5.6,
Trad, 1220 ft, 9 pitches, Grade III,
Avg: 3.4 from 563
votes
FA: Herbst, Kaufman, Hamilton '75
Nevada
> Southern Nevada
> Red Rock
> 12-Oak Creek Ca…
> Solar Slab - Upper Tier
Solar Slab is a very popular route due to its long length and all pitches are 5.6 or easier. The climb is 9 pitches long and over 1200 feet in height. However, the start of Solar Slab is on a huge terrace 500 feet up, which has a few different multi-pitch approaches. Probably the most common ways to get to the base of Solar Slab are to climb
Johnny Vegas (5.7, 4 pitches), or the
Solar Slab Gully (5.3, 5 pitches). An early start is highly recommended to beat the crowds, climb the 14 pitches, and make the lengthy descent. A headlamp is also a good idea.
Start from the Oak Creek Canyon parking area, and follow the obvious trail for 45 minutes to an hour. A prominent trail leads to an obvious gully to the right, the Solar Slab Gully. Climb this or Johnny Vegas to the terrace 500 feet up.
P1) Wander up the beautiful featured golden slab for quite a ways to the start of a nice hand crack. There is little pro in the slab, and the hardest move is gaining the crack system. Follow the crack system to a ledge with a fixed 2-bolt anchor. (5.5)
P2) From the ledge, follow the sandy chimney left and up to another ledge to belay at. This is probably the worst pitch of the climb. (5.5)
P3) Wander up unprotected but well featured rock for about 20 feet to a finger crack. Traverse right when obvious and follow a corner to a small belay ledge. (5.6)
P4) Climb a varnished left facing corner until possible to traverse right to a huge belay ledge with fixed anchors. (5.6)
P5) Climb the beautiful hand crack as long as desired, eventually sinking in a belay at the best spot possible. Some bolts are found near the crack on this pitch. This is a 3 star pitch. (5.5)
P6) Finish up this crack, stepping left eventually and belaying at the top of a pillar. I don't recommend trying to link this pitch with P5. I don't think that even a 60 meter rope is long enough. (5.4)
P7) Wander up and right protecting in various features to get to a low angle crack. Climb this crack up to an anchor. Don't stop at this point, but remember where this anchor is if you are planning to rap the route. Instead, traverse right a bit, then go up and easy corner to the huge low angle terrace. (5.3)
P8) Scramble up to a black varnished dihedral and sink a belay. Depending on your comfort level, this pitch can be done unroped. (class 4)
P9) Climb the black dihedral until the angle kicks back and sink a belay. (5.5)
Descent: I have only done the rappels, but there is also a walk off apparently. This is supposed to be difficult and time consuming. The rappels also take a lot of time, but it is a fairly straight forward way of getting off the rock. Down climb to the right of the last pitch on easy slabs (3rd class) to get to a traverse around to the belay ledge used below the dihedral. Then downclimb the 8th pitch and the last easy part of pitch 7 until the anchors mentioned. From here, rap (double ropes, 200' better, maybe even necessary?). Probably about 6 rappels gets you to the starting terrace. Then rap either Johnny Vegas or Solar Slab Gully (another 5 rappels). I recommend the gully, as Johnny Vegas is likely to get your rope stuck.
There is an entire chapter about this route in
Red Rock Odyssey
Access Issue: Red Rock RAIN AND WET ROCK: The sandstone is fragile and is very easily damaged when wet.
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Boulder, CO
If you have climbed Black Orpheus, you can descend the same way as for that climb. Even if you have not, you can, but it is trickier to find. Basically you head up and west to the red rock, around a corner to where you can see the Rainbow Buttress. Then two 50m or 3 25m raps will get you the the base of the Painted Bowl, where a long downclimb puts you in the drainage for a long exercise in boulder hopping.
The first two pitches of Solar Slab are weird and runout. On p. 1, the runout before the crack is huge, and it's easy to get into terrain harder than 5.6. On p. 2, there are also some runouts and it is a bit confusing. I was thinking of going up an unprotected arete on the left but a better route is the lieback crack on the right. Feb 17, 2004
Around Boulder, CO
I'm not even gonna start a discussion about our car-to-car time on this... (snicker) ...but I will say that it's a nice cruiser line and an advanced party can still have fun simul-climbing it. Feb 17, 2004
Longmont, CO
Las Vegas, NV
A couple of side notes for quick parties and/or those interested:There is a fairly easy single rope descent off of Solar Slab as per Black Orpheus that does not involve going clear up to a gully as per Supertopo. As noted by George Bell, the best way down is to start the double rope raps for Black Orpheus- do the first one (35') and the second (60'), but on the second, traverse to the climbers left to a large, sloping ledge. From here, pull the rope and walk along the edge to an old, but good rap station (historical Titon here if you want to see what one looks like). Make this rappel and one more off of a tree to get back down to the Painted Bowls. From here, head for the IBM boulder, and then follow the cairns to the deck.
