PRINT: Rock Climb Glenda the Good Route, Organ Mountains

Glenda the Good Route

5.10b/c, Trad, 400 ft (121 m), 4 pitches,

Avg: 3.6 from 10 votes
FA: Dan Carter and Josh Hamling, 2016
New Mexico > Las Cruces Area… > Organ Mountains > N Organs > Lambda

Access Issue: Power drilling is prohibited in the Organ Mountains Wilderness. Details

Description

P1: The route begins on "the Wizard" pinnacle near the east side and goes through several crack systems including a set of parallel cracks. Near the top of the pinnacle, go right to avoid a steep and unprotectable corner, and end up at a bolted belay.

P2: Left of the belay and down a small gully is the start of the second pitch. The pitch goes up the right crack. It's as good as it looks! There is a bolt at the start to protect the first move. The rest of the route protects well with trad gear. This second pitch is the crux and has several long, hard moves.

P3: The crack of P2 will top out on a slab near the west ridge. Traverse the west side of Lamba wall to join up with the West Face route around P3 or P4. Continue on the West Face route to the top. There appears to be more direct options for this pitch but the cracks are wide and protection is uncertain. Let me know if anyone tries a more direct finish.

P4: Follow the West Face route

Location

This route is between Lions and Tigers and Bears and the Wizard of Ooze (I think). The start is near the east side of the Wizard pinnacle.

Protection

Nuts and double rack of cams will be plenty. Long slings are good for the traverse and West Face.

Photos [Hide ALL Photos]

Jeff Erwin on the start of P2.

Pitches 2 and 3

Pitches 1-3. Finish on the West Face route

Pitch 1

Comments [Hide ALL Comments]

Brandon Gottung
CO Western Slope

5.10b

Fun route. We straightened out the line by climbing pitch three on the right of the arete. It was good, clean, 5.5 and protected well. If Lions and Tigers and Bears next door is 10a, this one is a touch easier ;) Mar 6, 2018

Karl R. Kiser

There are three finishes out of the Oven (the block feature): 1) go left, this is the West Face exit; 2) go straight up, this is the 5.10 pitch (p3) on Lions, Tigers and Bears; 3) go right, 5.9 (some wider gear) and join the West Face again. Mar 6, 2018

Jeff Erwin
Gunnison, CO

5.10b/c

This rout is an exciting addition to lambda wall worthy of more traffic. Despite the traverse that the topo shows to get into the second pitch the rout still feels very straight. The crux moves are probably a bit height dependent but a thoughtful shiny new bolt keeps things safe. Get on this rout!

The rout catches good winter sun until traversing into the west face rout so it could be climbed as a late day winter rout to seek sun or an early morning summer rout to chase shade.

If anyone finds a direct finish to the top I would love to see that posted here. Nov 11, 2018

Erik Lehnhoff
Las Cruces, NM

5.10b/c

P1 offers some great crack climbing in the 5.9 range. P2 seemed worthy of the 10b/c rating, at least the one very hard move getting into the crack. For P3 we traversed left and up. I'm not sure exactly what we did, but it was quite heady. Seemed to be what Karl Kiser described as one of the options for above the oven: "go right, 5.9 (some wider gear)." Belay was at some old stoppers with slings. P4 went mostly straight up and finished by stepping over the void at the topout of the standard West Face route. High quality overall. (With Jeff Erwin) Nov 12, 2018

Meghan C
Huntsville, AL

5.10b/c

Excellent route. P2 offers is doable for the 'vertically challenged' / those in the 5'3'' club in the 5.10 range with sequential feet an lots of tension. We also cut right at the top of P2 and took a fun easier chimney system to the op in 3 pitches. A #4 was placed once because we had it, but I think you could comfortably do the route with doubles to #2 and one #3. Jan 15, 2019

Dan Carter
Las Cruces, NM

5.10c

Megan, good to hear the direct top out goes! Jan 15, 2019

Josh Hamling
Las Cruces, NM

5.10

Returned to climb the route again and after the second pitch I took an obvious 6-10ft hand traverse to the right around the corner and climbed a clean, protectable corner with some off width that was mostly stemmable. Definitely a better and more direct finish. I think it was 5.7ish. Mar 4, 2021