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Eagle Dance
5.10c A0+,
Trad, Aid, 900 ft (273 m), 11 pitches, Grade III,
Avg: 3.3 from 197
votes
FA: Jorge and Joanne Urioste, March 1980
Nevada
> Southern Nevada
> Red Rocks
> (12) Oak Creek…
> Eagle Wall
Access Issue: Red Rock RAIN AND WET ROCK: The sandstone is fragile and is very easily damaged when wet.
Details
Holds rip off and climbs have been and will continue to be permanently damaged due to climbers not respecting this phenomenon. After a heavy storm, the rock will remain wet, sometimes for several days. PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB IN RED ROCKS during or after rain. A good rule of thumb is that if the ground near your climb is at all damp (and not powdery dry sand), then do not climb. There are many alternatives (limestone, granite, basalt, and plastic) nearby.
HUMAN WASTE Human waste is one of the major issues plaguing Red Rocks. The Las Vegas Climbers Liaison Council and the AAC provides free "wag bags" in several locations (Black Velvet, First Pullout, Kraft Mtn/Bouldering, The Gallery, and The Black Corridor). These bags are designed so that you can pack your waste out - consider bringing one to be part of your kit (just like your rope and shoes and lunch) no matter where you go. Once used, please dispose of them properly (do not throw them in the toilets at the parking area).
Description
This route is really easy to follow as it takes all the obvious weaknesses and follows enough bolts to never get lost. From a shallow dihedral 50 feet east of a 150' pillar the climb goes up through the Eagles neck on the standard 5th pitch. The overhanging bolt ladder on the 8th pitch is a sandbag but the incredible positioning makes for a pleasant aid pitch. The route continues all the way to the top of the wall and that is worth doing. However most people rap 1 or 2 pitches after the bolt ladder as it is just so convenient to rap. This a fabulous must do Urioste classic.
[Hide Photo] Jimmy Newberry and Geoff "Madman" Conley re-racking on the 1st continuous ascent of Eagle Dance, Dec 1980. Photo by Phil Broscovak
[Hide Photo] Eagle Wall from the lower Painted Bowl with routes marked (note that bottom pitches of these routes are not visible due to the "foreground bump")
[Hide Photo] Dawn, day two. Jorge said it would be an awesome bivy! But I think that in some ancient Andean dialect the word "bivy" must meen "ramp of endless sliding". Thanx Jorge!
[Hide Photo] We spotted this peregrine on 15 November 2005, in the cave at the top of pitch 3. We saw him circling above us as we started the climb, again here, and later we saw him below us when we reached ou…
[Hide Photo] Andy Hansen on the bolt ladder. Fall 2011. Taken with an old Olympus 35mm. www.mattkuehlphoto.com
[Hide Photo] Looking down the long pitch 1, top of Black Tower to the right.
[Hide Photo] Josie McKee following the crux pitch, with Mt Wilson in the background
[Hide Photo] This photo shows the final rappel, from an anchor in the middle of the face just left of pitches and 2. It took us just under 1 hour to rappel the route. We made 9 rappels with a single 70m as foll…
[Hide Photo] The "thrash and dangle" section with no thrashing!
[Hide Comment] Two ropes to rappel... With a single 60m rope, the penultimate rappel will leave you *close* to the last set of rap anchors. (If you weigh less than 175 pounds, even the rope stretch won't get you there.)
Feb 21, 2004
[Hide Comment] I have heard that the last two pitches are currently harder to free climb and/or more runout than any of the previous pitches, as they are sandier and holds have broken off. Also I believe the ASCA did not replace the bolts on these pitches, so they are still only protected with a few quarter inch bolts. Anyone with recent personal experience on these pitches care to comment?
Feb 23, 2004
[Hide Comment] George, the second to last pitch has new bolts. The climbing is pretty sandy and sustained up strange v-groove. The last pitch is around 5.7 with gear and a few old bolts.
Feb 27, 2004
[Hide Comment] An excellent climb that I thought offered better value than Levitation. Don't stress over the "aid" section -- it's quite short and the bolts are very close together. You might do well to skip the belay immediately after the aid and link the next pitch in order to avoid a hanging belay directly below hard moves. Rock and Ice published a SuperTopo of the climb which listed a 10c pitch somewhere below the aid, around P5; this pitch was considerably easier than the two 5.10 pitches immediately after the aid.
Feb 27, 2004
[Hide Comment] We found the second to the last pitch to be pretty freaky and weird. The first (brand new!) bolt wiggles visibly and does not give you great confidence. I think this poor bolt is due to the soft rock and not the bolting job. The rock on this pitch is sandy and slopey, I decided to back off after clipping the second bolt (this one at least looked bomber). This pitch looks easy, but may be the crux of the route!
May 6, 2004
Even though the aid section can be done with slings it is not as simple as one might think. I found that moving into the crack/groove at the end of the bolt ladder was non trivial. I certainly did not feel comfortable going it "free" into the groove right after the last bolt. (traverse to the left)
The climbing to reach the hanging belay above the "Trash and Dangle" and the next short section looked awkward and hard. Possibly harder and certainly weirder than anything on the route up to that point.
