5.12,
Trad, 900 ft (273 m), 9 pitches, Grade IV,
Avg: 3.8 from 126
votes
FA: FA- Ron Olevsky and Rob Schnelker, 1978. FFA-Drew Bedford and Roger Amory 1984
Utah
> Southwest Utah
> Zion NP
> Temple of Sinawava
This awesome all-free route has been described as the "
Astroman of Zion." It does share a number of similarities with
Astroman, including hard climbing, spectacular position, good exposure, as well as a couple funky pitches guarding the top.
However, the climb is not nearly as committing as
Astroman (it can be rapped from any point on the route), has a 5 minute approach, and you don't have to descend the
J. North Dome Gully at the end of the day.
Think of it more as six solid Indian Creek pitches stacked on top of one another, followed by two weird desert-adventure pitches at the top.
Don't be scared by the 5.12 rating: the crux is short and easily aided making this an excellent climb at the 5.11 A0 grade.
P1 Climb the easy but runout slab up and left to a belay at the base of the Pillar of Faith. Watch out for wet spots.
P2 (5.10+/11-) The real climbing starts here at the Pillar of Faith. Despite what many guides say, starting the pillar on the right side is 5.11R. Climb the pillar starting from the left and working back to the right.
P3 (5.12) The crux Black Corner pitch. Desperate tips lie-backing (or french-freeing) leads to a moderate chimney which is followed to a belay. The meat of the climbing is the first 15 feet of the pitch before reaching a good stem rest. Easily aided and fun to TR.
P4 (5.11) If you're climbing the route at 5.11 A0, then this would be the crux free pitch. Fun stemming leads to a rest before a difficult roof. The pitch goes for a long ways after the roof so long slings are key here to reduce rope drag. Pull the roof and continue up via sustained fingers in a corner with occasional feet to a very badly located anchor.
P5 (5.10) A fairly short pitch. Lieback and handjam up the corner to a belay in an alcove below a slot.
P6 Two options here:
The standard route climbs the OW and face above at 5.10 (#4.5 Camalot is nice for up high on the pitch).
If you're feeling particularly chipper at this point, you can traverse left to the Monkeyfinger Crack which goes at 5.12-.
Either option leads to a spacious belay in the Monkey House.
P7 (5.10+) Nice liebacking and jamming in the chalked corner above leads to a belay. A fairly short pitch.
P8 (5.10+) This is where things get weird. Climb up and right to a sandy slab which is protected by some drilled pins and bad bolts. Continue upward over interesting rock to a huge ledge and belay.
P9 (5.10+) Even weirder, but just like
Astroman, you haven't climbed
Monkeyfinger unless you've done the last pitch.
Enter the sandbox/chimney to the right of the belay. After finding a suitable location to empty the sand out of your shoes, clip a couple of bad bolts and undercling right out under a series of roofs and continue up to the rim. Once on the rim fight up through ropedrag, sand, and manzanita to a flat area where you can sling a couple of branches and belay.
From the tree at the rim, 5 double-rope (60m) raps got us to the base.
Go soak your hands under the cold water in the sink of the Temple of Sinawava bathrooms.
Access Issue: Seasonal Raptor Closures 
Continue with onX Maps
Continue with Facebook
Boulder, CO
Boulder, CO
Joe, Where else would you put the 4th belay? It seems to me that a miserable hanging belay is inevitable. It would be nice to have a belay seat for this anchor though it would not be of much use at any other anchor.
A 60 meter rappel just makes it from the third anchor to the ground.
Joe's recommended rack was right on the mark. May 14, 2004
Boulder, CO
That's just this punter's opinion, of course. May 25, 2004
2 #2 ball nuts provide plenty of protection at your feet for the right side of the ultra-cool second pitch...
cheers, aaron Jul 30, 2004
I totally agree with the idea of lowering the top of the third pitch to the lower angle part. That full blown hanging belay at the top of four just plain SUCKS!!! DOn't forget the buttbag and knee pads.
