PRINT: Rock Climb Arrow Spire, Alpine Rock

Arrow Spire

5.8, Trad, Alpine, 1500 ft (455 m), 7 pitches,

Avg: 3.1 from 8 votes
FA: unknown
Colorado > Alpine Rock > San Juans > Grenadiers > Arrow Peak

Description

This is one of the best routes in the San Juans (that I've done at least). The first pitch is the cruz and is an amazing 5.8 dihedral for 200+ft. Second pitch is runout on easy climbing and then works through some overhangs. The rest of the climb kicks back and is 5.6 at the hardest. Working around the towers before the summit of the spire is fun and exposed. We rapped into the notch and got socked in by a nasty thunderstorm. It didn't relent so we had to bail down the horrendously loose gully below. We were able to downclimb all but the final 150ft, which we rapped (anchors should still be there). The climbing out of the notch seemed around 5.5/6. I attempted one pitch and had to bail due to lightning. Anchor is still up there, haha.

Location

This is the obvious west buttress that you see from the beaver ponds with the spire on top. Walk around to the west side of the peak (approaching the Arrow/Electric saddle) and you will see a ramp running up to the south. Start up the ramp and go up the obvious dihedral. If you walk to the end of the ramp there is some very steep terrain that may add a couple more hard pitches.

Protection

Double set of cams and stoppers.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Navigating the towers.

The classic pic of Arrow from the beaver ponds. The spire route goes up the beautiful, obvious arete/buttress on the right side of the peak.

I believe this is the north side of the Arrow Spire.... Photo taken from near the false summit as we climbed the North Ridge route.

Second pitch.

First pitch.

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Kenneth Gillingham
New Haven, CT

This route is a blast but doesn't look like it has been climbed much. Climbed it on 6/10/2014. The first pitch was a bit mossy at the bottom and then turned into a really nice 5.8 dihedral. The second pitch started with a short, mossy, wet chimney (you may be able to bypass it around left with some run-out moves) then switches to run-out 5.7ish and the overhangs, which had great pro and probably were easy 5.8. We simul-climbed the rest of the route, none of which went harder than 5.6. Navigating the towers is indeed quite a lot of fun. At the notch, we downclimbed rather than rapping, which wasn't bad. People had left lots of gear on the climb - I think I cleaned up something like 10 biners and some nuts (slings and cams were gone and needed to be thrown away).

Not sure what the correct descent is, but we dropped down into a gully on the south side and ended up doing two raps to get down. Maybe if there wasn't steep snow in there, it would go as an exposed 4th class descent, but I'm not even sure of that. The ramp on the north side was much too wet and snowy to go down for us.

A great alpine day; highly recommended (just watch out for the weather!). Jun 14, 2014

Ben Gleason
Durango, CO

Climbed this yesterday. On our hike in, we met a party that had just attempted the route. They said the first two pitches were soaking wet and very loose, to the point that they bailed partway through the second pitch. With this beta in mind, we opted to skip the first two pitches by heading up the giant, obvious ramp cutting across the west face (a little 4th class, some loose stuff, otherwise a cruise). This variation reduces the overall difficulty and length to 5.7 and 5 pitches. Sep 3, 2015

Jesse Yon
Sawpit, CO

5.9 PG13

This is a fantastic route. The first two pitches were a ton of fun. We accidentally traversed too far up the giant ramp around the third pitch, and ended up on the steep face mentioned on Arrow Spire West Face. A sweet pitch, real treat, and worth combining with the Spire route. You can step around left, out of the alcove through loose blocks and up to the ridge.

The gendarmes and knife edge ridge near the top are beyond cool. Left a rap anchor (cord) and ring at the top. Simul'd from the notch to the summit up decent low fifth class. Walked off the NE side. Best alpine route I've climbed in the San Juans. Aug 28, 2019

Chris Wenker
Santa Fe

Rap anchor into the notch is off of a large slung block. Advisable to pack along a cordelette-length piece in case it needs TLC (we saw lots of rodent damage to the existing cords). Sep 3, 2019