PRINT: Rock Climb Lost Pioneers, City of Rocks

Lost Pioneers

5.10a PG13, Trad, 100 ft (30 m),

Avg: 2.9 from 114 votes
FA: J. Goodwin, 1980
Idaho > S Idaho > City of Rocks > Breadloaves > Upper Breadloaves - East

Access Issue: (1) Weather Wall, Yellow Wall, & all the crags north of Twin Sisters are CLOSED. (2) No trash cans. (3) Highlining temporary ban in place for CIRO and CRSP Details

(1) The area, crags, and routes just north of the Twin Sisters are on private land and the landowner recently posted no trespassing notices at the gated road/trail to the area. Any access of these areas and routes is trespassing. The area was closed by the landowner due to trespassing, illegal camping, fires & trash, and disregard of owner's privacy.
Please be respectful of the land owner's wishes and do not climb or hike here until further notice. This includes White Lightning, Skinner Roof, Weather Wall, Yellow Wall, Larry's Annihilation, Needle Rock, Mississippi Fred's, and Secret Tom's. Park officials and CRAG are working to regain access to this valuable climbing resource. Be patient and check back for updates.
(2) No trash cans anywhere in City of Rocks: urlzs.com/c4eZH
(3) HIGHLINING IS PROHIBITED
By the authority of the park manager, Highlining at City of Rocks National Reserve and Castle Rocks State Park is temporarily prohibited as of August 28, 2019.

The park(s) is reviewing highlining activities. Here are Google Drive links to the closure and the updated Code of Regulations for CIRO. drive.google.com/open?id=1y… and drive.google.com/open?id=1Y…

Description

A pretty good climb that packs a punch despite being a fairly low angle corner. This route sports mostly good protection opportunities with mostly solid moves and stances. Although it may be a little "exciting" in certain places, it should be regarded as generally safe.

Location

This route is in the obvious right-facing corner at the Northern-most end of the East side of the breadloaves- from the old-fashioned water pump, look up to the base. Climb this corner to a shoulder on the rock, well below the true summit, but still a long pitch, about 100'.

Protection

A standard light rack to 3". The anchor up top is a cordalette and webbing sling around a massive horn - rapping to the NW, over the top of the sub-feature that this route climbs. Take extra cord (30') in case this is in disrepair. There are two sets of anchors found up top, one set directly on the route right below the big OW/finger crack, and another set to rap from (with a 70, don't know if a 60 would reach) from the top and to the left (easy to get to) of the OW.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Maura Hahnenberger on Lost Pioneers

Lost Pioneers to Green Crack makes an excellent linkup (done as 1 pitch).

Looking up Lost Pioneers.

View of the climb from the base - harder than it looks!

The rappel anchor

Looking down on the fun offwidth with perfect finger crack topout section.

The route from the base.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

susan peplow
Joshua Tree

5.10a

Like Tony said, the route looks low angle from the ground...and it is but it's somewhat awkward. Good holds, takes gear (better than the PG13 rating) and is fun. Just before reaching the summit you have to climb using a somewhat offwidth crack on the right until you can gain some good finger locks for your left hand. Anchor as of 8/10/07 included the slung block with a slotted nut for a back up. Not sure if it's bomber, but I rapped on it!

~Susan Aug 15, 2007

BretWith1T
Laramie, Wyoming

Varied, fun, and interesting route. More challenging than it looks from the ground, for sure. We walked off the west side which proved to be almost as spicy as the climb up. Jul 10, 2010

Spencer Weiler
Grand Junction

Excellent route! The climb's personality seemed to be plug some good gear, then run it as you mantle or reach through a thin section to a bomber rest. I felt the top offwidth was the crux as you have to lieback the finger crack while your feet smear on the arete till you can get inside the offwidth. Decking onto the ledge below seemed likely due to rope stretch. Exhilarating! Anchor is now two fixed nuts equalized. Jul 13, 2010

Brian B Ballard
Laramie, WY

Great Route. We hiked to the No Cash Refunds Anchor and rapped from there.. Jun 23, 2011

Ryan Henderson
Denver, CO

5.10a

This was actually my first 5.10 Trad lead. I thought the protection was no problem. I wouldn't rate this a PG13 at all.

This climb was actually more enjoyable than Bloody Fingers for me. Less anxiety and pump. Maybe because there were two distinct rests that I could take while climbing? Where Bloody Fingers was very sustained...

I thought it was actually a great first 5.10 lead! I lead a couple other 5.10's that day (White Lightning, Bloody Fingers, Dupree's Diamond Blues), and this was the only one I on-sighted. Give it a go! Aug 5, 2013

DRyan Ryan
Bellingham, WA

As of 9/14 there is no longer any slung block above the offwidth section that I could find. There is a slung boulder at the base of the offwidth, but then you'd be cheating yourself out of the best part of the climb! Instead, move to the far left of the ledge at the top of the finger cracks to find chains directly above where the route started. A 70 m got me down. A 60 m will likely work, but it'll be close. Sep 2, 2014

Sam Cannon
Salt Lake City, UT

5.10a

As of 6.12.15 there are bolted anchors at the top below the OW/finger crack. I highly recommend, as others have, doing the OW section, it's awesome, and somewhere in the 9/10a range. There are anchors easily seen at the top of the OW as well.

I brought 1 #4 C4 and was glad to have it. Jun 13, 2015

Jordan Gilbert
Ogden, UT

5.10a

This seemingly overlooked route is one of my favorite COR moderates. Such fun movement throughout, would get 4 stars if it was a bit more continuous. Oct 23, 2016

Jesse Wees
Boise

This route is not PG13 with modern protection. Excellent and often overlooked. May 4, 2020

Russ Keane
Salt Lake

Classic granite style climbing! Way better than you'd think! Definitely link into Green Crack, it's so dope together. Jul 6, 2022

Kyle Goupil
Salt Lake City

As others have noted, this route is not PG13, and linking it with Green Crack makes for one really awesome route! Linked together I would give it 3/4 stars, really awesome! Jun 18, 2023