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Riders of the Purple Sage

5.7, Sport, 115 ft (35 m),  Avg: 2.5 from 81 votes
FA: Tim Standing 2007
California > Sierra Eastside > Lone Pine Area > Alabama Hills > Alabama Hills N… > Cattle Pocket &… > Lost Eye to the Moon

Description

This route is near the center of the Crag and starts right of a low angle crack/corner system. Some bolts are hard to see because they're in pockets.

Protection

7 bolts to anchor. Lower using a 70 meter rope.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Eric rappelling Riders of the Purple Sage
[Hide Photo] Eric rappelling Riders of the Purple Sage
Wesley Fienup climbs Riders of the Purple Sage (5.7) in the Alabama Hills.
[Hide Photo] Wesley Fienup climbs Riders of the Purple Sage (5.7) in the Alabama Hills.
Amber on lead. This is a great climb to learn why it's important to pull down and not out on flakes
[Hide Photo] Amber on lead. This is a great climb to learn why it's important to pull down and not out on flakes
"Riders of the Purple Sage".<br> Photo by Blitzo.
[Hide Photo] "Riders of the Purple Sage". Photo by Blitzo.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Matt N
  5.7
[Hide Comment] 60m rope stretcher. Tie a stopper knot.
7 bolts I believe. Passing the last bolt is frictiony fun (don't cheat right). Apr 17, 2011
Bas Cuela
Fresno, CA
  5.7
[Hide Comment] Dido on the rope stretcher. Jun 21, 2011
Ryan Kosh
Los Angeles, CA
[Hide Comment] Third on the rope stretcher... Last few bolts are difficult (impossible) to see from below, but they're there. Feb 28, 2012
Chris Owen
Big Bear Lake
  5.7
[Hide Comment] Crux moves up to the first bolt. Then flakes etc, Then smeary to the anchors. Fun route. Mar 17, 2013
Stephen Minana
[Hide Comment] Nice cruiser of a route, crazy placement of a couple bolts beneath an outer layer of rock. Incredible friction makes it a relaxing slab climb but long enough for a 70 meter rope to be preferable. Oct 20, 2014
Matthew Fienup
Santa Rosa Valley, CA
 
[Hide Comment] Pretty good route overall, though not nearly as good as Eye for Eye. The rock quality on this one gets worse the higher you climb--it might be preferable to skip the last three bolts and finish in the crack to the right (D&D).

Lowered off with a 70m and had just a few feet of extra rope on either end. Apr 3, 2016
Kevin Heckeler
Las Vegas, NV
  5.7
[Hide Comment] There's a lot of hollow sounding plates on this route. Climb gently. ;)

Our 60M did NOT reach the ground, wasn't even close. Only route we had this issue among the many we climbed in our 5 day stay. I was able to get lowered to just below the first bolt in the left crack, then it wasn't too bad (5.3?) down climbing the 15-20 feet. [it appears to be added to the description now, thanks!]

Still a very fun climb, ranks as one of the better routes I did during my stay (it's probably 5.6 fwiw). Apr 30, 2016
Cheryl Thomas
Las Vegas, NV
  5.7
[Hide Comment] What surprised me was that two bolts higher up on the climb couldn’t be seen as they were reset into small huecos (this was found out later on top rope). Because of that it was easy to get slightly off route. If you skip these and get off route, then you’re looking at about a 25’ runout to the anchor. Mar 29, 2019
Carl Burdick
Los Angeles
 
[Hide Comment] You could put together a entire drum set from the loose flakes on this climb. Some sound like snares, some sound like high hats, some sound like base drums. Nov 29, 2021
Julian Frank
South Lake Tahoe, CA
[Hide Comment] 8 bolts. They aren’t hard to spot if you just follow the line straight up. Oct 6, 2023