I found that a pair of light aiders and a fifi hook made this whole section way more pleasant and secure.
Side note: Due to the overhang and traverse, it proved impossible to "throw" my aiders to my belayer once I made it to the top of the pitch. He in turn had to trash and dangle until he reached the crack where I could lower the aiders to him.
May 10, 2004
[Hide Comment] as another poster mentioned, the first or second bolt on the last normal pitch (below the slabby gear pitch to the top) is way loose. ie: i figured i could probably pull it out if i wanted to. the hole looks broken out at a glance. may need a new hole. i remember being pretty unhappy about it, because it guards a hard move.
as for the aid section, i had really good luck with double length slings as my aiders. i knotted the tops, eight inches down or so, with uneven webbing, so the top had a nice grab handle.
clip a draw to the aid bolt. clip the rope to the draw. clip your 'aider' to the top biner of your draw. step into it. repeat. it was really pretty cruiser. if you're getting bored/tired, clip your daisy to the bolt and hang for a bit. above the traverse where the bolts run out i was pretty sketched out about switching to free climbing for the last 10 feet, so i popped a 3/4" or 1" cam in there and got at least one move out of it. the move i bypassed looked pretty stiff, but ill be the first to admit im a pansy.
Apr 11, 2005
[Hide Comment] more beta- a 70m line will rap the entire route on a single rope. be careful rapping the second pitch as there will only be a couple feet of rope left when you hit the rap anchor out left of the route.
Apr 11, 2005
[Hide Comment] We did this through pitch 8, a little beyond the aid section, on 15 November. We saw what we thought was a peregrine falcon at the cave at the top of pitch 3. It landed in the cave and screeched at me just as I was getting ready to second p4!
The aid pitch worked pretty easily with a bunch of shoulder length slings, but an etrier per climber would certainly speed things up. It was my partner's intro to aid climbing!
We both thought the crux was getting up the slot just beyond the aid.
Nov 29, 2005
[Hide Comment] NOTE: The left bolt at the belay above the cave was loose when we climbed it on 04/09/06. I finger tightened it as I did not have a wrench.Also, several loose plates exist on the route that will likely pull off with any substantial pressure. This is a fantastic route that is worth the big approach.
Apr 13, 2006
[Hide Comment] I may be alone in my stance (Geir may support me on this), but I found the third pitch to be more difficult than all the other pitches up to the top of seven. We bailed at the top of the bolt ladder due to time constraints, but after reading the previous comments, I am glad we did! Excellent route.
Nov 6, 2007
[Hide Comment] I did this route on Sunday, a few comments. The first .10c crux is straightforward face climbing. The bolt ladder is no big deal imho, I've never aid climbed and got through it just fine with a daisy, a couple slings, and a belayer willing to take and give me slack. The pitch right past the bolt ladder has 10 feet of climbing that has become harder than .10b, but well bolted, so again, no big deal. The last .10c pitch was pretty bad though. The first bolt sucks, and protects hard moves. There is also a run from the 2nd to 3rd bolts. The only way I could do it was climbing on the face left of the corner, making for a spicy lead. However, the route is worth topping out, because the walk off is awesome.
Link pitches 1 and 2, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, and 10 and 11. The route is then only 7 pitches.
Oct 15, 2008
[Hide Comment] I've heard the bolt ladder goes free at 12c. Any comments about this? I suppose we can just go have a look but beta is always nice. Also, what size is the loose bolt? I'll bring a wrench.
Dec 4, 2008
[Hide Comment] The actual bolt hole seemed to be wearing out, due to the soft rock, so I'm not sure it can be tightened. I believe it was 3/8ths though. As far as the traverse going free, I can't give much beta, other than to say I think you'd have to put shoulder length draws on all the bolts as they are too high to clip from where the free stances would be.
Dec 30, 2008
[Hide Comment] Did this route the other day.....really fun! We found all bolts to be in good shape...no loose hangers, etc. I found both 'crux' pitches to be no harder than 10b. The upper/last crux pitch has a runout between the 2nd and 3rd bolt which protects with whatever gear you brought up to protect the lower sections. I didn't think the rock quality on this pitch was as bad as advertised. Yes, it was a bit sandy in spots and some of the holds are ready to snap but there are bolts/pro every 8ft so enjoy the choss factor. The climbing itself on this pitch was really fun groove-type climbing compared to the generic edge pulling you do for most of the lower route. I'd also recommend climbing past the hanging belay above the bolt/aid ladder. The moves are a bit tough to start wilst being smashed up against your partner in this awkward spot. Med nuts, TCU's, and cams up to a RED camalot was more than enough pro.
Apr 27, 2009
[Hide Comment] Another beauty on the Eagle Wall. I lead the aid pitch (never done any aid before) with a PAS and draws and it was surprisingly straightforward. As others have mentioned, it is best to link the aid pitch with the next pitch to avoid a truly heinous hanging belay. I would say that the climbing is no harder than 5.10b if you don't go past the aid pitch, but the two pitches after the aid are surprisingly tricky. Rapping with a 70m rope worked well.
