Northeast Face of Warrior I
5.9,
Trad, Alpine, 1200 ft (364 m), 7 pitches, Grade IV,
Avg: 3.1 from 43
votes
FA: Beckey, Ripley 1962
Wyoming
> Wind River Range
> Cirque of the T…
> Warrior 1
Route Description
This is a bit of an adventure climb, I will describe it as best I recall, but we certainly followed our noses a bit.
Once in the Warrior I basin (a bit to the north/left of the peak), we scrambled up the grassy ledges rightward. Eventually, we were cliffed out and roped up:
P1 & P2: Follow chossy ramp system angling up and right (5.5ish maybe). We did this in 2 pitches, with a bit of simulclimbing, to a large ledge.
P3: The wall becomes more imposing and the route is not obvious here. The route is supposed to "use thin holds for 30 ft, then cross a slab to the left and climb a crack..." I climbed straight up into a dirty unprotected flake system (scary 10 and my second ripped off a nub and fell here), then traversed right on decent holds . There seemed to be other variations, either left or right of that line, presumably they are safer and a lot easier. There is an obvious niche about 120 ft up, that I did find without trouble.
P4. Out of the niche there are two obvious cracks, we went for the right of them, which wound up being wide and strenuous (9+). At the top, there was a good belay.
P5. The next pitch went up corner crack of a large block, to a nice landing area, which is tempting to belay on - but better to push on and extend the pitch, gaining the summit of the smaller pillar.
P6. The "solitary crack in the headwall" - this is the pitch you can fight over. 100 ft of 2 - 3" crack to a slab, at the top of which you can belay.
P7. We exited right, which was an awkward escape from the slab followed by a short step down, then 25 ft of ow/chimney. Then to the summit...
Descent was straight-forward, rapping down (2 ropes) to the climbers-left of the route.
![Topo of the route]()
[Hide Photo] Topo of the route
![This is the gorgeous 6th pitch which ascends from the shorter tower onto the main formation.]()
[Hide Photo] This is the gorgeous 6th pitch which ascends from the shorter tower onto the main formation.
![Warrior I as seen from north of camp.]()
[Hide Photo] Warrior I as seen from north of camp.
![This is the P3 we climbed. Grass made the middle of the pitch exciting. 59m long.]()
[Hide Photo] This is the P3 we climbed. Grass made the middle of the pitch exciting. 59m long.
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Flagstaff
Denver, CO
I am going to post a full description soon - just need to get back to my notes. Aug 20, 2007
Flagstaff
bozeman
Leavenworth WA
p-1 climb easy rock to rap anchor.
p-2 stretch rope to next rap anchor below "face hold traverse pitch"
p-3 right from rap anchor climb up cracks and face, traverse left after 40 feet or so and go left on thin, grassy ledge to splitter corner. climb past the small "horn" described by Kelsey and top the pitch to a grassy ledge. We had to simul with a 60 meter for about 20 feet. this pitch is well protected and quite good.
p-4 climb cracks and chimney for a ropelength to the base of the money pitch.
p-5 climb the money pitch, belay after a 100'
p-6 move right of the belay over a slab into hands. climb to the bad looking rap anchor and move right around the corner. this is not obvious, but do it. going straight up (the most logical choice) leaves one on top of a loose pillar looking at a dirty slab and pegmatite traverse (my stopper is up there if you want it). The moves around the corner from the rap anchor are exposed and awesome. belay in alcove after 150 feet.
p-7 climb cracks to the top for a ropelength. Be careful on 1st rap for loose rocks on the ledge just below. raps are straight forward.
This route is pretty awesome. if you are a 5.9 leader, i suggest the minor on haystack or ecclesiastes on mitchell to cut your teeth on. I am not one to rerate climbs, but it has "Beckey" and "Warrior" in the name........
Matt Hartman
Lander, Wy. Sep 5, 2011
Salt Lake City, UT
Approach: Walk towards Jackass pass area until you are to the left of the wall and can see the obvious ledge systems. Follow the talus and grassy ramps up then right to the end where curving flakes lead up and right to the first belay.
Descent: Rappel. 2 x 60 meter ropes mandatory or you can make more belays on the way down.
p-1 5.2 50 meters: climb easy rock to rap anchor.
p-2 5.7 60 meters: two options - left and up (we did not do, this is the rap line) versus continue up the flakes slightly right towards a huge block. Climb inside left of the block then step left to another lie off flake crack and continue to the large ledge. Move left to the belay around a slung pillar.
p-3 5.8 65 meters (simo-climb):Traverse right from rap anchor 10 meters and climb up cracks and face, traverse left after 40 feet or so and climb up some unprotected face and chicken heads to a large right leaning, right facing corner. Continue past the corner angling up and right on right leaning crack and flakes to a belay below a large left facing corner.
p-4 5.9 55 meters: Climb the crack, then a chimney then a fat crack/OW in a left facing corner (clean, sweet climbing) to a ledge, continue up a finger crack to second ledge, traverse right and step into a shaft to belay. This is a clean sustained pitch and is the crux of the route. Several 3-4 inch cams are quite neccesary. I had to shuffle them up as I went for the first 30 meters or so.
p-5: 5.4 20 meterw: climb 20 meters up the shaft to the top of the pillar, base of the "money pitch."
p-6 5.9 30 meters: climb the money pitch, belay after a 100' - Save a 2 inch cam (yellow camalot) for the belay up there.
p-7 5.7 50 meters: move right of the belay over a slab into a wide flake - pinch and step and lay off the flake to the bad looking rap anchor and move right around the corner. this is not obvious, but do it. belay in alcove after 150 feet.
p-8 climb cracks to the top for a ropelength. Jul 25, 2013
Boulder, CO
Matt & Tim: thanks for a good route description! We mostly followed your description except on p3, where we climbed straight up from the anchors into the bottom of the right leaning corner. This variation follows somewhat dirty, but protectable cracks at about 5.8 and makes more sense to me than going over to the right then back left.