The pillar of faith was awesome climbing, plugged in the grey and purple Met. FCU to protect when going into right corner...and saw a good foot placement half a body length above and just went for it...climbing only gets easier and easier from there to the belay. Top of pillar can be protected with a 4.5 BD or 5 Wild Country , really good features in back of OW and then just throwing for top is bomber safe...jug and a welcome lip on top to grab onto. Sep 30, 2005
Wasatch Back, UT
See:
bigwalls.net/climb/Ziongen.…
rocknclimb.com/zionspeed.html
bigwall.com/fainfo.html
To be accurate, we did yo-yo the crux pitch, but this was before micro-cams and those small nuts in soft sandstone were freakin us out a bit. Olevsky should be willing to confirm the facts--he watched us from the parking lot and pumped us for details at the end of each day. Mar 31, 2008
St.George Orem Denver Vegas
Tucson, AZ
Do the Monkeyfinger pitch! The first move getting into it was quite hard and the gear is slightly wonky but then it's just awesome splitter fingers with tons of air under your feet! Mar 29, 2011
Bend, OR
The beta posted here for the 9th pitch is a little bit screwy. No it's not that sandy, yes the bolts suck, yes there's plenty of bomber gear around the bolts, no there's no need to wrestle 'ropedrag, sand, and manzanita, once on the rim. (unless you screwed up) There's a massive tree with a rap-anchor on it. It's pretty straight-forward. Jan 9, 2012
Sonora, CA
I'm pretty sure this is bass-ackwards. I saw the bolts on the right and was thinking why would an A3 pitch have more bolts and better rock...anyway I went left. I've been climbing for about 20 years and have done a lot of choss. But going left was the worst pitch I've ever led...hands down no question. I freeded it if that counts for anything! It was like trying to climb rock being actively poured out of a dump truck in a gypsum quarry...choss treadwall. My partner let out more explatives following it than a david mamet film.
rest of the climb was great! next time I'll rap after pitch 7 :)- Feb 13, 2013
Salt Lake City, UT
P1: crappy slab/traversing pitch to get to the bottom of the Pillar of Faith. This pitch would be awesome if a bolted direct line was put up. As is, it pretty much sucks.
P2. The Pillar of Faith. As others have noted, start up the left side and switch to the right side at the obvious foot jug. You can't miss it. From there, it's tight fingers to hands to a short bit of OW which you can layback to the belay. A #4 or 5 BD is comforting, but by no means necessary.
P3: Crux. French free up the tips corner for 15 feet, then climb the easy chimney to the belay.
P4: The human crux. Easy climbing to the tricky roof (extending the gear with runners is key here), followed by a long stretch of fingers, a bit of hands, and back to fingers. It's not unreasonable to have quads of .3-.5 camalot sizes for this pitch. classic. An absurd belay which should be moved 30' lower.
P5. Fantastic. Fat fingers to big hands in a corner to the belay. A few of each .75-#2 camalot is perfect, with maybe a #3 thrown in for good measure. Pretty short.
P6: a crappy belay, followed by a long OW section to a fantastic belay (each lunch at the latter). Sure, you'll use the #4 and #5 camalot if you dragged them up this far, but the meat of the OW can be protected with #2 camalot sizes in the back of the slot.
P7: after lunch, tackle this fantastic pitch. Tight fingers give way to big hands as you work your way up the nice corner. A couple of each size from 0 Metolius-#3 camalot works great. You'll end up at another huge ledge.
P8: A runout easy section up and right leads to a bolted face (which you can see from the belay), which is followed by a crack (fingers-hands) to the belay. Apart from the horrible protection (two badly drilled angles and an ancient star driver bolt), the face climbing is great on this pitch. If you've done this pitch, admit it: you used that first drilled angle as a foothold.
P9. Not worth doing. Grovel up the horrible chimney to the unspectacular summit tree. This pitch is awful, and you gain nothing by reaching the final belay. The view from up there is the same view you've been looking at for 8 pitches. Absolute garbage.
My rack recommendation: triples .2 - 3", which quads from .3-.5, and a single #4 and #5 camalot size.
