All Locations > New Mexico > Albuquerque Area > Sandia Mountain… > La Cueva Canyon… > Gemstone West

Shoots & Ladders

Name: Shoots & Ladders
Rating: 2.6

5.9 YDS 5c French 17 Ewbanks VI UIAA 17 ZA HVS 5a British

Routes in Gemstone West

L › R R › L A › Z

	Broken Ladders T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b
	Christian Rock T 5.7 5a 15 V+ 13 MVS 4b
	Fin Left, The T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a
	Flail Out T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a
	Gemstone T 5.8 5b 16 VI- 15 HVS 4c
	Markingstone T 5.11 6c+ 23 VIII- 23 E4 5c
	Pair of 4s T 5.9- 5c 17 VI 16 HVS 4c PG13
	Seamingly Hard T 5.10b 6a+ 19 VII- 19 E2 5b
	Shoots & Ladders T 5.9 5c 17 VI 17 HVS 5a
	Sinsemilla Shake 5.11d, R T 5.10 6b 20 VII- 19 E2 5b R

Order Wrong? Sort Routes

Type:	Trad, 2 pitches
GPS:	35.20733, -106.4754
FA:	unknown
Page Views:	2,062 total · 10/month
Shared By:	Bill Lawry on Sep 6, 2008
Admins:	Jason Halladay, Mike Hoskins, Anna Brown Page Updates (admin only)

You & This Route

13 Opinions

Your To-Do List: ·

Your Star Rating:
Rating

Your Difficulty Rating:
-none- Change

Your Ticks:Add New Tick

-none-

Explore this route in 3D

Use onX Backcountry to explore the terrain in 3D, view recent satellite imagery, and more. Now available in onX Backcountry Mobile apps! For more information see this post.

Access Issue: SANDIA CREST CLOSURE ALERT - Beginning APRIL 30, 2026, 140 acres at the top of the Sandia Mountains is under a closure order. Details

Beginning APRIL 30, 2026, 140 acres at the top of the Sandia Mountains will be under a closure order so the Forest Service can complete two different projects. The first project is an extensive "fuel reduction project" and the second is the demolition/remodeling of the whole upper parking lot and crest house. The Crest Road and all parking areas above the 10k parking lot will be closed in addition to the 140 acres of forest that will be under going the fuel reduction work. The closure will be enforced from April 30, 2026, at 6 a.m. through January 15, 2027, at 6 a.m., unless rescinded. You can find the official area closure order 03-03-05-26-02 on the forest website, where it describes the parking areas and trails that the agency will close at: fs.usda.gov/r03/cibola/alerts. For more information visit fs.usda.gov/r03/cibola/news… or contact the Sandia Ranger District Office at 505-281-3304.

Description

P1: The "shoot" is a left facing dihedral with a large crack in it. Continue up the shoot past the crux perhaps using a variety of techniques until on easy terrain on a jigsaw-puzzle face (ladders). End on a large ledge with huge boulders and a little vegetation, after about 35 meters from the base of the climb.

P2: The easy second pitch trends up and left between a cactus and the rock before going up cracks (5.4?) at the right edge of a northerly face; another great option is to take the obvious right-trending crack on the ~westerly face until it ends, then up (5.6?) to a bolt and continue up.

The rating of 5.9 came from Barry and Rita Loucks' guide although that guide also lists Gemstone as 5.9.

For a fourth class walk-off descent, see comment at the bottom of a marked-up version of a photo from Monomaniac on the Gemstone West page.

Location

The start is below a 'shoot' roughly 15 feet to climber's left of the aid boulder. See a marked up version of Monomaniac's photo on the Gemstone West page.

Protection

Standard rack up to 3 inches. First pitch has a crack which widens in the mid-section to roughly 4 to 6 inches - an old style #5 DB C4 fits well in about a two foot section. However, there are adequate smaller placements along the way.

A #5 DB C4 is mentioned above but is overkill. If you really want to sew up the big part of the crack, it can be done with a 4 inch piece or two.

The first and second pitch can be combined with a 60 meter rope, so long as the belayer is close to the start and so long as rope-stretch at the crux is not an issue for the second.