On the last pitch (p8), we followed the left of two cracks: good climbing and not that easy; probably about 5.9 (wide hands).
Rack: I thought two #3 and one #4 (BD C4) were more than adequate for the crux OW, which is pretty civilized as OWs go (fun, even). You'll have to walk them up a bit but nothing unreasonable. So, I'd suggest a single rack from small nuts to #0.5 C4, then doubles from #0.75 to #3 C4, and one #4 C4, or equivalent. Sep 3, 2013
Salt Lake City, UT
Leavenworth WA
Loveland, CO
From the top of the route, scramble 15-20 down off the back of the summit to find a semi-hidden rap station on a chock stone in a small notch. Rap here for about 80-100 feet (we had a single 70m rope).
Then take the ramp up and left to the obvious large notch/col which faces Warbonnet and is the ending of the other route I think.
Scramble down and right to the other side (front side of Warrior 1 face, a few hundred feet to climbers left of the climb)
Walk down and across on grassy ledges and choss-filled crumbly gullies that resemble something from Mordor. It sucked. We passed many tempting lines that would have taken us up. But keep going while trying to avoid kicking off basketball size blocks at your partner. The traverse goes towards Warbonnet and you descend to some slabs at the bottom of a large gully that seem really close to where you approached (but too high too have rap stations or any viable option down). We roped up for this large traverse and went about two or three 70m rope lengths. Once you reach decent slabs look up here at a gully that probably holds snow most of the season.
Scramble or climb up the gully (wet and had lots of snow melting in July) to a prominent ledge up a the base a small dark/black wall with a big roof. From here you could take a variety of lines, ours was a thin chossy crack that surprisingly took gear at 9+ maybe. It didnt seem like anyone every took any of these lines before. Anyway, pick a line here and aim for a large ledge that runs left to the ramp behind the warrior 1 pinnacles. Take the ramp and/or climb an easy crack to top grassy backside of the mountain.
From here descend grassy fields left staying high through a couple cols and gullies to reach the Warbonnet descent (which is steep hiking down gullies to the col between Warbonnet and Sundance) and eventually back to Arrowhead lake. Jul 10, 2016
Denver
SLC
Descent couloir to climber's left (by Warbonnet) still had a lot of snow and seemed very steep. Also, getting to the top of the couloir from the top of the climb would be very involved. Looked kind of scary to go down without crampons or an axe so we opted for the rappel option. Had only a 70m rope. Had to leave one rap anchor and do some less-than-deal shenanigans to get down. For what it's worth, I do NOT recommend going up with a single rope, unless you do plan to do the scramble down the couloir Sep 5, 2017
Broomfield, CO
The P6 headwall pitch - the crack was very tight hands for me, and also sharp. I have knobby knuckles and they kept slotting like nuts. I felt like I was trying to wrest a toy out of an angry dog's mouth for the entire pitch. Bled all over the place setting up the belay.
Rappel - our rope got stuck when we pulled it down plumbline from the top of P3 to the large ledge. We re-climbed the right side variation to an old bail anchor that was the culprit: a 3' x 3' x 5" flake that is stuck in the dirt and barely touching rock on each side. There are bleached slings on a pinch point, but the whole flake wiggles (I down-led instead of rapping). The top of that flake looks as if it were manufactured to catch a falling rope. I'd advise pulling from the left side of the ledge instead. Aug 30, 2020
Jacobstown, NJ
Jacobstown, NJ
Boulder, CO
We climbed this with 1 70meter. That was a mistake. The rappels required Soloing off one end of the rope to achieve station 2, then more soloing off the end to achieve a rap anchor below the money pitch (the anchor is on a prow that juts away from the ledge). An inobvious rappel South (don’t go straigh down, go South across a slab and into a chimney) to get back on the rap line. We got lucky from here and linked up with another party. The next rap might be doable with a single 70 (straight down to a ledge, anchors off left) then it would be a rap to the North to get to the bottom of the offwith pitch, might have to build an intermediate anchor there. Two more raps to the pitch 3 ledge and then 3 more with stations back to packs. Bring 2 ropes!!! Even an 80m would be inadequate. Feb 5, 2024
Pitches 1-3 need a whole lot of cleaning before I would recommend this one.
The wide pitch was totally fine with a single #3 & #4. Never actually used the #3. It starts to take smaller gear towards the top.
I left a nut to backup pitch 3 rap station. Please don’t booty this unless you’re putting in a bolted station.
Also, we found a bolted station on the ridge at the base of pitch 6. I don’t think this was put in for the route but it works great for rapping. From here you can get to the top of pitch 3 with double 60s. Mar 17, 2024