Since the route description seems to be missing this, here's my pitch by pitch beta.
P1: 5.8/5.9. Fun crack and face climbing. P2: 5.8/5.9. Similar to the first pitch, also fun. P3: 5.10a. A terrific, sustained pitched with a low crux. P4: 5.10b. Another great pitch with a high crux. P5: 5.9. Slabby climbing on softer rock but still good. P6: 5.10a. Interesting movement on unnerving loose flakes. P7: AO. Poorly protected but easy climbing lead to 8 close bolts. Tricky moves after the bolt ladder can be aided with cams or free climbed. P8: 5.10c? This pitch felt hard, especially because I linked it with the bolt ladder (still a good idea). Awkward and soft rock. P9: 5.10d? Similar to the previous pitch but more sustained. Soft rock with holds just waiting to break and make it even harder.
We rapped from P9 with a single 70m, but another pitch and some scrambling lead to the top.
Jan 1, 2010
[Hide Comment] Giving this a grade V is a huge stretch. Considerint that all belays are bolted and the climbing is well bolted, this is a IV.
Competent climbers should bring no aid gear. The bolts are tight enough so that you can pull on draws and step on bolts to clip the next bolt, and repeat. For both leader and follower.
Nov 13, 2012
[Hide Comment] Climbed this 3 weeks ago on a sunny weekday. This route is very sunny! We approached via the north fork of the canyon to the big pine trees then up and right on the slab/ramp. The approach is long but very straightforward. Stay right and out of the wash for as long as you can. Then it's all boulder-hopping till you get to the two tall pine trees that straddle the wash. Follow the well-cairned slab up toward the Eagle Wall starting at the pine tree on the right. Oh, if you are wondering if you've reached the pine trees yet, then you have not. They are unique and HUGE!
We carried a single 70, gear to a #1 with some extra small pieces and a set of nuts. We never wished for anything larger. We linked pitches as follows and would do the same again:1/2, 5/6 and 7/8. Pitch two eats a lot of small nuts and thin gear in the thin seam. There are, by the way, a lot of bolts on this route. We decided we would shoot for the summit and walk off, so we didn't leave anything at the base.
Pitch 8 changed our minds, though. The bolt ladder went smoothly enough with some long slings. The move out of the aid into the slot protects well but felt like a sandbag and a joke at 5.8. Following beta here, I linked the following pitch (p8) with the aid pitch. It was totally different than anything else on the route and felt WAY harder than the 4th 'crux' pitch I led. It is sandy, slopey, overhanging climbing in an awkward shallow groove. It is bolted, though, and the bolts are good. After grunting through this pitch, we looked at p9 and decided to rap. Pitch 8 may have felt harder than it otherwise would have on account of linking it with the aid pitch and the strenuous moves out of the ladder and into the slot, but it was hard nonetheless. I agree that stopping to belay after the bolt ladder would be awkward at best and would position the belayer for the next pitch directly below the leader working through the hardest moves on the route thus far.
We thought overall that the rock on this route was generally not as bad as advertised. It is indeed a phenomenal route in an incredible position. My partner and I couldn't stop talking about making another move to the next best "sloping crimper"... or was it..."crimpy sloper"? I would definitely recommend not stopping at pitch 4. The bolt-ladder goes smoothly and is in an incredible position, too.
CAUTION: The bolt above the small roof on the ladder is WAY OUT of the rock. The bolt looks fairly new, but it is more than an inch out of the rock. It appears that this bolt must get repeatedly torqued outward as it is used to aid out from underneath the roof. If this bolt pulled with a ladder on it, somebody could take the lip of the roof in the face. More challenging even would be trying to move past this roof without a bolt...or a hook?
I look forward to going back and sending this route to the top.
Oct 27, 2014
[Hide Comment] I laughed when I saw that bolt sticking that far out of the rock. I wiggled it around and didn't feel very confident in it. There was a good BD .5 C4 placement I used instead.
Jan 3, 2015
[Hide Comment] Climbed this on a nice sunny day in November 2015. A few thoughts on approach/descent/gear/etc:
Approach: Of the 3 options, I have done the "4th class" and the "5th class" approach, as described in the Handren guide. The "5th class" approach is definitely superior; it is faster and avoids most of the annoying boulder hopping. I generally am not too psyched about unroped 5th class, but this was super mellow; any steep bits were extremely secure jug hauling. Routefinding was not too bad.
Topping out: DO IT! Seriously, the top out made the route IMO. The climbing is fun, but what makes it a cool day is the whole package of doing a bunch of pitches, topping out, and having a really awesome walk off the back. Climbing X number of pitches and then rapping off at an arbitrary point would be quite dissapointing in comparison. If you just want to climb 4-6 pitches of varnished face climbing and then rap off, there are better choices in Red Rocks that offer much easier approaches. Save this route for when you want the full adventure.
