PRINT: Rock Climb Heat Seeker, Santa Fe Area

Heat Seeker

5.11-, Sport, 300 ft (91 m), 4 pitches, Grade II,

Avg: 3 from 32 votes
FA: Rich Strang & Mike Phalan
New Mexico > Santa Fe Area > Diablo Canyon > Sun Devil Wall

Access Issue: Access Issue for Areas in BLM Taos Field Office Lands Details

Per the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Taos Field Office's ( blm.gov/office/taos-field-o…) 2012 Taos Resource Management Plan (RMP) ( bit.ly/2Kab3HO), "Installation of new rock climbing routes or hardware will require pre-approval by the BLM." The RMP is the document that guides all the BLM management in a given field office. Climbers are asked to respect this guidance and not install new bolts or fixed hardware on Taos Field Office BLM land without pre-approval from the BLM. NM CRAG ( nmcrag.org/) is currently working with the BLM Taos Field Office to establish specific guidance for new route development in the district and they hope to have a formal process in the near future.

Diablo areas within the BLM Taos Field Office management area are: The Shack, Winter Wall, Solar Cave, Lake Street and Styx.

Description

Finished to the Top.
P1*** - Climb just right of the original Suntoucher, on steep rock with big holds that looks loose but is quite solid (Heat Seeker is the most right line with gray hangers). Climbing is mostly 5.8 with a harder 5.9ish move midway, move to the Suntoucher belay on the left at about 60 feet- 6 blots to anchors
P2*** - Move back right to clip the bolts below the roof arete. Climb the "bouldery" V2ish roof section past the first 3 bolts (climbing is mostly just left of the bolts). Exit onto the upper ramp where Suntoucher climbs straight up. From here diagonal up and right on pretty clean moderate rock to the 2nd crack and climb up to "Cactus Ledge" - Awesome belay stance!! (5.10+/11a over the roof) 60 feet - 8 bolts to anchors, can be combined with P1.
P3**** - Stem/chimney up along the pillar and move left at the 3rd bolt. Climb the right side of the roof up killer rock and diagonal left towards the arete. Make a final hardish move to the hanging stance at about 85 feet (5.10 c/d) - 10 bolts to anchors
P4**** - Head up and left from the belay, most people will probably climb into the corner. This section has weird looking rock that looks loose but we cleaned it all good - trust it. Continue up the corner (stepping right to the arete breifly is OK, we cleaned that good too) At the top of the corner, chug out left onto the headwall with some wild overhanging & squencey moves up onto a small ledge and then the top. 70 feet (5.10+) - 9 bolts to anchors (I left an intemediate bolt at the crux for people that can't clip the crux bolt easily, I may move those bolts sometime soon which will make this pitch 8 bolts)

Rappel the route with a 60m rope thru the belay ledges. A 70m rope will rap to the ground from "Cactus Ledge"

Location

5 feet right of Suntoucher. The route parallels that route for the first 80 feet and then diagonals right towards a prominant pillar on the right skyline. It then climbs up the smooth red buttress left of the pillar and up along the right side of the upper headwall

Protection

All bolts/QD's. 10 QD's plus anchoring slings/biners for P3 - If you combine pitches 1 & 2 you need 14 QD's plus anchoring slings at the ledge

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Daniel & Leo trying out<br>
the new 3rd pitch on<br>
Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Daniel & Leo trying out the new 3rd pitch on Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Nearing the 3rd pitch crux<br>
Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Nearing the 3rd pitch crux Heat Seeker (5.11-)

SUNDEVIL WALL:<br>
A - Heat Seeker (5.11-)<br>
B - Original Suntoucher(5.11)<br>
C - Alt. Suntoucher P1(5.10+)<br>

SUNDEVIL WALL: A - Heat Seeker (5.11-) B - Original Suntoucher(5.11) C - Alt. Suntoucher P1(5.10+)

Fun moderate climbing on steep rock-Lyguia does her first outdoor lead on (pitch 1)<br>
Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Fun moderate climbing on steep rock-Lyguia does her first outdoor lead on (pitch 1) Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Party nearing the crux final exposed section of last pitch on Heat Seeker. Can also see part of Sun Devil Crack with party gearing up to climb Astro Devil's second pitch.

