[Hide Comment] dan macquade said that that crux pitch represents one of the best hand cracks in red rock... my man was ON POINT with that comment! what a thing of beauty, the movement and feature were both so amazing, this pitch has stuck with me all weekend with the lingering after-taste of a very fine, expensive steak.

the pitch is expensive as well, you will spend a considerable amount of energy! SO sustained and overhanging! i reached "throw up tired" about 140' up! so tired i got turned around on a 5.9 move!

. we'll have to go back a second time to finish this puppy and get pitch breakdown, length, difficulty, descent options, and gear recommendations.

our biggest mistake was not starting earlier to allow for all that adventure and we had to bail about halfway up.



this climb really lingers in my subconscious in an awesome way!... the hike, felt like we were at the base before we really started hiking.




happy climbing,


jon Mar 26, 2012

[Hide Comment] I feel you, Jon. I've looked at this one a dozen times, that splitter looks SWEET but not having the slightest idea what's in store above has kept me off of it. Could be epic gully hell from the looks of it, it's been tucked behind Pachyderm on my list for a long while. You should holler at me if you're into checking out Fist or Flips sometime-hear that one's MEAN... Mar 26, 2012

[Hide Comment] Here's what's in store:

Begin in the deep recess around the left side of Cloud Tower just right of the looming Tiger Crack. The easiest way to get in there (and thus avoid a small scrub oak jungle) is along the wall. Scramble and bushwhack up the steep gully in the back of the recess as far as seems prudent (we found a nice platform to set up the belay).

P1 (180-190', 5.10c): Climb up a somewhat poorly protected groove to the right of the obvious chimney and hand crack (or grovel up the chimney) and step left across the top of a flake into the bottom of the hand crack itself. Follow the beautiful crack until a ledge appears on the left wall which can be followed to a spacious belay off the tree above Tiger Crack.

P2 (170', 5.10b): Follow the lefthand crack (the main crack system now splits in two - left crack being Clod Tower the right being The Disciple) through a fun squeeze with really nice rock, pull a roof, and then belay at the mouth of a cave off overhead 1-2" gear.

P3 (160', 5.8+): Stem up the black and white corner (some softer rock but fun climbing and adequate pro) to a belay ledge piled with talus.

P4 (180', 5.10b): Climb through the chimney off the belay ledge and then pull the large roof above via a nice finger/hand crack. Continue up the steep, exposed crack which eventually opens up into a gully. Squeeze past or through a rather difficult Western Rosebud tree and belay.

P5-P6 (400'+, 5.9): Follow the gully upwards passing several 5th class sections and lots of scrambling, belaying where necessary. Eventually choose a path to gain the knife-edge saddle between the main wall to the left and the Cloud Tower summit to the right. A brief 5.2 slab section leads to the Cloud Tower summit. Rap Crimson.

Rack:
1x Blue Alien (or equivalent) through #5 Camalot
2x 0.75 Camalot through #3 Camalot
Wires

A strong party could possibly get away without the #4 and #5 Camalots but they come in handy. A weaker party may want a few extra cams in the 1"-2" range since there are no fixed anchors.

I thought this route was excellent. While the first pitch is a classic, all the pitches had very fun climbing. Real adventures (not including approaches and descents) are uncommon in Red Rocks, and the minor commitment of a route that lacks fixed anchors is a nice change of pace. Nov 7, 2013

[Hide Comment] All the hard moves protect well, every pitch has something fantastic. We were short on time, but it looks like instead of climbing the (awful) gully it should be possible to climb the left side of a large flake up into a varnished dihedral to get to the summit of chrimson. Someone should check that out... Apr 20, 2014

[Hide Comment] Josh's pitch beta is spot on. Really enjoyable climb.. fist pitch was a rough warmup for me though. Felt every inch as hard as Our Father or Red Zinger. Sustained, steep, and beautiful! We did the route with Josh's rack beta as well; kinda wish I'd had a third #2. I walked my first one quite a bit further than I would have liked! Those looking for splitter cracks in Red Rock need to do this climb! Jan 25, 2015

[Hide Comment] First pitch is cake if you're good at rings.

Partner went a little off route near the top and we ended up climbing this prominent, steep #4 splitter crack with green lichen. Clearly hadn't been done before but recommended. Extra #4 is highly advised (no, I didn't have one).