Walk Off: Long but pleasant, a bit of a canyoneering adventure. Very scenic. The Handren beta is good. Generally well cairned and easy to follow. Would still suck to do in the dark, so start early and move quickly on the route. After finishing lunch on the top, it took us about 3 hours total from top to car. I wouldn't do this if it were wet/icy/snowy in the gully; there are two descent cruxes that go down very slick water-polished bowls. Sticky rubber is nice. If in doubt, skirt these to skier's left.
Gear: We took X4s 0.2-0.4, C4s 0.5-1, a blue mastercam, a grey alien, a single set of small to medium nuts, and 14 draws/slings. This was plenty of gear. You could easily get away without the extra finger size pieces (the mastercam and alien). You could place a larger (~C4 #2) cam on the final 5.9 pitch, but you can get by just fine with the smaller cams (so save youself the weight; nothing bigger than #1). Having lots of draws/slings was nice. 14 draws and a 70 lets you link pitches, with some backcleaning and bolt skipping to save draws. You could use more, but it probably wouldn't be worth the weight.
Pitch difficulty: After the bolt ladder, the rock changes from pleasant incut holds on dark varnish to funky corner/groove climbing on rounded softer rock. The grades above the bolt ladder feel much stiffer, but the protection is good (bolts).
Bolt ladder: No aiders/daisies required. Standing in slings not even required. You can pretty easily get through by grabbing draws, stepping on bolts, and clipping in direct with a draw. Just like dogging up a sport climb. There still is a bolt sticking comically far out of the rock, but it still seems to hold weight, and is backed up by another bolt just a few feet below.
Nov 17, 2015
[Hide Comment] Pitch 1 and 2: 5.9 and 5.7. 200 feet without any bolts. Only having 6 cams resulted in a lot of runout climbing! Pitch 3: Well protected 10b, one or two small cam placements. Pitch 4: Well protected 10b/c, all bolts. Pitch 5/6: Well protected 5.9 and 10a, bolts, one or two cams. Pitch 7/8: Easy aid, monkey from bolt to bolt. Move out of aid with a slightly tricky hand jam to intermediate anchors. Fun 10b climbing past good bolts to a 5.9 crack with small cams or nuts. Pitch 9: Fun, well protected 10c or 10d on good bolts, no gear.
Rap: Single 70. We stopped at the intermediate anchor after the aid pitch to prevent a tricky rightward pendulum rap. The final rap anchor is off to the left, by the pillar, hard to see from above.
Jan 25, 2016
[Hide Comment] Fun route. We rapped. Climbed on 21Feb16.
Main note: one bolt on aid pitch was sticking an inch out of the wall. Luckily there's a good spot for a .3 right there, otherwise it would have been a difficult reach to the next bolt. So basically turned an A0 into a super easy C1 for half a second. My follower used the sticking out bolt, just for fun, with no problems.
We strung together pitches 5/6 and 7(aid)/8 pretty easily. Transitioning from aid to climbing between 7 and 8 was difficult. Pitches 8 and 9 were very hard and not at all the same kind of climbing as the rest of the route. Softer rock, a bit sugary, and either hollow or nonexistent holds. In my mind, it wasn't as fun. I wouldn't judge anyone for climbing up to the aid pitch and then rapping.
Mar 8, 2016
[Hide Comment] The missing bolt on the bolt ladder turned out to be no problem for us. There's a perfect BD 0.5 cam placement right next to it.
Dec 26, 2017
[Hide Comment] I figured I’d chime in with my take on free climbing the bolt ladder pitch for those interested. I was able to send it this spring on my second time up the route. I feel 13- is appropriate. It basically breaks down into 2 hard boulder problems. First one is shortly off the belay involving some hard underclinging/thumbderclinging and highstepping in the slab section before the missing bolt. At the missing bolt section there’s a long move off a hand jam to the second crux which is a tensiony lie back followed by some fun heelhookery that leads into some easier traversing to the anchor. I’d give the slab section V6/7 and the heel hook/tension section V5/6? Really fun climbing that feels hard near the end of the day!
Nov 21, 2018
[Hide Comment] Nice work, Rob! I was able to free to a move or two before the handjam and from the handjam, but I couldn't figure out the slab standup move. There was a standup move that I couldn't finish because I couldn't find a way to use my right foot. I agree the lieback, heel-hook section feels V6ish or so. For me, the standup move felt harder, and the rock quality there is very sandy, hollow, and shitty for a couple moves.
The next party might want to bring an adjustable wrench or a 9/16" wrench. Virtually every bolt on the aid pitch and perhaps some bolts on the next pitch have loose studs that I was only able to hand tighten!
Finally, many of the pitches protect well with a single rack, some offset nuts, offset brass, and offset small cams. Many of the bolts on most pitches of the route are reasonably close to very good natural gear placements and can be avoided safely if you are so inclined.