I did the route today and my descent time was a little over 2hrs from the summit to the car (which was on 159). This of course, assumes the parties know the way. With route finding, expect about 3hrs down. It's a beautiful walk for those who haven't done it and I highly recommend it, especially if Solar Slab is choked with parties.
Oh, and even though it's almost June, Oak Creek is still running strong up above the fork! May 23, 2005
Indianapolis, IN
So, my advice is to 1. Start early. 2. Climb efficiently (ie try to simulclimb the gully). 3. Don't worry about the runout on the first pitch...it is very low angle and not at all that bad. 4. Routefinding on the ascent, and the rap route are both fairly straightforward. 5. Bring lots of water with you, and stash some at the terrace above the gully, as well as at the base of the gully. Oct 2, 2005
Las Vegas, NV
From the top of Solar Slab, head north toward the red pillars. Eventually, you'll go under the little 'arch' for the single line descent off of Black Orpheus. Instead of turning left here, go straight.
One...interesting pitch leads to a nice ledge. From here, heading up and right and then following a nice ledge system to the right of an obvious crack leads to 3rd class terrain and eventually the summit.
Count on a HUGE walk-off with interesting route-finding issues (stay mostly south when in doubt), but it is an unforgettable experience that every Red Rock climber should have! Jan 19, 2006
electric lady land
walk off aint too bad. after last pitch just keep going straight up into purple and red stone approx. 500-600 feet. Locate a small landing w/fire ring and head due west or up canyon from there. it's about as high you can go and still walk along side the main wall at top. follow side walk slab that turns into a trough that turns into a large flake/chimney feature. easy scramble/down climb down this feature for approx. 600 feet will land you on a large ledge. walk across ledge to the end and scramble down to the top of a flared chimney. This is probably the crux of the walk off. Down climb chimney 20 feet (maybe 5.4). Follow trail thru bushes to last down climb section. down climb another 60 feet and your at the top of painted bowl slab.from here the IBM boulder can be spotted easily. From boulder the easiest way to creek bed is to head west or up canyon traversing across ledges to creek bed.now your just a lovely bush whack away down the creek bed to your packs. MIght sound a bit involved but I just hate multiple rappels. Jan 26, 2006
Vegas
Note:As of 2/18/06, Solar Slab has water trickling down climbing path and the upper,steep gully has snow and ice for about half the way down, so if planning on rapping the upper gully anytime soon, be careful. The winds were brutal when we were on the upper pitches and blew me over twice while hiking up the low angle slabs higher up. Due to the high wind gusts, we had to literally crawl on our hands and knees (How humiliating!) as we 3rd classed our way over to the gully.The steep, narrow gully on climber's right provided great wind escape though.
It was snowing on our hike out. Feb 19, 2006
It should be noted that the drawing in the Brock guide takes one to the East Gully. Ignore this and use the West Gully.
Jason Apr 7, 2006
Las Vegas, NV
The best option, in my opinion, is to do the BO double rope descent with a single line- details for this are on the Black Orpheus route page courtesy of George Bell. This descent takes about 60-90 minutes (to the base of SS) and is one of the more beautiful descents you can do in Red Rock. Apr 10, 2006
Kurt Aug 22, 2006
Decatur, GA
The climbing was great and exposed and had its challenges despite the 5.6 grade. P2 was the only place I felt any stress on lead; my partner found P3 and P4 (which he linked) to be a little tricky. P5 and P6 were probably my favorite lead; we linked these by simulclimbing for maybe 20' or so, which I think is a good option to keep things flowing.
The rap on SS went off without a hitch, but our ropes got snagged twice rapping Johnny Vegas, so be aware.
JL Apr 7, 2008
Colorado Springs, CO
Also, thanks to Jason and Ting Ting (if you ever see this! - sorry for the spelling of your name Ting Ting), for sharing their rope to simul-rap. We only brought our one rope and didn't have the luxury of reading the Mountain Proj beta on the descent, so this was a really nice gesture. On that note, it seems like we could have possibly rappelled the route proper with our one single 70M. Has anyone ever done this? Apr 9, 2008
Las Vegas, NV
Laramie, Wyoming
Las Vegas, NV
CO
If I did it again (pitched out) Id do some things different. First, Id bring a 70m rope and do P1 & 1/2 of P2 to the bolted "intermediate" belay above the flaring slanting crack thingy. Then Id combine the rest of P2 with P3. (we did this w/a 60m no problem). Then, combine P4 &5 (once again, a 60m would be no problem). Then you could shoot for the next bolted belay just shy of the big ledge and 3rd class scramble in one pitch. With a 60 we had to stop short and build an anchor about 20 ft from the anchors as my partner didn't want to simul.