You can see this crack from the top of the crimson tower. It has a tree growing out of it. Oct 25, 2015

[Hide Comment] Found a #4 on the route. Tell me more specifics about it and where I found it and you'll get it back. May 22, 2017

[Hide Comment] Great route! We used Josh Janes' rack beta but didn't bring the 5. We finished with the Rainbow Connection chimney and walked off into the bowl below The Rainbow Wall. It seemed preferable to joining the line of parties rapping Crimson. Finishing on the green lichen splitter from Ball's comment looks like a cool way to access the same walk-off. Mar 31, 2018

[Hide Comment] 1-pitch wonder. Mar 12, 2019

[Hide Comment] When I return to this route, I'll only do the bottom pitch with a 70m rope, single to .5, doubles .75-3, and a single 4. Then I'll rap off the Tiger Crack tree on the ledge you belay from up top. Great route overall, but the bottom pitch is up there on the list of Red Rock's 5.10+ cracks. May 7, 2019

[Hide Comment] Glad to see positive feedback on a favorite which I wish had a name more positive than "Clod." That splitter followed by a slightly "alpine" experience is awesome - just me though. When I did this one the first time around 98', our "little red" J. Urioste guide reported the grade as 5.9. (photo attached) Accepted without rancor - grateful to not be leading it with hexes and archaic shoes as the FA undoubtedly did in 1977. (Old guy question to summary grade changes on MP: That reflects what?...It's uncool in 2021 be no more than a 5.9 crack climber?) On a repeat, we found you can avoid the upper scrambling section by climbing diagonally up & right through the red stuff for 130' or so to join CC about half way through P8. Love that route. Apr 6, 2021

[Hide Comment] A few gear and route details that some might find helpful:
-A double rack from 0.4 to 3 and one 0.2, 0.3 and #4 is fine; an old BD 4.5 (or a 5) was really nice to have in several places
-I only used a couple of nuts - could bring a large brassy and a couple of other small/med nuts but can leave the rest behind.
-There is chimneying on almost every pitch. All really fun, and secure, and the moves are all there, but there are definitely some long runouts.
-We climbed on a 76 degree day in October and I only drank a liter or water (left the rest at the base). Given the number of chimneys, it’s good to keep the pack to a minimum

-P1: If you bring doubles, you’ll walk your 0.75, 1 and 2 a lot, but the climbing is secure and there are rests. Felt like burly 5.9+. The technical crux is actually down lower - traversing left from the finger crack, across the unprotected face and into the chimney below the hand rack. It’s all there, just a bit heady.
-P2: Had to take my helmet off to get through the chimney, but it was fun. Probably 5.9-5.10a
-P3: I found this to be the psychological crux because of the sparsity of pro and soft rock. 5.8ish
-At the P4 roof, instead of going through it, I stepped right and went up through another bulge a bit higher, which I thought was the crux. Probably 5.9+.
-Definitely recommend skipping the gully above P4 and heading up and right into the beautiful corner with brown, varnished rock (runout chimney to nice 5.9 crack/face to another chimney). Puts you right on top of the mushroom, and the new Crimson Chrysalis rap anchors are just on the other side (to the west).
-We rapped with a single 70 - the belay stations were east to find but had to down climb about 30’ at the bottom Oct 23, 2021

[Hide Comment] 1. I would definitely recommend this climb to anyone on this page. I was nervous about rock quality and navigation heading into it but neither of those are a concern. A little adventure-y (in that there aren't bolted anchors), but you can't really go off route here, you're following a giant crack system.

2. +1 on Heather's beta to go right instead of straight / left at the top of the 4th pitch. You can hop right onto the Crimson Chrysalis rap line that is easily visible from the top of her proposed P5. That proposed 5th pitch is an easy-to-follow variation, navigationally, and if you've made it this far, you won't have a problem with it. You then would only have to take a 70m rope with you for the many raps to the ground that includes no downclimbing.

3. As per rack, I'm usually opposed to carrying a BD Grey #4, but would not recommend going without it. Save it for the top of P1 and also for P2 and P4. You can take a 5.7 PG13 variation to the left for the top 15 feet of P1 to avoid placing the 4, but then you *need it* for P4 unless you're okay with a 30 foot groundfall or an extremely sketchy nut.
I only placed a single #1 Red BD on the first pitch, I found it to be either too small or too large but maybe that's just me.
Triples of #2 Yellow BD or just walk it (extremely reasonable to do) but still bring two of them
A single #3 Blue BD is fine if you have the 4.
You can leave your nuts at home for this one, bring a single rack of the small stuff, don't sweat a 5 unless you're just really amped to show it to your partner or want it for 5.8 chimney.

Slimmer rack suggestion:
1x black totem through 4 Camalot
2x 0.75 Camalot, 2 Camalot
a bunch of alpine draws Feb 21, 2024