Jan 1, 2019
[Hide Comment] Great route! I agree with most of the comments above--a standard rack to #1 with 14-16 draws is enough to link pitches with a 70 m rope. The guidebook claims there is a anchor at the top of pitch 1, but I couldn't find it. On rappel, I found rapping straight down from pitch 1 led to an anchor with one new bolt and one old bolt. We rapped directly from P8 to P6 but took all other intermediate stations with a single 70 m rope and found there were no rope-stretching raps.
Mar 15, 2019
[Hide Comment] You can link 1&2. 5&6. 7&8. If done this way you will get six full value pitches. If pitched out for nine pitches some would be like 40 feet and not quality ending in awkward belay stances. Pitches 7-9 are the
Mar 27, 2019
[Hide Comment] One thing that we missed: there's not a bolted anchor at the top of the first pitch - you have to build a gear anchor or link with the second pitch.
We were expecting one since we read you can rap the route - on rappel you mostly use the bolted anchors at the top of each pitch, but the anchors for the final rap are ~10-20' left of the top of the first pitch.
Nov 24, 2019
[Hide Comment] Amazing route, just as good as the neighboring Levitation imho.
Surprised there isn't more discussion about P10, I thought it was just as hard or barely easier than the .11 pitches on Levi- though it's possible I'm just more intimidated by slab moves on fragile holds.
One other note: We couldn't find any rap rings at the top of P11 so don't do the last pitch without your approach shoes unless you want to downlead P11 (5.8ish) at the end of the day...
Jan 4, 2021
[Hide Comment] The first two pitches link with a 60m rope. The walk-off should not be missed, it is beautiful. Oddly the guidebook says 'walk north...' but you definitely start out by walking left and down, which is more west than north. This caused me to get lost the first time I climbed Levitation (went north and ended up on the far side of the ridge, missing the trail and finding steep icy slabs instead), but this time on Eagle Dance we nailed it. From there the instructions are good--you aim for the blocky tower, walk around the back of it, following a nice cairned trail to a beautiful ramp/groove feature that leads to the canyon bottom.
Jan 25, 2021
[Hide Comment] I feel like this climb doesn't get enough talk about how the actual climb is so here's my opinion. (About Grades, and so on)
link: Pitches 1-2 P1-2: Easy climbing for the first 220ish feet about 5.8ish maybe one or two 5.9 moves P3: Sustained fun climbing 5.10ish mild 5.10 moves for most of the route with one balancy traverse. I also somehow got off route for a second and made it 5.10b ish Link: Pitches 4-5 P4-5: Balancy fun 5.10c climbing for the first 90 feet leads into a bit of 5.10a/b climbing for another 90 feet (180 feet) Link: Pitches 6, 7, 8 P6-8: A little bit of 5.9ish climbing with maybe one 5.10 move in there leads to the belay below the bolt ladder, Next climb up through the bolt ladder which is way harder then it looks (currently one bolt is missing so its like a bolt ladder into a reachy 5.11 move, and then the top bit of the bolt ladder), after the bolt ladder make an awkward traverse into a slot, offwidth thingy, climb to an anchor, and then climb some powerful stemming moves and finger jams to a shitty hanging belay lol. I thought the climbing (pitch 8) above the bolt ladder was all kinda awkward and techy. 5.10c/d ish. P9 (the last pitch worth doing unless topping out): make a couple easy moves placing one piece or so to a bulge followed by some techy slab moves, clip a bolt, then make a few kinda hard moves until you can get a piece in, in the crack, then clip bolts to the anchor.(the rock on this pitch isn't great) 5.10d To descend: we rappelled with two ropes.
Overall my thoughts: A great climb but be prepared I didn't really think it was any easier then its neighbor, Levitation-29. Have fun!
Jan 10, 2022
[Hide Comment] Last thing: saying the bolt ladder is "easy, and no big deal" it may not take any special gear but that's the biggest sandbag of the century hahahaha.
Jan 10, 2022
My partner pulled off a chest-sized block on the 7th pitch between the second and third bolt yesterday. Thankfully no injuries! He placed a cam after the second bolt, then stood in a sling and used an undercling to balance himself. The soft rock he was pulling on ripped from the wall. The pitch still goes at A0 and appears to still go free.
We didn't see bolts on top of p10, but it's easy to keep going up the crack and belay from a boulder. Check out the Eagle Wall page for a gps track and detailed description of the descent. If rapping, stop at the top of p9 (sandy 10c).
Jan 16, 2022
[Hide Comment] @Adam Fleming: So glad to hear that block is gone! It kinda woke me up for a second when I first touched it, made a spooky noise hahahaha
Feb 17, 2022
[Hide Comment] Climbed this on March 11, 2022 and the very last two pitches are fun! The crux pitch is really good. We linked pitches 1 and 2, 4 and 5, 7 (aid) and 8, and then 10 and 11. Linking the last two probably was not a good idea for communication but the others worked well. Also, the rap slings on the old tree at the top of Levitation 29 were gone so we down-climbed placing gear for the last person to remove to the last bolted rap anchor to descend.
Mar 15, 2022
[Hide Comment] P1: ends at gear anchor. Did not link to p2 to avoid running out single rack. Rap bolts 20ft climbers left.