Bosque Farms climber Andy Purdy leads the first pitch of "Heat Seeker." (Photo: Lydia Daves)

Coming up easy rock just below the final headwall<br>
Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Coming up easy rock just below the final headwall Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Mike Phalan enjoys the Final Belay during the FA<br>
Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Mike Phalan enjoys the Final Belay during the FA Heat Seeker (5.11-)

At the small ledge - the top of the 4th pitch headwall<br>
Heat Seeker (5.11-)

At the small ledge - the top of the 4th pitch headwall Heat Seeker (5.11-)

Mike enjoys moderate moves above the 2nd pitch roof <br>
Heat Seeker - (5.11-)

Mike enjoys moderate moves above the 2nd pitch roof Heat Seeker - (5.11-)

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Rich Strang
Santa Fe, NM

5.11-

All the climbing turned out to be really cool, especally the upper pitches
We cleaned all pitches quite well but still approach with some caution. The 2nd pitch roof problem is pretty neat and the 3rd pitch up on the red butress is KILLER. The 4th pitch up the corner & out the headwall is very sequency but on awesome jugs. It felt very 5.11 up there but I'm pretty sure that its just powerfull and EXCITING 5.10

You could do some fun & very moderate multi-pitch (CHEAT-SEEKER) if you do the easy 5.8/5.9 first pitch of this route - Then avoid the roof problem by climbing the first 3 bolts of Suntoucher. After clipping the "hidden" 3rd bolt on Suntoucher P2 - continue out right to Heat Seeker and up to cactus ledge. Do the 3rd pitch of Heat Seeker and while you're up there give the 4th pitch a try - the holds are really big, it's just quite airy and intimidating Apr 7, 2012

A Miller
Santa Fe, NM

Nice work Rich-
Looking forward to trying it. Should be good in the shade all Summer til about 11am. Apr 9, 2012

Rich Strang
Santa Fe, NM

5.11-

Thanks Aaron. I think you'll really like those upper pitches. It's really fun and varied climbing on real nice rock. Really cool exit Apr 11, 2012

A Miller
Santa Fe, NM

Great Route!!! The last pitch is spectacular. The first and second are not as memorable due to varied rock quality, but the climbing is easy enough and its definitely worth getting to the last two pitches of fun, quality rock climbing. I think this route will clean up nicely with a little traffic and the first two pitches will become good too.

Thanks again for all your hard work Rich. Apr 30, 2012

Ben Alford
Silver City, NM

Does anyone have info on the climb that (I think) shares the first set of chains with "Heat Seeker" but then goes left instead of right? Jul 29, 2013

Rich Strang
Santa Fe, NM

5.11-

That's Suntoucher that you were on
Suntoucher weaves around the Heat Seeker roof arête and then contiues straight up the 5.10 faces. 5.11 Headwall up high is pretty hard and there's some ugly blocks to climb over Jul 29, 2013

Ben Alford
Silver City, NM

I see! Thanks a lot Rstrang! Aug 5, 2013

jayci Ferrimani
Flagstaff

This climb has some issues. I'm sorry to knock an effort as I know putting up routes takes tons of work. The first pitch is the most terrible example of grid bolting I have seen in a long time. The second pitch has you in contact with Sun Devil at least once. The last pitch has a perfect corner crack that is bolted! I'm not sure of the local ethics, but this is sad. The climbing is less than KILLER as well. Jan 15, 2014

Moritz Müller

5.11b

We climbed all four pitches with avoiding the small roof (Cheat-Seeker as called by Rich) in the 2nd pitch. It's possible to combine pitch 1 and 2 but we had to use a few runners to keep the rope drag okayish. Two days before we tried the 2nd pitch including the roof for some time but bailed after we run out of water. It's pretty though...
The climbing is sustained and the level of fun increases while climbing up until a killer 4th pitch. It's nice to have a bolted crack and that we don't need to carry pro the whole way up. We enjoyed being up so airy :) However, wear a helmet (!) since we knocked down a few smaller rocks, e.g. on the 3rd pitch, close to the 9th bold, a hold broke off. Apr 22, 2019

Alex C
San Francisco

Does anyone know if Heat Seeker tops out on Diablo Mesa, i.e., can you do a walk-off descent? Or only rappel down? Dec 30, 2019

Rich Strang
Santa Fe, NM

5.11-

You can top out if you scramble up the 30’ gully above the final belay. Gully is easy but you may want to stay roped. Walk down heading north and then east down main drainage after about 1/4 mile Dec 30, 2019

Alex C
San Francisco

Rich: awesome, thanks. So if I choose to stay roped for that final gully, is it possible for the leader to set up an anchor at the very top so that the second can do it roped too? (Don't see any trees or suchlike in the photos.) Jan 3, 2020

Rich Strang
Santa Fe, NM

5.11-

You might not get an anchor and it’s probably not worth trying to set one up. The gully is really easy just walk back a bit at the end on flatter ground and belay the 2nd up. Probably easiest to have the person following the last pitch continue past the top belay and scramble up the gully then just have that leader scramble up after the other tops out and walks back on the top a ways (hope you understand what I just tried to say). You could probably also just brace your feet against some rocks at the top “classic alpine running belays” :) :) Jan 3, 2020

Gavyn Pendleton
Bozeman, MT

This is one of the most stellar multi-pitches I've done! The comment regarding bolting a crack is absurd. There is no reason to carry a full rack of gear up to protect half of the 4th pitch of climbing. Thank you so much for putting the work into bolting and cleaning this absolute classic. We linked the first two pitches without rope drag causing an issue, and walked off the top. I'd recommend doing both of these. Sep 11, 2020