Type: Trad, Mixed, 800 ft, 4 pitches
FA: Steve House and Hayden Kennedy
Page Views: 1,485 total · 20/month
Shared By: hkennedy on Feb 14, 2013
Admins: Edward Medina, Leo Paik, John McNamee, Frances Fierst, Monty, Monomaniac

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Access Issue: Yield to mining vehicle traffic Details

Description

Desperado is a fairly serious outing, but choss-hounds will love it. Each pitch has some run-outs, bad rock, and bad gear. Warning - on the top of pitch 3 the anchor is terrible and should get re-placed. There is one bolt and a gnarly blade in garbage rock. The climbing is pretty darn fun and is a perfect San Juan winter adventure!

P1. Go up easy mixed climbing and, depending on conditions, even some good ice up a corner through a small roof. (M5) Belay on good ledge with solid cams.

P2. Go up good mixed climbing (M5 R) up small corner to open face. Choose your own adventure on this pitch as there are a few options. Head for the obvious ledge bellow shallow chimney/groove. There are two bolts at anchor.

P3. Climb through a short but steep section off the belay trending right (M6) towards the obvious groove. Grovel your way up this awkward groove to the belay (M6 R).

P4. This is short and sweet. Climb steep M6 R terrain through a roof to easy climbing to top of wall. Belay on a solid tree.

Rappel the route with two 60 meter ropes.

Location

There are two obvious steep grooves left of The Ribbon. Desperado climbs the leftmost system to the top of the wall. Use the same approach as The Ribbon.

Protection

Double set of cams to #3 and one #4, set of nuts, and a good amount of iron. If anyone does this route and wants to add a bolt to the third belay, please do so. It would be much safer that way.

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Photos

Into P2.
Into P2.
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This angle only allows you to see the top 3 anchors on the route, but the red Xs are accurate locations for those anchors.
This angle only allows you to see the top 3 anc…
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The steep fourth pitch.
The steep fourth pitch.
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Looking up towards the third pitch groove.
Looking up towards the third pitch groove.
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Midway up second pitch.
Midway up second pitch.
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4 Comments

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Steve House
 
Steve House  
 
The offending anchor was replaced with 2 good bolts in November 2013. This rig is good to go! I now think it might be closer to M7. The gear is R but not X. It is easier when there is less snow on the wall hiding the edges you'll need to use. -S. House Nov 30, 2013
phil wortmann
Colorado Springs, Co.
phil wortmann   Colorado Springs, Co.
Good to hear, Steve, maybe Wellborn and I will get our courage up enough to give it another go! The lower gully looked to have some ice last weekend. Dec 4, 2013
Steve House
 
Steve House  
 
The belay stance at the top of P1 is marked with a piton, and it comes after climbing rightwards for a bit. It's a sloping ledge left of where the yellow-streak gets steep. Don't belay in the gut of the yellow-streak, you'll get hit by rocks. The piton should be good but was left there primarily to make the belay for others. Dec 8, 2013
Noah McKelvin
Colorado Springs
Noah McKelvin   Colorado Springs
To shed some light on this climb, unless you have extremely high snowpack, the first pitch to where Steve mentions to belay for P1 is around 80 meters. So you can either simul or there is a nice belay below the P1 roof to split it into two (recommended) Also, I'd highly recommend belaying about 40 ft below where Steve advised. Way better belay anchor and stance. I think that's where HK states in this description. Nonetheless we hammered the two KB belay anchor back in. We bailed midway up P2 in this description. A little too warm. Though moderate, gear is mostly spaced small pins, and absolutely horrendous rock, even by Dark Side standards. I couldn't get the courage to continue with everything collapsing under my weight! Maybe it being frozen together would help? Maybe not? Made Rusty Cage and Walk-in The Line seem like Yosemite with the rock quality. Good times! Feb 8, 2018