The aid pitch: used a yates adjustable daisy and two double slings with midpoint knots as aiders. Placed a few cams as additional points of aid. By this method it felt trivial - c1. A micronut helped protect the runnout to the first bolt of the aid pitch. Trying to free the moves between bolts instead of aiding off cams is I think what the other comments are talking about when they say it is a hard pitch.
The free pitch immediately above the aid pitch: it was hard but doable, 5.10c. Place more pro between bolts to avoid falling on belayer.
The crux pitch: this was actually pretty hard. 5.10d+. Micro nuts could help protect between bolts. Hard stem moves and other tricks.
Final 5.9 and scramble to summit: if you link these, forget communicating with your belayer. A single rack was not enough to protect this distance and leave gear for an anchor.
All other pitches: 5.10- max, found other pitch grades to be soft.
Nov 15, 2022
[Hide Comment] If you don’t want to link pitches 1 and 2, you’ll have to build a gear anchor. The rap anchor for p1 is on the face about 10 feet to the left of the climb. Successfully rapped from the top of pitch 4 with a 70m. We simul-rapped and made it to our knots, but were able to go direct before taking ourselves off of rappel no problem.
Nov 18, 2022
[Hide Comment] The crux pitch has a cool boulder problem surfing the rail. However, it's more in the "aid pitch that goes free" category rather than a good free climbing pitch. Eagle Dance is a great option if you don't want to join the conga line next door on a cold sunny day. Mountain Beast is an equally good option but loses sun earlier in the day on the upper pitches.
Dec 8, 2023
Avg: 3.3 from 197
votes
Access Issue: Red Rock RAIN AND WET ROCK: The sandstone is fragile and is very easily damaged when wet.
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Longmont, CO
Boulder, CO
Boulder, CO
Even though the aid section can be done with slings it is not as simple as one might think. I found that moving into the crack/groove at the end of the bolt ladder was non trivial. I certainly did not feel comfortable going it "free" into the groove right after the last bolt. (traverse to the left)
The climbing to reach the hanging belay above the "Trash and Dangle" and the next short section looked awkward and hard. Possibly harder and certainly weirder than anything on the route up to that point.
I found that a pair of light aiders and a fifi hook made this whole section way more pleasant and secure.
Side note: Due to the overhang and traverse, it proved impossible to "throw" my aiders to my belayer once I made it to the top of the pitch. He in turn had to trash and dangle until he reached the crack where I could lower the aiders to him. May 10, 2004
nyc
as for the aid section, i had really good luck with double length slings as my aiders. i knotted the tops, eight inches down or so, with uneven webbing, so the top had a nice grab handle.
clip a draw to the aid bolt. clip the rope to the draw. clip your 'aider' to the top biner of your draw. step into it. repeat. it was really pretty cruiser. if you're getting bored/tired, clip your daisy to the bolt and hang for a bit. above the traverse where the bolts run out i was pretty sketched out about switching to free climbing for the last 10 feet, so i popped a 3/4" or 1" cam in there and got at least one move out of it. the move i bypassed looked pretty stiff, but ill be the first to admit im a pansy. Apr 11, 2005
nyc
Delta, CO
The aid pitch worked pretty easily with a bunch of shoulder length slings, but an etrier per climber would certainly speed things up. It was my partner's intro to aid climbing!
We both thought the crux was getting up the slot just beyond the aid. Nov 29, 2005
This is a fantastic route that is worth the big approach. Apr 13, 2006
Jason Apr 15, 2006
Fayetteville, NC
Tempe AZ,
slc, ut
Link pitches 1 and 2, 5 and 6, 7 and 8, and 10 and 11. The route is then only 7 pitches. Oct 15, 2008
SLC, UT
slc, ut
Boise, ID
Reno, NV
Since the route description seems to be missing this, here's my pitch by pitch beta.
P1: 5.8/5.9. Fun crack and face climbing.
P2: 5.8/5.9. Similar to the first pitch, also fun.
P3: 5.10a. A terrific, sustained pitched with a low crux.
P4: 5.10b. Another great pitch with a high crux.
P5: 5.9. Slabby climbing on softer rock but still good.
P6: 5.10a. Interesting movement on unnerving loose flakes.
P7: AO. Poorly protected but easy climbing lead to 8 close bolts. Tricky moves after the bolt ladder can be aided with cams or free climbed.
P8: 5.10c? This pitch felt hard, especially because I linked it with the bolt ladder (still a good idea). Awkward and soft rock.
P9: 5.10d? Similar to the previous pitch but more sustained. Soft rock with holds just waiting to break and make it even harder.
We rapped from P9 with a single 70m, but another pitch and some scrambling lead to the top. Jan 1, 2010
Gnarnia
Competent climbers should bring no aid gear. The bolts are tight enough so that you can pull on draws and step on bolts to clip the next bolt, and repeat. For both leader and follower. Nov 13, 2012
Longmont, CO
New York, NY
Also pro is good in the upper pitches. its bolted. Apr 25, 2013
Las Vegas, Nevada
We carried a single 70, gear to a #1 with some extra small pieces and a set of nuts. We never wished for anything larger. We linked pitches as follows and would do the same again:1/2, 5/6 and 7/8. Pitch two eats a lot of small nuts and thin gear in the thin seam. There are, by the way, a lot of bolts on this route. We decided we would shoot for the summit and walk off, so we didn't leave anything at the base.
