[Hide Comment] If you are at the Grand Canyon and don't mind some Hiking you will love this. Hike down the Kibab Trail until you are even with the tower and head overland. The Tower is Supai sandstone so it's pretty soft. But for GC this is a an awesome climb. Good pro with cams to 3', we had 2 ropes for the rap but I think a 70 would work. Pretty sure we did the first accent of this route, but definitely not the first accent of O'Neill Butte. Done with Doug Ingersoll, Sue Rhodes and Vince. Dec 8, 2012

[Hide Comment] That's the South Kaibab Trail. Jul 11, 2014

[Hide Comment] "The rock is soft so beware. "

Made my day... Aug 8, 2014

[Hide Comment] Oct. 22, 2017
All, in all classic route with a two mile approach.

It looked so easy from the bottom and it the photos, but it felt more difficult than a 5.8 because of the bulge in the middle. I guess, if you are good a crack climbing it would be easier, but for me it felt like a solid 5.9+.

The route protected well; so well in fact, that I didn't have much gear at the top. Med Tri-cams would have been helpful, but I didn't bring any thinking my cams would be enough. I recommend having a BD#4 for this route. I placed mine a few times to insure that I wouldn't fall while placing something smaller or inching my way up the route until it found a home. I had more than a full rack and the only thing I had left when I reached the top was small cams. I placed three BD#.5, so it was nice to have more than just a standard rack.

Could easily do this route in two pitches because if you don't use long enough runners on a few of the placements the rope drag was horrendous (I made this mistake). Doing in two pitches also lets a less skilled climber finish the route because after a nice belay ledge the route sends at 5.6 with easy gear placements. Oct 23, 2017

[Hide Comment] Pulling the bulge is definitely the crux, I used a small edge super high left foot at shoulder level and a fist jam / chicken wing deep in the crack, then proceeded to inch the whale move until I was over this feature. Most of the route is 5.8 but this (in my opinion) was a grade tougher.

I used a double rack of Camelots from 0.2 to 3. If I went back I would have ditched the smaller stuff below a 0.4, and maybe brought extra #2's and #3's (and maybe throw in a #4 for the bulge crux). Let it be noted that I stich up a route every 10-15' and didn't run it out that much, a better climber perhaps wouldnt need as much gear as I needed. Jan 29, 2018

[Hide Comment] The rock quality blew my mind! The bulge was a beast, and the crack up to it is stellar. Aug 16, 2020

[Hide Comment] Someone added an anchor to the East Face route a little below the roof. It’s pretty close to where the climber in the photo captioned “Tim Shea on the east face of O'Neil Butte 1982,” is at. I didn’t climb this route but could see it from the ground. I was thinking that maybe you could rappel to it if you had a single rope, but I couldn’t find any anchors above it at the top. Jan 17, 2021

[Hide Comment] Seems an odd place to set an anchor. Just below the big roof at the top, if you step left, there is a ledge with a large block, we slung this with webbing on the first accent and rapped from there. You can class 3 to the top and avoid the large overhang. I was informed recently that the large overhang has now been climbed for a direct finish. Maybe they put the anchor to better protect the direct finish. That rock is supai sandstone and I avoided that overhang because it looked pretty soft. Jan 17, 2021

[Hide Comment] Fun adventure and beautiful summit. The bulge! We did it in two pitches because of rope drag and route finding near the top. There seems to be many ways to finish this route. If rapping from the dead tree back down the East Face, at least a tag line is needed. A single 70m will not reach the ground. Jul 2, 2021

[Hide Comment] The route is very aesthetic and the moves up the dihedral are cool, but we had difficulty at the bulge. Its awkward, and my partner and I both got shutdown! It would've been nice to have a bigger cam, even is just to be able aid past the difficulty. We left some gear (a #4 cam), and went and climbed the 5.5 to the right, to the summit. We tried to rap onto our gear but failed, and a 2nd attempt was thwarted by incoming weather.

Hit me up if you rescue a #4 from the bulge! There's even some other booty at the same spot (a large hex and slings) that is so far free game! Feb 21, 2023

[Hide Comment] We climbed the route in two pitches using the bolted anchor that Daniel Cole mentioned to end the first pitch. I'm guessing our second pitch was the direct variation and went straight out the roof crack. This pitch was the money pitch for sure, the rock quality improved, you are instantly more exposed, and you get to climb a perfect splitter crack in the grand canyon. Also, there is another bolted anchor with rappel rings at the top of this crack. This rap would probably go to the ground with an 80m but with a 70 we rapped to the previous anchor below the roof and that anchor goes with a 70 easy. Apr 7, 2025

[Hide Comment] 50 min hike in if you work with gravity.
70 min hike out if you keep some pep in your step.

I’m not a good crack climber so this was tricky. That bulge… harder than 5.9 imo but again, I don't get to crack climb much. But I enjoyed the fist jamming, which was necessary as there were not many face holds, and some crumbled beneath my feet. The crack protects well and eats up gear but the rock is kinda chossy. I agree with the earlier comment of taking 0.4 and higher and possibly doubles. A #4 came in handy at the bulge and something bigger might be even better. Be careful past the bolts as there is a big loose rock that would not be kind to your belayer.

Probably best to do 2 separate pitches after going up left past the odd bolt location due to rope drag. We built an anchor in a crack by the ledge then another anchor on a rock further up to belay the follower. The 2nd pitch would be really short, maybe 15 feet.

The rappel tree is further north from the top out of the east face. There’s a closer dead tree but it rocks when you push it and doesn’t instill much confidence.

There were 3 slings, 2 rings and a biner at the rappel station and they looked good. We tied 2 70m ropes to rappel in one go and it took us to the bottom but we forgot to move the knot past the ledge… it was getting late and we wanted to catch the last shuttle out so we had to bail. So there are 2 relatively new green 70m ropes there for the taking if you so desire (Nov 15, 2025). Sorry for not leaving a trace… but we tried.

If you’re down for a 2 mile hike in and you are comfy climbing cracks, this is a must do if not simply for the backdrop and scenery. Especially if you already planned to hike down to ohh ahh point, why not go a little further and climb the east face! Nov 16, 2025