Mountain Project Logo
To save paper & ink, use the [Hide] controls next to photos and comments so you only print what you need.

Vision Quest

5.11+, Trad, 200 ft (61 m), 2 pitches, Grade II,  Avg: 3 from 2 votes
FA: Matt Lisenby & Will Hays, 1990s
Colorado > Grand Junction… > Colorado Nation… > Sentinel Spire

Description

The striking, wide crack shooting off to the right of the first Medicine Man belay. First projected by Matt Lisenby in the late ninties but abandoned due to loose rock. Cleaned up a bit in 2005 by Elizabeth Fortushniak, David Roy, & James Stover. This line is a great addition to the Sentinel Spire.

Upon arriving at the first belay of Medicine Man, hoist your sack and thruch up the wide (#6 Friend) slot until you can force a fist into the overhanging cresent, fire away until you turn the roof and rest before thruching again up the remaining rotten slot (5.9+). The next pitch is a pleasant, narrowing crack until you are forced into the dihedral. More clean thruching brings you to another good anchor. The final summit pitch remains a mystery, as the quality significantly diminishes in the final 100 feet.

Rap down the stations, and head up Medicine Man for a stout, six pitch day.

Protection

Single Friends down to a 00 Metolius TCU, 3 #3.5/3 #4/2 #5/1 #6, nuts.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Looking down on the first belay of Medicine Man from the Vision Quest's wide second pitch.
[Hide Photo] Looking down on the first belay of Medicine Man from the Vision Quest's wide second pitch.
Hanging out on Vision Quest's 1st belay.
[Hide Photo] Hanging out on Vision Quest's 1st belay.
The three climbs around the Southern face of Sentinel Spire
[Hide Photo] The three climbs around the Southern face of Sentinel Spire

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Matt Lisenby
[Hide Comment] Will Hays and I climbed the Vision Quest pitches documented here in the late '90s while some friends were climbing Medicine Man. Not bringing bolting equip, we used gear belays. On the 2nd Vision Quest pitch (3rd overall), we trundled a refrigerator!-sized block with just the slightest effort; it would have just missed the belayer had it cut loose spontaneously (it had to be climbed on/over to do the route). The block made it all the way to the bottom of the valley. At the current top of the route, due to poor rock quality and diminishing light, we bailed upwards via a fixed line courtesy of our friends who topped out Medicine Man. I always wondered if a final pitch might go . . . . May 11, 2011
Airbiscuit
Grand Junction, Co
  5.11+
[Hide Comment] Matt, I hadn't heard that story of you guys till quite a while after we put it up and really just got the short version. Thanks for filling in the blanks. When I found out, I was bummed, but the damage had aready been done. It's hard to tell where folks have been out here sometimes. We did some cleaning ourselves though nothing like that. That block must have come out as you move right from the fingers to the platform before the final wide section. A little scary through the choss band but pretty good overall, we thought it was worthy of some attention. What did you guys call it? Grade? May 12, 2011
Matt Lisenby
[Hide Comment] I don't think we ever called it anything. 5.11 and 5.10 for the two independent pitches is fair, I think. If you like this one, you would enjoy "Wide Load" AKA Industrial Strength, a 5 pitch 5.11+ on Clueless Tower in the Monument: 4 stellar consecutive OW pitches joining "Get a Life" for the last exit pitch; it starts immediately right of Get a Life . . . (Not the "Wide Load aka route 3" route documented on MP). May 20, 2011