Pitch 8 changed our minds, though. The bolt ladder went smoothly enough with some long slings. The move out of the aid into the slot protects well but felt like a sandbag and a joke at 5.8. Following beta here, I linked the following pitch (p8) with the aid pitch. It was totally different than anything else on the route and felt WAY harder than the 4th 'crux' pitch I led. It is sandy, slopey, overhanging climbing in an awkward shallow groove. It is bolted, though, and the bolts are good. After grunting through this pitch, we looked at p9 and decided to rap. Pitch 8 may have felt harder than it otherwise would have on account of linking it with the aid pitch and the strenuous moves out of the ladder and into the slot, but it was hard nonetheless. I agree that stopping to belay after the bolt ladder would be awkward at best and would position the belayer for the next pitch directly below the leader working through the hardest moves on the route thus far.
We thought overall that the rock on this route was generally not as bad as advertised. It is indeed a phenomenal route in an incredible position. My partner and I couldn't stop talking about making another move to the next best "sloping crimper"... or was it..."crimpy sloper"? I would definitely recommend not stopping at pitch 4. The bolt-ladder goes smoothly and is in an incredible position, too.
CAUTION: The bolt above the small roof on the ladder is WAY OUT of the rock. The bolt looks fairly new, but it is more than an inch out of the rock. It appears that this bolt must get repeatedly torqued outward as it is used to aid out from underneath the roof. If this bolt pulled with a ladder on it, somebody could take the lip of the roof in the face. More challenging even would be trying to move past this roof without a bolt...or a hook?
I look forward to going back and sending this route to the top. Oct 27, 2014
Las Vegas, NV
Approach: Of the 3 options, I have done the "4th class" and the "5th class" approach, as described in the Handren guide. The "5th class" approach is definitely superior; it is faster and avoids most of the annoying boulder hopping. I generally am not too psyched about unroped 5th class, but this was super mellow; any steep bits were extremely secure jug hauling. Routefinding was not too bad.
Topping out: DO IT! Seriously, the top out made the route IMO. The climbing is fun, but what makes it a cool day is the whole package of doing a bunch of pitches, topping out, and having a really awesome walk off the back. Climbing X number of pitches and then rapping off at an arbitrary point would be quite dissapointing in comparison. If you just want to climb 4-6 pitches of varnished face climbing and then rap off, there are better choices in Red Rocks that offer much easier approaches. Save this route for when you want the full adventure.
Walk Off: Long but pleasant, a bit of a canyoneering adventure. Very scenic. The Handren beta is good. Generally well cairned and easy to follow. Would still suck to do in the dark, so start early and move quickly on the route. After finishing lunch on the top, it took us about 3 hours total from top to car. I wouldn't do this if it were wet/icy/snowy in the gully; there are two descent cruxes that go down very slick water-polished bowls. Sticky rubber is nice. If in doubt, skirt these to skier's left.
Gear: We took X4s 0.2-0.4, C4s 0.5-1, a blue mastercam, a grey alien, a single set of small to medium nuts, and 14 draws/slings. This was plenty of gear. You could easily get away without the extra finger size pieces (the mastercam and alien). You could place a larger (~C4 #2) cam on the final 5.9 pitch, but you can get by just fine with the smaller cams (so save youself the weight; nothing bigger than #1). Having lots of draws/slings was nice. 14 draws and a 70 lets you link pitches, with some backcleaning and bolt skipping to save draws. You could use more, but it probably wouldn't be worth the weight.
Pitch difficulty: After the bolt ladder, the rock changes from pleasant incut holds on dark varnish to funky corner/groove climbing on rounded softer rock. The grades above the bolt ladder feel much stiffer, but the protection is good (bolts).
Bolt ladder: No aiders/daisies required. Standing in slings not even required. You can pretty easily get through by grabbing draws, stepping on bolts, and clipping in direct with a draw. Just like dogging up a sport climb. There still is a bolt sticking comically far out of the rock, but it still seems to hold weight, and is backed up by another bolt just a few feet below. Nov 17, 2015
SLC
Pitch 3: Well protected 10b, one or two small cam placements.
Pitch 4: Well protected 10b/c, all bolts.
Pitch 5/6: Well protected 5.9 and 10a, bolts, one or two cams.
Pitch 7/8: Easy aid, monkey from bolt to bolt. Move out of aid with a slightly tricky hand jam to intermediate anchors. Fun 10b climbing past good bolts to a 5.9 crack with small cams or nuts.
Pitch 9: Fun, well protected 10c or 10d on good bolts, no gear.