The biggest downer of this route is the fixed hardware. Lots of crappy belays consisting of drilled angles and shoddy webbing. Also, the hanging belay atop P4 and the shoddy belay atop P5. A hardware update would make this route much better. If you don't like old tat, bring a shit-load of cord or webbing to replace the anchors.
Can be rapped with a single 70. Oct 16, 2013
Sedro Woolley
las Vegans, the cosmic void
Gunnison, CO
Boulder, CO
Reno
Boulder, CO
In mid-October the sun hits the top of the route and works its way down. We started around 8 AM and got hit by the sun at the top of the 4th pitch. We were also moving very slow given the conditions. A competent team could definitely be at the monkey house before the sun hits. Route was in full sun by noon.
Also, thanks to the person who carved "LSD" with a bunch of hippy suns, stars, and moons at the top of the 4th belay. Very classy, and it truly shows how much you love nature. Oct 18, 2015
Squamish, BC
If doing the monkey finger variation, you can stash all gear from BD #3 and up at the anchor after the second pitch and retrieve after rappel. Nov 4, 2015
SLC
Pitch 3 was awesome!!!! Gray metolius protects the crux really well. I'm excited to get back and finish this route.
Sun seemed to hit the top of the route around 10:30-11 as of March 15th, 2017 Mar 16, 2017
I highly recommend linking 4-5 and suggest including triples of small tips to .75 C4 for this linkup for a long, pumpy pitch and good belay stances. Don't burn all the small cams under the roof. Nov 9, 2017
Zion, UT
Denver, CO
Moab
If you want to have a chill wall experience and sleep on a portaledge, the anchor above pitch 4 is perfect. Get an overnight permit and have a sweet vertical camping experience in the temple.
The 3rd rap station was just a piton with some tat (no nut) when we got there. We climbed the upper pitches with a single 70m so we left a nut and a couple runners with a quicklink as an anchor.. please leave this be or just add another bolt and some chains for future monkeys! Feb 15, 2020
Modesto, Ca
Also, the anchor below the slab pitch is a joke. Every other anchor is bolted, why not just throw two more in right there? Mar 6, 2021
North Mitten
P1: My partner led the direct slab start, which felt 5.7R. First piece was a blue Metolius forty feet off the deck. Good features, but a tad bit crispy. Looking down, I saw a piton on the manky ramp of to the right of where we started.
P2: The left-to-right crack switch move protects well but still remains exciting. Get used to the sensation of crimping on the edge of a sub-tips crack ... you'll be doing a lot of it.
P3: Techy edging shoes are helpful at times. A willingness to gun it hard over microcams would be key for the send.
P4: Hard, awkward and delicious. I followed the previous pitch clean but then whipped on a black Totem at the roof. Felt like modern-day 5.11+ unless you can decipher the voodoo stemming on the first go. The anchor is bomber glue-ins, but the stance is quite uncomfortable.
P5: Surprisingly strenuous thanks to a section of 0.75's in a corner with no feet. Would probably garner 5.11- at the Creek, but whatever. Linking 4 and 5 would be mega and eliminate the worst belay. Or perhaps build an anchor just after the roof and then take the rest of p4 and p5 as a long pitch.
MF: The traverse protected well with a purple Metolius, after which you must choose carefully between locks and gear placements to set up the boulder problem. It was tough to read (V5-6ish?) and then there was a difficult section of 0.3's and yellow Metolius with occasional feet. Then came the offset 0.5's. The whole thing felt 5.12b and was one of the finest sandstone pitches I've ever led. A silly surprise awaits you after you mantle out of the fingercrack.
P7: Fun steep dihedral jamming with an intersecting splitter. Anchor is two nuts, a pin and average tat.
A few raindrops gave us an excuse not to continue onto p8-9. It appears that the P8 slab has a modern bolt now.
This route was an utter delight and I look forward to returning. Mar 9, 2022
Saint George UT
Iron County
The mid station and many other bolts added by others.
The FA was bandit guided. Had to lead everything and haul a bag for two. Nov 23, 2022
Michigan
Denver, CO