You can easily do the Painted Bowl double rope descent w/a 70m. That descent rocks. Ive never done the Solar Slab raps and would never even thing of doing them with such a cool option available. Ive done it twice, both the single rope and double rope option. The double rope one is best but they are both fine. Don't miss this part of the climb!!!! You are only cheating yourself. Dec 9, 2009
salt lake city utah
Las Vegas, NV
1) If there is snow on top of the slab, expect water to begin running right down pitches 1-3. Realize the water might not start running until the snow starts melting in mid morning. We arrived at the base of pitch 1 at 9 am and it was totally dry. At 9:02 there was a literal torrent running down the crack.
2) In the event that you are committed to the route, you can avoid pitch 1, pitch 2, and most of the wet part of pitch 3 by doing Go Nuts instead (still just 5.6). We ended up only having to climb through about 20 feet of water on pitch 3. Most of the water runs down the 5.9 variation on the right of pitch 3, rather than the 5.6 on the left side. The remainder of the route was completely dry except for another 10 feet on the last technical pitch.
3) If there is snow on top of the slab, realize that the scariest part of the route will be descending the ramp to the first rappel. We ended up having to belay the ramp. Anymore ice on it and we would have had to leave anchors and rap down to the first rappel anchor. Alternatively, if you rappel the route with double ropes you'll end up soaked by the time you reach the terrace since the rappels go right through the water. Pick your poison or wait a couple more days for the snow to completely melt off.
4) It is possible to do this entire route with a 50 meter. You will have to occasionally (maybe twice) simul-climb for 15-20 feet on easier pitches and the very last rappel for the walk-off option will require about 10 feet of low 5th class downclimbing at the end of the rappel. It was worth it to us to save the weight and hassle of taking a longer rope (or heaven forbid 2 ropes.) Doing the descent with a 50 meter rope requires 4 rappels-2 on bolted anchors down to the big ledge, then traverse the ledge and rappel off a slung horn/deadman in a hueco/fixed nut anchor to another ledge, and off a tree to the ground. The downside of the 50 meter is that it makes the route much more committing than dragging a couple of 60 meters up it. We would have had to leave an entire rack behind if we had had to bail off from high up on the upper slab.
5) The downclimb isn't that big of a deal. I've done it twice. It takes a long time. We were 9.5 hours car to car and I think 2.5-3 of that was on the descent. The rappels go pretty quickly, even with a single rope. The descent down the painted bowl isn't too bad either. Mostly trend right and follow cairns (although they go back left at one point low down.) The really crappy part of the descent is going down oak creek canyon, especially if a lot of water is flowing. Tons of boulder hopping and bushwhacking to avoid the pools of water and drop-offs. This canyon is MUCH more involved to descend than others such as Juniper or Pine Creek. As far as George Bell's comment that the descent can go at 5.6....I didn't see it. The only 5.6 option I saw was to climb back down the route itself. Apr 10, 2011
Bluff, UT
Vancouver
As for the descent, there is definitely a low commitment downclimb option. I think most people just never find it. At the very top of the terrace at the end of the climb, we went through the low arch and up against the summit wall, followed a narrow gully down. It was maybe 45 deg easily downclimbed. After that there is one more vegetated gully to the walk off slab Mar 4, 2012
We finished P7 and figured we had to go all the way to the top, only to get to the top and realize that it wasn't really the top of anything. Rapped back down the route. I think it is worth doing once and I can see why some people really love it, but off-hand I can think of plenty of multi-pitch 5.6 moderates that offer more exposure, better climbing, scenery, etc. etc. YMMV.
Also, there always seems to be a conga line on Johnny Vegas, even when EVERY other route is empty, so consider other options for getting to the base of SS. Dec 13, 2012
Oak Park, CA
Also, rope got stuck on the pull after the rap from the boulder slings atop P6 down to P4 anchor, in a hard-to-avoid crack pinch (beware), while trying to bypass a super slow group on reg rap route. Re-led on other end of almost-down rope, cleared jam, cleaned while downclimbed. Rapped JV to bypass same slow group congesting Solar Slab Gully, good on all pulls. Apr 13, 2013
Tallulah Falls, GA
Vail
A few notes:
Pro can be found early on pitch one if one is looking.
