait, wrapping up the day

Painted Bowl

Aaron, start of the day

looking down P1

way to the rap station for the Chicken Lips descent

Getting into the meat of it - Climbed Nov. 2009 with Jan Roestel

Beginning the descent towards Painted Bowl after climbing Black Orpheus. Eagle Wall is in background left.

Near the start

James making quick work of the crux on Pitch 10.

The crux pitch on Black Orpheus 5.9+/5.10

First pitch approaching the anchors - Climbed Nov. 2009 with Jan Roestel

traditional slither at the bottom of the Chicken Lips/Painted Bowl descent (as of March 2012 the cairns take you slightly upstream of this)

Almost there after the 1.5 hour approach from the 159 pull out (loop wasn't open yet this fine early winter morning)

Looking down pitch 5, showing the chimney and thin hands corner

Leading out on exciting face moves to reach the sweet corner crack on P5. The crack offers great protection (.5-1's) and has plenty of face holds on either side to make solid crack climbing skills a non necessity on this route.

Sweet 5.9 pitch after the easy section.

Wandering up the middle section.

Following the second pitch

The classic 5.9 traverse pitch, what an incredible climb ✊

Fun climbing on Pitch 2 of Black Orpheus.

looking back at the route

looking down the slabs that make up P4-7

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