Rap: Single 70. We stopped at the intermediate anchor after the aid pitch to prevent a tricky rightward pendulum rap. The final rap anchor is off to the left, by the pillar, hard to see from above. Jan 25, 2016
Main note: one bolt on aid pitch was sticking an inch out of the wall. Luckily there's a good spot for a .3 right there, otherwise it would have been a difficult reach to the next bolt. So basically turned an A0 into a super easy C1 for half a second. My follower used the sticking out bolt, just for fun, with no problems.
We strung together pitches 5/6 and 7(aid)/8 pretty easily. Transitioning from aid to climbing between 7 and 8 was difficult. Pitches 8 and 9 were very hard and not at all the same kind of climbing as the rest of the route. Softer rock, a bit sugary, and either hollow or nonexistent holds. In my mind, it wasn't as fun. I wouldn't judge anyone for climbing up to the aid pitch and then rapping. Mar 8, 2016
noco
Eli Feb 9, 2017
SF, CA
Seattle, WA
Duluth, MN
The next party might want to bring an adjustable wrench or a 9/16" wrench. Virtually every bolt on the aid pitch and perhaps some bolts on the next pitch have loose studs that I was only able to hand tighten!
Finally, many of the pitches protect well with a single rack, some offset nuts, offset brass, and offset small cams. Many of the bolts on most pitches of the route are reasonably close to very good natural gear placements and can be avoided safely if you are so inclined. Jan 1, 2019
Cambridge, MA
We were expecting one since we read you can rap the route - on rappel you mostly use the bolted anchors at the top of each pitch, but the anchors for the final rap are ~10-20' left of the top of the first pitch. Nov 24, 2019
Mammoth, CA
Surprised there isn't more discussion about P10, I thought it was just as hard or barely easier than the .11 pitches on Levi- though it's possible I'm just more intimidated by slab moves on fragile holds.
One other note: We couldn't find any rap rings at the top of P11 so don't do the last pitch without your approach shoes unless you want to downlead P11 (5.8ish) at the end of the day... Jan 4, 2021
Joshua Tree, CA
Las Vegas, NV
link: Pitches 1-2
P1-2: Easy climbing for the first 220ish feet about 5.8ish maybe one or two 5.9 moves
P3: Sustained fun climbing 5.10ish mild 5.10 moves for most of the route with one balancy traverse. I also somehow got off route for a second and made it 5.10b ish
Link: Pitches 4-5
P4-5: Balancy fun 5.10c climbing for the first 90 feet leads into a bit of 5.10a/b climbing for another 90 feet (180 feet)
Link: Pitches 6, 7, 8
P6-8: A little bit of 5.9ish climbing with maybe one 5.10 move in there leads to the belay below the bolt ladder, Next climb up through the bolt ladder which is way harder then it looks (currently one bolt is missing so its like a bolt ladder into a reachy 5.11 move, and then the top bit of the bolt ladder), after the bolt ladder make an awkward traverse into a slot, offwidth thingy, climb to an anchor, and then climb some powerful stemming moves and finger jams to a shitty hanging belay lol. I thought the climbing (pitch 8) above the bolt ladder was all kinda awkward and techy. 5.10c/d ish.
P9 (the last pitch worth doing unless topping out): make a couple easy moves placing one piece or so to a bulge followed by some techy slab moves, clip a bolt, then make a few kinda hard moves until you can get a piece in, in the crack, then clip bolts to the anchor.(the rock on this pitch isn't great) 5.10d
To descend: we rappelled with two ropes.
Overall my thoughts: A great climb but be prepared I didn't really think it was any easier then its neighbor, Levitation-29. Have fun! Jan 10, 2022
Las Vegas, NV
AMGA Certified Rock Guide; SLC
My partner pulled off a chest-sized block on the 7th pitch between the second and third bolt yesterday. Thankfully no injuries! He placed a cam after the second bolt, then stood in a sling and used an undercling to balance himself. The soft rock he was pulling on ripped from the wall. The pitch still goes at A0 and appears to still go free.
We didn't see bolts on top of p10, but it's easy to keep going up the crack and belay from a boulder. Check out the Eagle Wall page for a gps track and detailed description of the descent. If rapping, stop at the top of p9 (sandy 10c). Jan 16, 2022
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Seattle, Wa
The aid pitch: used a yates adjustable daisy and two double slings with midpoint knots as aiders. Placed a few cams as additional points of aid. By this method it felt trivial - c1. A micronut helped protect the runnout to the first bolt of the aid pitch. Trying to free the moves between bolts instead of aiding off cams is I think what the other comments are talking about when they say it is a hard pitch.
The free pitch immediately above the aid pitch: it was hard but doable, 5.10c. Place more pro between bolts to avoid falling on belayer.
The crux pitch: this was actually pretty hard. 5.10d+. Micro nuts could help protect between bolts. Hard stem moves and other tricks.
Final 5.9 and scramble to summit: if you link these, forget communicating with your belayer. A single rack was not enough to protect this distance and leave gear for an anchor.
All other pitches: 5.10- max, found other pitch grades to be soft. Nov 15, 2022
Lahaina, HI