Be careful when passing the exit of Arch Enemy on pitch 2, lots of loose rock.
The rest of the route is kind of a blur, super easy climbing, lots of good gear.
All stations have good bolts but no chains (except for P1 and P7 if I remember correctly) lots of old tat .. bring extra webbing just in case you need to back up a station.
There are no rap anchors after pitch 7. However one can easily down climb form the summit (Black O etc) to the pitch 7 rap station. From the top by the boulders go skiers left and meander down easy slabs (a few cairns can be found) staying skiers left of pitch 9 passing a bush. A bit of an exposed down climbing and traverse to the right brings you to the base of pitch 9. Then head straight down past some boulders and find anchor.
Cheers Oct 21, 2014
Denver, Co
Boston, MA
Some descent beta with photos if you are planning to walk off:
supertopo.com/tr/Red-Rocks-… Nov 11, 2014
Colorado
But if you did bring a rope, there's some new(ish) rap anchors dropping down into the Painted Bowl-
From the regular Painted Bowl rappel- rap straight down around 60 ft or so to the first new anchors- then straight down 100' to the next set of new anchors, then another 100' rappel gets you to terra firma in the Painted Bowl. Only a single 60m rope needed... Nov 18, 2014
SLC, UT
Climb Johnny Vegas for the approach. Simul climb the last 2 pitches for faster climbing.
Pitch 1: Climb up to nice ledge and tree.
Pitch 2: Climb up the chimney and past the first set of anchors. Its about 40ish more feet to the next set.
Pitch 3: Climb until you get to the bottom of the beautiful handcrack. This is a longer pitch so be mindful of rope drag.
Pitch 4: Simul climb all the way to the final 5.5 corner.
Pitch 5: Climb the fun but short corner up and through a chimney-ish section. Belay on top!
Side Notes:
-My partner and I climbed Johnny Vegas and Solar Slab in just under 4 hours doing it like this.
-Rappelling off of this route will take WAY LESS time. From the top of the climb to our car took around 2.5 hours to do the walk off. Rapping may be hectic when rapping thru parties but will take way less time.
-If doing the walk-off descent just follow the cairns all the way down. A 70m is helpful. Nov 28, 2014
Tucson, AZ
New York, NY
Phoenix, AZ
P2: Thought this was very awkward and featured little pro options. Would not recommend for anyone not solid at 5.7. This felt like the hardest pitch in my opinion. Maybe we climbed it wrong?
P3: Good pitch and straight forward. If the bolted anchor is crowded, there is a good ledge for a gear anchor on a comfortable ledge 15 ft below and to the climber's left.
P4: Nothing special and very short. Straight forward.
P5 & 6: Money pitch and highlight of the climb in my opinion. Link the two to save time. Belay from the boulder at the top of the pillar up and left with cordage slung around it.
P7: Short and easy 5.2-5.3 climbing to bolted anchors. We stopped here for double 70m rope rappel decent.
---
We had a party ahead of us on Oct 24 that was a party of four with one "experienced" leader and pretty much held every party up forcing a few of us to bail early. Do not recommend this climb for anyone who does not have the stamina or devotion for a 10 pitch+ climb regardless of the 5.6 grade. We could've done this climb in 4 hours but ended up getting back to the car at 9:30 pm and doing 10 rappels in the dark as a result. This party was the first ones on the rock and the last ones off. Basically ruining the climb for the rest of us. Won't even get into the anchors they were using. Anyhow, please be courteous to legitimate parties and do not bring beginners up this route. Oct 26, 2015
leeds, ut
Adding for the ropeless:
If you don't want to downclimb the exposed first Black Orpheus rap (or you miss the ledge like me) you can also go a tier higher and downclimb the pocketed gully. You'll end up linking back into the BO raps. This was originally shown to me as the lower part of the Chicken Lips descent if that helps. Nov 24, 2015
Las Vegas
We also I think found the descent described by d-know above, behind the highest shoulder, leading to more of a small gully rather than a ramp. May 2, 2016
NOTE** Please someone bring a tool to tighten the nuts on the bolts. On at least three of them I had to hand tighten the nuts!! Apr 1, 2017
Las Vegas
We did Beulah's book start then Solar slab with a 70m and did the walkoff.
Car to Car in 7 hrs and 15 min. Climb took 4hrs. walk off back to where we stashed our bags near base took almost 2 hrs. May 9, 2017
McCall, ID
New Haven, CT
Seattle, WA